Tatyana Gracheva

According to primeminister.kz, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov and Minister of Trade of South Korea Ahn Duk-geun discussed issues of realization of new joint investment projects.
Great prospects for further development of trade and economic cooperation between Kazakhstan and South Korea were emphasized by Prime Minister during the meeting. The dynamic growth of trade turnover supports this point of view: 2.3 times growth last year (more than $6.1 billion) and an increase by another 11% for 8 months of this year.
Alikhan Smailov said that, according to him, joint efforts are needed to expand the nomenclature of mutual trade. For example, the Kazakhstan-Korea Intergovernmental Commission in the sphere of trade-economic and scientific-technical cooperation is an important tool here.
Another fact noticed by him was South Korea’s consistent presence among the top 10 largest investors in the economy of Kazakhstan (about $9.2 billion of investments over the past 18 years). A new record volume of $1.5 billion was reached last year due to the gross inflow of direct investment from Korea (85% increase).
Prime Minister said that more than 700 Korean enterprises are currently operating in Kazakhstan, the largest of which are KIA, Hyundai, Samsung and LG.
They are working out 5 projects worth $1.5 billion and 25 more promising projects worth about $500 million today. The construction of a new large plant KIA with a total investment of $190 million and production capacity of 70 thousand cars per year in the city of Kostanay can be given as a striking example.
As Alikhan Smailov added, the Government of Kazakhstan will continue to create all necessary conditions for comfortable work of investors in the country.
According to Ahn Duk-geun, South Korea is ready in its turn for active technological cooperation with Kazakhstan in various sectors of the economy.
The South Korean Minister of Trade emphasized the importance of such projects as the KIA plant in Kazakhstan. Successfully implemented, they will make Kazakhstan’s automobile industry become an example and facilitate the construction of other similar plants and production facilities.

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According to the ministry’s press service, Hors Classe Adviser of the European Commission Henrik Hololei said at the meeting with Kazakh Deputy Foreign Minister Nazira Nurbayeva held on Oct. 19 that Kazakhstan’s aspiration to become a transportation and logistics hub are supported by the European Union (EU).
Hololei said that participation in infrastructure projects and the attraction of private investments are offered to Kazakhstan by the EU to help the country achieve this goal.
Utilizing Kazakhstan’s transport and logistics capacity, increasing transport sector harmonization in Central Asia and the Caucasus and promoting aviation cooperation became the main goals of the actions to diversify transit routes between Asia and Europe.
Delivering major railway projects and building new logistics facilities to improve the competitiveness of Kazakhstan were emphasized by Nurbayeva.
Measures to improve transport connectivity between Central Asia and the EU were elaborated and optimal transport links between Central Asia and the EU Trans-European Transport Network were identified, as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development study suggested.

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The exports of Georgia (excluding non-declared exports) reached USD 4 607.4 million (12.7 percent growth) in January-September 2023. Domestic exports constituted 47.2 percent of the total export and attained USD 2 172.7 million (22.5 percent down compared to the same period of 2022).
The top ten trading partners by domestic exports (Russia (USD 412.3 million), Türkiye (USD 290.5 million) and China (USD 235.0 million) had the share of 75.2 percent in the total domestic exports of Georgia in January-September 2023.

The first place in the list of top export items was claimed by copper ores and concentrates during the reporting period (USD 433.0 million, or 19.9 percent of total exports). The share of the exports of wine of fresh grapes in the total exports amounted to 8.9 percent (USD 193.0 million). The third place was occupied by the exports of ferro-alloys (USD 140.1 million, 6.4 percent of the total exports).

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