Kazakhstan and Ukraine: Economic cooperation during global challenges

On May 21, this year with the assistance of the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Ukraine, under the co-chairmanship of Chairman of the Board of the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs of Kazakhstan “Atameken” A. Myrzakhmetov, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ukraine G. Chizhikov and President of the Ukrainian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs A. Kinakh, an online meeting was held between representatives of the business community and profile ministries of two countries.

The main goal of the event was to develop a set of measures to enhance trade and economic cooperation, address the problems of international transit traffic and resume cooperation between the two countries.

The parties emphasized the great unrealized potential of the Kazakh-Ukrainian trade and economic cooperation. This is evidenced by the indicators of 2012, when the volume of trade amounted to 5.4 billion dollars, while this figure in recent years does not exceed 1.5 billion dollars.

In this regard, the leadership of the Atameken SPE, the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Ukrainian Union of Entrepreneurs and Industrialists urged the entrepreneurs of the two countries to intensify both trade and cooperative interaction. At the same time, a readiness was expressed to render them comprehensive assistance and take businessmen under the “guardianship”.

During the meeting participants supported the proposal of A. Myrzakhmetov to create three thematic working groups.

The first group will analyze bilateral trade to identify product niches where countries can work actively.

The second group will focus on developing proposals to improve conditions in the field of cargo transportation. These issues will be further included in the agenda of the Interstate Commission for Trade and Economic Cooperation between Kazakhstan and Ukraine.

The third group will focus on cooperative interaction. In this regard, successful examples of joint processing of agricultural raw materials, meat and dairy cattle breeding were noted.

Of particular interest to Ukrainian partners was the presentation of KazakhInvest JSC on the business climate of Kazakhstan, preferences and opportunities for foreign investors, special economic zones of Kazakhstan and the Astana International Financial Center.