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According to the Civil Aviation Committee’s press service, a memorandum on regular air transportation tripling the number of cargo transit flights per week was signed by Kazakhstan and Luxembourg at an event held to mark the 77th flight by the Cargolux airline at the Astana International Airport on June 29.
Kazakh Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development Marat Karabayev said that the key agreement was to increase the number of cargo flights from Luxembourg from 7 to 21 a week. He added that flights that used to be charter now have become regular.
Karabayev said that after France and Finland, Luxembourg is the third country with which Kazakhstan signs the fifth level of openness within the open skies policy.
This agreement opened up new opportunities for Kazakhstan’s aviation industry and made the country a key transit hub between Europe and Southeast Asia.
According to Karabayev, additional opportunities for Kazakh aviators’ professional growth and entrepreneurs are provided by new transit flights. The local market can get the goods unloaded in Kazakhstan, while Europe and Southeast Asia will get products loaded in Astana.
The first flight to Astana was made by Cargolux on May 1. Seven flights a week are operated by the airline, providing air connection between Luxembourg, China and Japan through the airport in Astana.
Cargolux President Richard Forson stated that a further increase in the frequency of regular cargo flights to 42 per week in both directions is envisaged by the intergovernmental agreement.
According to Forson, Cargolux hopes that this will lead to an increase in cargo transportation through Astana International Airport in the future, as it connects Europe and Asia.
Cargolux Airlines International S.A., founded in 1970 in Luxembourg, is Europe’s largest cargo carrier, operating 30 aircraft of Boeing 747 and flying to more than 50 destinations worldwide.
The company resumed flights to several Russian cities.
The issue of expanding air traffic between Kazakhstan and Bashkortostan was also worked out by the Civil Aviation Committee. Regular passenger flights on the Astana-Ufa route with a frequency of two flights per week on Tuesdays and Fridays on Sukhoi Superjet 95 aircraft will be resumed by Red Wings airline from July 25.
Regular passenger flights on the Almaty-Sochi route with a frequency of one flight per week on Thursdays on the same type of aircraft were resumed by Russia’s Azimuth Airlines from June 28.

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According to the Kazakh Invest national company, 23 commercial agreements worth more than $1.7 billion were signed during the Kazakh-German Business Forum on 20 June in Astana.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who arrived in Kazakhstan on June 19 as part of an official visit, attended the forum.
The processing of rare earth metals, the production of machine tools for agricultural machinery, textile industry, fisheries and green energy were discussed by the parties.
A $22 million agreement signed between Kazenergopower and Siemens to produce medium-voltage distribution devices for the Kazakh energy sector using Siemens technology is one of the major deals.
A $200 million agreement for the exploration, extraction, and processing of complex rare metal ores in eastern Kazakhstan was signed by Creada Corporation and HMS Bergbau.
Investment projects, which will provide export credit guarantees to German companies and Kazakh companies collaborating with German partners implementing projects in Kazakhstan, will be financed by the Development Bank of Kazakhstan and Landesbank Baden-Württemberg.
The Kazakhstan’s role of the leading economic partner of Germany in Central Asia was emphasized by President Tokayev at the forum.
According to him, $6 billion were invested by the German companies in the Kazakh economy, with 90% of it directed to the non-resource sector. 1,000 companies with German capital are operating in Kazakhstan.
Tokaev said that all German companies, large or small, are warmly welcomed by Kazakhstan, because the country values the German approach to business based on determination, precision and responsibility.
Interest to collaborate in the development of natural resources was also expressed by the Kazakh President.
According to Tokayev, Steinmeier and he agreed to strengthen their countries’ cooperation in the joint exploration and development of natural resources, including realization of the intergovernmental partnership agreement on raw materials, industry, and technology during the meeting
Kazakhstan is anticipated to become the world’s leading producer of green hydrogen, which can open doors to the production of environmentally friendly steel and aluminum, among other metals.
The President Tokaev added that a $50 billion green hydrogen deal, one of the largest such projects in the world, had already been signed with Svevind Group, and he also noticed Kazakhstan’s even greater potential for development in this area.
The importance of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR) in the new geopolitical realities was also mentioned by President Tokayev. The twofold increase of the freight traffic to the European Union along the route since 2022 proves it.
The President also added that the work is being carried to modernize the infrastructure and eliminate bottlenecks in order to support the growing volume of trade between East and West and to increase the capacity of Kazakh ports to 30 million tons.
Opportunities for cooperation in innovation, digitalization, and human capital development were also explored during the forum.
Tokayev said that Germany is one of the leading innovation hubs worldwide, known for setting very high standards in technology and science. In its turn, Kazakhstan strives to become a regional innovation and digital center in Eurasia with the aim to engage its German partners in a variety of ways, including technological and digital research and startup development.
The Forum of Rectors of Kazakh and German Universities, attended by Tokayev and Steinmeier, as well as representatives of 11 German and 25 Kazakh technical universities, was hosted by Astana on June 20 as part of collaboration in human capital development.
Tokayev expressed his dream of turning Kazakhstan into a research hub in Eurasia, and an extremely important role in making this dream a reality will be played by the involvement of German universities.
The opening of the Kazakh-German Engineering Institute at the Caspian State University in Aktau and the Kazakh-German Institute of Science and Technology at the East Kazakhstan Technical University was welcomed by him.
The ceremony of the launch of test drilling at the green hydrogen production plant of the Svevind company in the Mangystau Region was attended by Steinmeier on 21 June.

