Italy pays special attention to the Central Asian region and is ready to increase its investments in Kazakhstan in the spirit of strategic partnership

ROME, 13 December 2019 — Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Yermek Kosherbayev paid a working visit to the Italian Republic to participate in an International Conference surrounding "Italy and Central Asia: Strengthening Mutual Understanding, Cooperation and Partnership." The conference was also attended by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan.

 

Opening the International Conference, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio noted that its goal was to demonstrate the potential of Central Asia to Italian institutions and companies.

 

In his speech at the Conference, Mr. Kosherbayev voiced the priorities Kazakhstan and the region of Central Asia in achieving a world free of nuclear weapons, the rational use of water resources and an effective resolution of environmental problems.

 

A special focus was placed on the new European Union Strategy for Central Asia, which reflects the modern vision of the interaction of the two regions, taking into account current geopolitical realities, changing needs and new opportunities for the countries of the region.

 

Mr. Kosherbayev spoke in detail about the main economic indicators of Kazakhstan and the favorable conditions created in the country for profitable business, as well as reforms aimed at improving the investment climate.

 

Particularly, Mr. Kosherbayev focused on the promising areas of cooperation in the field of high-tech production, including Industry 4.0. He called on Italian companies to facilitate the creation of joint innovative enterprises, technology parks and IT start-ups based on the Astana Hub.

 

He noted that within the framework of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, Kazakhstan launched a multimodal Eurasian transport corridor, allowing a reduction in the time and cost of delivering goods from China to Europe through Kazakhstan by 2-3 times, opening up new prospects for the development of the country’s logistics capacity.

 

Mr. Kosherbayev invited Italy and Central Asian countries to participate in the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference being hosted in June 2020 in Nur-Sultan, and expressed confidence that the countries of our region will be able to achieve high results in many industries with the active participation of European partners.

 

The Foreign Ministers of the Central Asian countries, in turn, expressed gratitude to Italy for organizing this event, as the first European country to bring together representatives of the region. It was emphasized that this will allow Kazakhstan to continue the dialogue in increasing cooperation between Italy and the countries of Central Asia.

 

During the visit, Mr. Kosherbayev held talks with the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Italy, Manlio Di Stefano, the General Director of the Italian Trade and Investment Agency, Roberto Luongo, and the Assistant Director General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Laurent Thomas.

 

During the meeting with Mr. Di Stefano, a thorough exchange of views took place on pressing issues of both bilateral and multilateral cooperation. The parties also noted the desire to strengthen inter-parliamentary relations through the interaction of the groups and the exchange of experience in lawmaking. Mr. Kosherbayev called on his Italian peers to support the initiative of First President, Elbasy Nursultan Nazarbayev, to hold an informal meeting of parliamentarians from Russia, the USA, China and the EU in 2020 in Nur-Sultan. Thanks were expressed to the Italian side for the ratification of the Agreement on Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation between Kazakhstan and the EU, as well as for their interest in the speedy implementation of treaties in the legal sphere.

 

At the negotiations with Mr. Luongo, the parties agreed to support existing Italian-Kazakh joint ventures and to promote new projects across the fields of high technology, sustainable development and the agro-industries. Mr. Luongo emphasized that Kazakhstan, with its advantageous geographical position, is becoming a key intersection of communications between East and West and as a major international infrastructure hub. In context to the development of the transport and logistics potential of Kazakhstan, the special role of the country in promoting the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative was underlined.

 

During the meeting with Mr. Kosherbayev, the Assistant General Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Laurent Thomas, highlighted the ongoing cooperation with Kazakhstan and the interest in further financing the FAO-Kazakhstan Partnership Program. The parties discussed the extension of the Country Framework Program until 2020, as well as the accommodation of the FAO office in the new UN building in Almaty.

 

For reference: 2019 was marked by the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Strategic Partnership Agreement between Kazakhstan and Italy (November 5, 2009).

 

In January-October 2019, trade volume between Kazakhstan and Italy amounted to 8.3 billion US dollars (6.9 billion dollars in exports and 1.4 billion dollars in imports). In 2018, it reached $13.2 billion (11.8 billion in exports and 1.4 billion in imports), which is 38% more compared to the same period in 2017 ($9.6 billion, including 8.6 billion dollars in exports and 946 million dollars in imports). At the end of 2018, Italy ranks second after Russia and first among the EU countries in the list of main trade partners of the Republic of Kazakhstan. 

 

From 2005 to 2017, the volume of direct Italian investments in the economy of Kazakhstan was $5.8 billion, the outflow of direct Kazakh investments to Italy was $60.2 million. In the first half of 2018, the volume of Italian investments was $20 million.