Kazakhstan-Canada Business Council’s 4th meeting results summed up
Kazakhstan-Canada Business Council’s 4th meeting results summed up
Ottawa, November 25-26, 2020 - Kazakhstan-Canada Business Council’s Plenary session took place in virtual format, which completed a series of trade and economic meetings held over the past two weeks.
The meeting was participated by members of governments, ambassadors, heads of large companies and business associations, experts, journalists and public figures of Kazakhstan and Canada. In total, about 700 people attended the events.
In his welcome remarks, the Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Canada Mr. Akylbek Kamaldinov highlighted the meetings’ successful results and called on two countries’ business community to utilize the potential of trade and investment cooperation, which is fully supported by the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
During his speech, the Minister of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources of Kazakhstan Mr. Magzum Mirzagaliyev marked the opportunities for Canadian business in Kazakhstan mining industry. He also proposed to develop a joint roadmap for joint projects implementation and create an Intergovernmental Commission on economic cooperation between our countries.
In his speech Kazakhstan Minister of Agriculture Mr. Saparkhan Omarov drew attention to the possibilities of strengthening business ties between Kazakhstani and Canadian farmers, which is supported by the positive dynamics of mutual trade in agricultural products, which showed an increase by 27% in 2020. He also stressed that Kazakhstan provides favorable conditions for the implementation of investment projects in agriculture.
On behalf of the Government of Canada the Honourable Jim Carr, the Prime Minister's Special Representative for the Western Provinces (Prairies) participated in the event. He spoke about the economic relations between the countries, which are supported by regular dialogue at the political level and stressed that the meeting of the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev with the Prime Minister of Canada the Right Honourable Justin Trudeau in February 2020 at the Munich Security Conference margins consolidated mutual support for bilateral relations development of on a wide range of issues. According to his data, in 2019 the trade turnover between our countries amounted to 614 million canadian dollars (CAD) and canadian companies invested more than 3 billion CAD in Kazakhstan. Jim Carr welcomed the ongoing reforms in Kazakhstan, which, in his opinion, stimulate economic growth, including sustainable development, green energy and investment in human capital.
During the meeting, the Chairman of the National Company «Kazakh Invest» Mr. Baurzhan Sartbaev presented the main achievements in creating a favorable investment climate in our country and called on Canadian business community to consider Kazakhstan as a reliable partner for implementation of joint investment projects.
Chief Economist of Global Affairs Canada Ms. Marie-France Paquet also addressed to the Business Council’s participants and spoke about economic situation in the Land of Maple Leaf and in the world, impact of the pandemic on economic growth, as well as the state of trade and economic relations between Kazakhstan and Canada.
In closing remarks, KCBC Canadian Co-Chair Mr.Tim Gitzel, who was recently appointed as the Honorary Consul of Kazakhstan in Saskatchewan province, noted Business Council’s progress since its creation in 2016, which has become an effective platform for bilateral projects’ implementation between two countries’ business communities. T.Gitzel also shared recent meeting’s results of the Council of Foreign Investors under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, in which he has been a member for the last 10 years. The Canadian businessman noted that the KCBC meeting’s agenda is fully consistent with Kazakhstan’s priorities on the country's integration into global economy under leadership of President K.Tokayev, including in areas of digitalization, artificial intelligence, energy, natural resources, agriculture and in other areas.
Earlier, in November, five meetings of the Working Groups were held in such areas as agriculture, natural resources and energy, construction and infrastructure, aerospace and transport, health and education.
In general, the experts highlighted a strong interest in further strengthening bilateral economic cooperation between Kazakhstan and Canada. In their opinion, the meetings held within the Business Council’s framework opened up new prospects for business interaction in the post-pandemic period.
Following the meeting, the Business Council’s participants agreed to adopt a Roadmap for achieved arrangements’ implementation.