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According to press service of the Kazakh MFA, the WTO dedicated session on transit for landlocked developing countries “Overcoming problems in trade and transit operations” was moderated by Permanent Representative of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the World Trade Organization and International Economic Organizations Zhanar Aitzhan. An in-depth study of best practices, including constraints and challenges faced by landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) and the exchange of experience of WTO member countries to identify best practices and recommendations in the implementation of transit operations are the purpose of this workshop. Ambassador of Paraguay Raul Cano Riccardi, Chairman of the WTO Committee on Trade Facilitation Carlos Guevara, experts from the World Bank, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), UN Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, the World Customs Organization, as well as representatives of government agencies of Mongolia, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Gabon and Eswatini were the keynote speakers of the event. As the Permanent Representative Aitzhan noted in her opening speech, the brunt of limited access to maritime ports, longer transport distances and higher transit costs is born by the LLDC countries, separated from the coastlines and major international trade routes. The Ambassador of Kazakhstan developed this idea and added that the ability of LLDCs to fully integrate into global trade was impeded by these hindrances, economic growth and sustainable development are being hampered and poverty reduction is efforted. The crucial role of the implementation of the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation (TFA) in facilitating of the flow of goods across the border was also noted by the Permanent Representative Aitzhan. He recommended to improve transport links, to use digital technologies and to reduce trade costs through digital processing of customs data, including the electronic platform of UNCTAD “ASYCUDA”. A UNCTAD expert said that the results of a transit survey among WTO member countries showed that implementing the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation helps identify such major problems as collaboration across borders, varying formalities and procedures with neighboring countries, capacity issues (due to high of staff), lack of a national transit coordinator, etc. The implementation of a Regional System of Customs Transit Guarantees to solve delays at border crossing points, long vehicle turn-around/transit time, as well as simplify the customs clearance process and reduce the cost of the guarantee by COMESA was noted by the expert of the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) in his presentation. Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and the African Export-Import Bank have a fully operational system, while the process of fully joining this customs system in Congo, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia is in progress. According to the representative of the Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia, Ariunaa Adiya, the priorities for her country in the implementation of the TFA are the introduction of a Single Window for export-import and transit operations, modernization of transport infrastructure and increased competition in the transport services market, the creation of dry or multimodal ports, the introduction of paperless trade solutions in the field of customs clearance as well as digitalization delivery services to ensure uninterrupted processing and mail tracking. LLDC members were urged by the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Kazakhstan Aitzhan to accelerate the implementation of tools developed by international organizations, particularly by UNCTAD, to reduce transit time and costs, simplify trade procedures, increase transparency and ensure certainty in cross-border trade.

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As Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Thursday at an enlarged meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council, a free trade agreement between the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and Iran will enter into force and give a strong impulse for development of strategic relations.
According to him, a package of arrangements providing the EEU member states’ exports with preferential access to Iran will be formed due to the work carried out to conclude a full-fledged agreement. He called such conditions of access to the Iranian market exclusive for Armenian exporters.
According to the opinion of Pashinyan, this year this agreement will be signed with the support of the EEU member states. The same attitude is demonstrated by the Iranian side in its turn.
An agreement to establish a free trade zone was signed by the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) following the meeting of the delegations of the two sides on January 19h, 2022.
According to Alireza Peyman-Pak, Iran’s Deputy Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade and Head of the Trade Promotion Organisation (TPO) of the Islamic Republic, zero tariffs on 90% of goods were approved by Iran and EEU as part of the Free Trade Zone agreement. The entering into force of the Free Trade Zone agreement is scheduled for the end of September 2023.

