The 13th meeting of the Kazakhstan-Türkiye Intergovernmental Economic Commission was held in Ankara

The 13th meeting of the Kazakhstan-Türkiye Intergovernmental Economic Commission was held in Ankara

Ankara, April 24-25, 2024 – Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Mr. Olzhas Bektenov paid a working visit to Ankara within the framework of the 13th meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation. The main goal is to ensure the qualitative development of Kazakh-Turkish cooperation and reveal the potential of cooperation in new promising industries to achieve the task set by the Head of State Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to accelerate economic growth of the country.

In Ankara Olzhas Bektenov was received by the Head of the Republic of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan, held talks with Vice-President of Türkiye Cevdet Yılmaz, discussed investment cooperation at a meeting with representatives of major Türkiye companies and holdings, as well as spoke at the Kazakh-Turkish business forum.

During the reception, Mr. Olzhas Bektenov conveyed to the President of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warm words of greetings and best wishes on behalf of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. It was noted that the agreements reached at the level of the heads of two states on the development of interaction in the spirit of expanded strategic partnership are actively implemented in all sectors of trade and economic, investment, energy, transport and logistics, agrarian, cultural and humanitarian cooperation.

During the intergovernmental talks, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Olzhas Bektenov and Vice-President of Türkiye Cevdet Yılmaz discussed specific measures to increase mutually beneficial partnership, and expressed readiness to reveal prospects for further cooperation in the areas of transit and transport, agribusiness, manufacturing, digitalization and tourism.

Türkiye is one of the five largest trading partners of Kazakhstan and a top-20 investor country. Today, the governments of the two countries are working on the systematic provision of a stable volume of trade at a level of at least $10 billion. Kazakhstan intends to increase exports to Türkiye on 34 types of goods totaling more than $630 million. Among them are products of metallurgical, petrochemical, food and machine-building industries. In turn, the Turkish side expressed interest in realization of new joint projects in promising areas of economy. The volumes of cargo transportation by rail and road transport increased by 40% during the year alone. The parties outlined the prospects for a threefold increase in the volume of cargo transportation within the framework of developing the potential of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Corridor.

Within the framework of the 13th meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation, the delegations in an extended format considered the mechanism of strengthening industrial cooperation and outlined plans for localization of pharmaceutical production, exchange of best practices in medicine and strengthening of cultural and humanitarian ties.

The main topic of the meeting with representatives of the business community of Türkiye was the discussion of prospects and identification of new points of contact. The roundtable was attended by the management of the largest companies - captains of Turkish business: Hüseyin Arslan, Chairman of the Board of YDA Holding, a group of construction companies, Robert Yüksel Yıldırım, Chairman of the Board of Yıldırım Holding, an industrial group, the fourth largest company in the world chrome industry, Ahmet Tiriyakioğlu, Chairman of the Board of Tiryaki Holding, one of the world's largest companies for the production and export of agricultural crops, Hüseyin Barlin, Chairman of the Board of S Sisitem Lojistik, a leading Turkish logistics company, Süha Taşpolatoglu, CEO of Abdi Ibrahim Holding Group, the leader of the pharmaceutical market in Türkiye, Sami Turkoglu, Member of the Board of Nobel Ilac, a leading pharmaceutical manufacturer, and others.

The dialogue continued on the margins of the business forum with the participation of more than 500 representatives of business circles, during which Turkish entrepreneurs were familiarized with the investment climate of Kazakhstan and the state support measures provided to investors. Today about 100 joint Kazakh-Turkish investment projects totaling about $3.8 billion are being implemented.

In the result of the visit in the presence of the heads of delegations of Kazakhstan and Türkiye, 10 commercial documents were signed in the field of investment cooperation for a total amount of over $180 million. Among them are memorandums on the export of finished products, agreements on the construction of a logistics hub, as well as a number of plants for the production of soda ash, sprinkler equipment, nonwoven materials, for the assembly of irrigation equipment. In addition, an agreement was signed on exchange of best practices in the field of seed production, as well as prospects for seed supply.