Kazakhstan and Switzerland Synchronize Their Watches at the Highest Level in Nur-Sultan

On November 22, 2019, President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-JomartTokayev received the Federal President of the Swiss Confederation, Ueli Maurer, who arrived in Nur-Sultan on an official visit.

The parties discussed a wide range of issues on the bilateral agenda, with the main emphasis on deepening trade, economic and investment cooperation. Switzerland is one of the ten largest trading partners of Kazakhstan and the third largest investor in the Kazakhstan’s economy. Since 2005, the gross inflow of direct investment from this Alpine country has exceeded $24 billion.

Kazakhstan is highly interested in applying the experience and achievements of Switzerland in industries such as chemistry, pharmaceuticals, engineering, tourism, vocational education and the financial sector.

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said that Kazakhstan considers Switzerland as one of the most important partners on the European continent.

In turn, Uli Maurer thanked Kassym-Jomart Tokayev for the warm welcome and emphasized that the goals and ideals of Kazakhstan and Switzerland are close. He also expressed satisfaction with the growth of economic relations between the two countries in recent years.

The two presidents also discussed cooperation in the political, cultural, humanitarian and tourism sectors, reaffirming their commitment to inter-parliamentary cooperation, joint projects in Central Asia on water diplomacy and humanitarian stabilisation of the situation in Afghanistan.

Within the framework of the visit, there was held the Investment roundtable at the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC) with participation of President Ueli Maurer, Minister of Trade and Integration of Kazakhstan BakhytSultanov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan YermekKosherbayev, President of“Kazakh Invest”BaurzhanSartbayev,and business representatives of Switzerland and Kazakhstan. The Swiss business delegation included the heads of concerns Stadler Rail, ABB, Burckhardt Comopression, as well as representatives of Bühler, Amman-Group, Roche, Clariant and other industrial companies.

Cooperation between the AIFC and the financial centers of Zurich, Geneva and Lugano was noted as promising by parties. The AIFC has already registered the Swiss asset management company Blackfort Capital. At the current stage negotiations are underway with a number of other financial institutions.

The roundtable ended with signing of the following documents:

- “Aqbura” Project Management and Franchise Contract between Aqbura Development and Swiss Holding SA;

- Memorandum of Understanding between “Kazakh Tourism”and “Swiss Holding SA”.

The AIFC administration signed MoU with Blackfort Capital, Clarus Capital, and Herculis Partners.