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The Deputy Chairman of the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) Denis Ilyin reports that an increase by 54% has been attained by the volume of cargo transported via the North-South International Transport Corridor (ITC) from January to May, 2023.
According to Ilyin, Russia-Georgia-Armenia-Iran direction is a possible interconnection between North-South and East-West transport corridors. He said that at a session on transport logistics in Eurasia, held within the frames of Eurasian Congress 2023 in Russian Sochi.
More than $38 billion are needed for implementation of 102 projects of the development of the North-South transport corridor. The state sources finance 67 of them.
Purchase of cars for the South Caucasus Railway in Armenia is a project of the North-South ITC, while construction of the Meghri-Kajaran road section is a project of the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development (EFSD).
The Republic of Armenia and the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) signed an agreement on the provision of an investment loan from the Anti-Crisis Fund of the Eurasian Economic Community to finance the construction of the north-south road corridor (Phase 4) on April 14, 2015. The investment loan amounted to $150 million is provided for a period of 20 years.
The Eurasian landmass along East–West and North–South axes are being crossed by a system of international transport corridors called the Eurasian Transport Network. The Eurasian transport corridors enable the network to become a tangible foundation for a Greater Eurasia because they extend as far as China, India and the European Union. Digitalizing transport can provide seamless transport connectivity and unlock the full potential of the Eurasian continent’s economy.

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The government program implementation report shows that positive trends in the direction of economic growth continued in 2023, and, as it was preliminarily estimated, the average rate of economic growth in the first quarter of 2023 was 7.2%.
The document additionally reports an increase in employment and a decrease in the unemployment rates in 2022 and the continuation of export growth trend in the period of January-April 2023.
According to the report, in spite of all significant economic challenges, affecting economic policy and requiring an adequate response, economic stability of Georgia was maintained, and a double-digit economic growth was recorded in 2022 (10.1%).
The average rate of economic growth in the first quarter of 2023 was preliminarily estimated to reach 7.2%. A positive effect on the labor market indicators was produced by the increase in economic activity. Particularly, in 2022, employment rate increased and unemployment rate decreased. An all-time low was reached by poverty rate in 2022. In 2022, exports showed an increase by 31.8 percent and reached a record high rate – 5.6 billion USD and continued the trend in the period of January-April 2023. Exports increase reached 23.6%, compared to the corresponding period of the previous year, and equaled 1,962.2 million US dollars.
Direct foreign investment – the volume of direct foreign investment, increased significantly in 2022 (by 61.1%), compared to the previous year, and amounted to a record 2 billion USD. The decrease of the annual inflation level in April 2023 (2.7%) was more than they had expected and even lower than the target index set by the National Bank – 3%.
The government took significant steps to improve its debt management policy and ensure transparency between June 2022 and May 2023.
The Prime Minister has already submitted his annual report on the implementation of the government program to the Parliament. The period from June 2022 to May 2023 was covered by the report. The report will be presented to the Parliament by the Prime Minister of Georgia on June 30.

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A memorandum of cooperation on matters related to the China International Import Expo (CIIE) was signed by Dutch and Chinese business representatives from the CIIE Bureau and Dutch institutions and enterprises on May, 25 in Xinhua during a promotional event for the sixth CIIE, scheduled for Shanghai from Nov. 5 to Nov. 10.
A keynote speech emphasizing China’s position as the world’s second-largest import market was delivered by Jin Yuan, Economic and Commercial Counselor at the Chinese Embassy to the Netherlands.
According to him, China’s import volume, reaching 2.7 trillion U.S. dollars in 2022, showed the country’s immense market potential.
He added that an excellent platform for large and small Dutch enterprises to showcase and promote their products was provided by the CIIE, the world’s first import expo held at a national level.
An active role in the expo should be taken by Dutch businesses. Jin called them to explore potential collaborations with their Chinese counterparts and reap the significant benefits of the Chinese market.
According to Shi Huangjun, vice president of the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai), Dutch companies have always been important players at the CIIE due to their enthusiastic participation and considerable benefits they have achieved.
Not only large multinational corporations but also a multitude of innovative and potentially high-growth small- and medium-sized enterprises from the Netherlands were attracted by the expo.
A screening of a promotional video for the sixth CIIE was included in the event. Information on the expo’s preparations and detailed insights were shared by organizers into the exhibition areas. Various inquiries raised by Dutch representatives were also addressed by them.

