In a bid to extend business ties between a round table on ‘Kazakh-Indian relations: Past, Present, Future’ was held at the Embassy of Kazakhstan in India on Friday.
The event was attended by representatives of government, business and public circles, research institutes and analytical centres of India and Media.
Ambassador of Kazakhstan to India Bulat Sarsenbayev addressed the current state of the Kazakh-Indian partnership, the main areas of cooperation between the two countries and outlined the areas of promising cooperation. In particular, Ambassador elaborated on issues of trade, economic and investment cooperation, including the field of energy, information and financial technologies, space, cooperation in the military-technical sphere, as well as the integration of transport flows and the use of transit opportunities of Kazakhstan and India.
“Currently, Kazakhstan is India’s main trading partner in Central Asia. The trade turnover between our countries reached $ 1.2 billion in 2018 (in 2015, the trade turnover amounted to $ 461.6 million). In the first three months of this year, bilateral trade between Kazakhstan and India amounted to $ 293.1 million, which is 35.9% more than in the same period last year.”
Cooperation between Nur-Sultan and Delhi is actively developing, mutual trips of citizens of the two countries are intensified “… if in 2014 Kazakhstan issued about 6 thousand visas to citizens of India, in 2018 it was more than 25 thousand visas”.
The Kazakh diplomat also spoke about the Astana Economic Forum held in May in Kazakhstan, which was attended by a representative Indian delegation (the delegation included heads of such transnational companies as Punjab National Bank, NTPC, ONGC Videch Limited, CG Corp Global, India Power, and top managers of Indian companies India Invest, RV Healthcare, Refex Energy). The event reached a preliminary agreement on the consideration by investors from India of projects totaling more than $ 300 million.
Bulat Sarsenbayev told the audience that on March 19, Nursultan Nazarbayev resigned from the post of President of Kazakhstan. According to the Constitution, the powers of the President were transferred to the Speaker of the Senate (Upper house), Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who later announced about the holding of early presidential elections.
Ambassador said that the presidential elections will be held on June 9 and that the upcoming election is promising to be the most competitive and diverse in Kazakhstan’s history as an independent nation. “Seven candidates are running for the presidency. This is a most important moment, not least because a head of state can take the country in a particular direction and set tasks and priorities for government that can have an impact on the country and beyond” the Ambassador mentioned.
At the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Delhi, there will be operated a polling station, where Kazakh citizens live in India may come and fulfil their civic duties.
According to provided information, after the presidential election in Kazakhstan, it is expected to organize a state visit of newly elected President of Kazakhstan to India in autumn 2019.
As part of the upcoming visit, a number of major events are going to be held. In particular, visits of the Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan to India, the Investment Forum, meetings of the Intergovernmental Commission, Joint Working Groups on Trade and Economic Cooperation, Transport and Logistics, Cooperation in IT sphere, as well as military-technical cooperation.
The participants were familiarized with the main indicators of Kazakhstan’s development and measures taken by the Government to improve the investment climate, etc.
During the discussions, experts raised a wide range of various aspects of the development of cooperation between Kazakhstan and India. A number of proposals were made to further promote bilateral cooperation in the field of IT, Fintech, energy, space, military-technical cooperation, pharmacology, and others.
During the event was also presented the representative office of “Kazakh Invest” National Company, which recently opened in Delhi.
Director of the ‘Kazakh Invest’ regional representative office Aigul Nuralina said that the main purpose of the office’s activity is informing Indian companies about investment opportunities, preferences and government support measures provided to foreign investors entering the Kazakhstan market