The Ambassador of Kazakhstan Made a Presentation of Potential Economic Projects in the Region of Belgium

Walloon Brabant December 11, 2023 – Ambassador of Kazakhstan Margulan Baimukhan made a working visit to Walloon Brabant where he met with the Governor of the Walloon Brabant region Gilles Mahieu, Administrator of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Walloon Brabant Christophe Lebrun and District Commissioner of the Walloon Brabant region Christophe Baes. The meeting was held with the participation of Honorary Consul of the Kazakhstan in Belgium Anna Susarova.

During the meeting there was a presentation of economic and scientific-educational potential of the Belgian region.  In turn, the Kazakh diplomat familiarized the interlocutors with the current state of Kazakhstan-Belgium, Kazakhstan-European and CA-EU relations. The main emphasis was placed on projects in the field of transportation, green economy and rare earth metals.

Ambassador introduced with political and economic reforms in Kazakhstan, initiated by the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev.

Baimukhan also informed foreign colleagues about the activities of the Kazakh-Belgian Business Council, and upcoming business missions of Belgian companies and European agro-industrial firms in Kazakhstan in 2024.

Ambassador of Kazakhstan invited the Governor of the region to participate in the annual Astana International Forum (AIF), which will be held in June 2024.

Following the results of the meeting, it was agreed to make a detailed presentation of economic and investment opportunities of Kazakhstan for business circles of Walloon Brabant.

Along with this, emphasized the prospect of expanding cooperation with the international scientific and educational University of Louvain (University of Louvain).

Reference: The province of Walloon Brabant located in Central Belgium and currently has more than 12,000 economic entities. The inhabitants of Walloon Brabant have the highest average salary per capita (42,300 euros) in Belgium.

UCLouvain University is one of the oldest universities in Belgium, with about 4500 employees and more than 135 innovative companies. The university has 27 thousand students from 127 countries.

The trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Belgium amounted to 514.5 million US dollars by the end of 2022. This indicator for January-August 2023 amounted to 375.3 million US dollars , which is 6.7% higher than for the same period of the previous year (351.9 million US dollars ).

Gross direct investment inflow from Belgium to the Kazakhstan in 2022 amounted to 1.5 billion US dollars; in 2021 it amounted to 1.1 billion US dollars, for the period from 2005 to 2022, the volume of investment amounted to USD 11.5 billion US dollars.