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Today is the first day of Australia-United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement.
All Australians, including manufacturers, workers, farmers, tradies, innovators, families and students, get benefits from this gold standard trade deal.
Two-way goods trade worth $10 billion in 2022 and two-way services trade worth over $11 billion in 2021-22 make the United Kingdom one of Australia’s major trading partners and its second largest services trading partner.
The UK will let over 99 per cent of Australian products enter duty free, including some of key exports, such as wine, short and medium grain rice, sugar, honey, nuts, olive oil and food supplements.
They eliminated UK tariffs on Australian industrial goods, such as auto parts, electrical equipment and fashion items. Duty free transitional quotas with eventual elimination of all tariffs will be introduced for Australian agricultural products, including beef and sheep meat, sugar and dairy products.
They also eliminated tariffs on 98 per cent of UK imports to Australia for Australian consumers, with the remainder removed within six years.
The UK – Australia people-to-people links are strengthened by this agreement. The same access to the UK job market as nationals from the European Union, except the Republic of Ireland, is now granted to Australian professionals.
Measures designed to improve the mobility of skilled workers and young people in both directions are also included in the agreement. It will become possible from 31 January 2024 for Australians up to the age of 35, up from 30, to apply for working holidays in the UK and stay for a maximum of three years instead of two.
Not just exchange of products and services, but also the exchange of ideas is boosted by trade. The foundation for receiving royalties by Australian artists, including First Nations artists, when their original works of art are resold in the UK, is laid by this new trade agreement.
The trade turnover amounting to over $1 trillion in 2022 makes the UK Australia’s second largest source of investment. Further growth in two-way investment will be promoted with the help of modern investment provisions.
It is important to mention that the agreement doesn’t include an investor-state dispute settlement mechanism. This preserves Australia’s sovereign right to develop and implement legitimate policy measures in areas such as public health and the environment.
Bringing this trade deal into force in record time is prioritised by the Albanese Labor Government legislation in the Parliament, with the aim of helping businesses diversify their trade and bring down the cost of living for Australians.
Assistance from Austrade can be got by Australian business looking to enter or expand into the UK market. The process of cutting the tariff under the agreement apply to their specific goods can also be checked by Business through DFAT’s FTA Portal and DFAT’s Guide to Using the A-UKFTA to export and import goods can be read by them.

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According to press service of the Ministry of Trade and Integration, measures to develop non-primary exports in Kazakhstan were spoken about by Vice-Minister of Trade and Integration Kairat Torebayev at the Central Communications Service.
He said that a record level of exports of processed products ($26.5 billion) was reached last year and this trend has continued this year.
An increase by 32% compared to the previous indicator of the same period last year was reached by the total volume of foreign trade in processed products in the first quarter of 2023 (totally $ 18.8 billion). An increase of 7.6% was shown by exports of non-primary goods for the same period (5.9 billion US dollars).
Export deliveries of a number of product names rose significantly last year: flour (70.8%), petroleum products (52.2%), passenger cars (46%), sunflower oil (19.9%) and fertilizers (2.8 times).
Kazakh finished products were sent to 106 countries of the world in Q1 2023, expanding the list of importing countries compared to the same period of the previous year, adding new markets, such as the Syrian Arab Republic, Senegal, North Macedonia, Somalia, Guinea, Cyprus.
Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Turkey, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia and Afghanistan are traditionally the main buyers of processed products from Kazakhstan.
The results of last year show that there are 650 active exporters of non-primary products in the country, which have been exporting for at least three years. Advantage of non-financial measures of state support, such as export acceleration programs, launching on marketplaces, participation in trade missions and reimbursement of part of the export costs, was taken by 463 enterprises.
The result in the form of a return on the invested budget money is shown by each measure. The Vice Minister of Trade and Integration cited data of the acceleration program at a briefing in the CCS that reports that the refund of one budget tenge amounted to 158 tenge, for withdrawal to marketplaces – 213 tenge, for service support measures – 652 tenge.
The Accelerator’s support made it possible to conclude 38 export contracts worth about 260 million US dollars last year. As of today, they have already signed 2 contracts for the supply of products to Uzbekistan for $19 million, 1 long-term contract for the supply of household chemicals to Russia for a total of $1.3 million (600 million a year) and 2 more contracts for the supply of copper products to the Chinese market for $5 million. The supply of Kazakhstani food products to South Korea is also a subject of negotiations.
Since the beginning of 2023, they have conducted 5 trade and economic missions through QazTrade in such countries as Vietnam (Hanoi), Azerbaijan (Baku), Iran (Tehran), China (Xi’an), Uzbekistan (Tashkent). These trade and economic missions made it possible to sign export contracts worth more than $300 million.
They will organize 5 more trade and economic missions by the end of the year. In addition, the presentation of the national stands of the Republic of Kazakhstan at the annual Shanghai Import Exhibition in Shanghai (China), the 8th EXPO China-Eurasia XUAR and others is planned.
An electronic trading platform Alibaba.com is another relevant tool for promoting goods to foreign markets. The total sales of 220 companies placed on the trading platform amounted to about 225 million US dollars in 2020-2022. This year, access to golden marketplace accounts will be provided to 70 companies.
They opened the National Pavilion on an electronic platform “JD.com as part of the recent visit of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the city of Xi’an. In addition, they completed the construction of the Ozon fulfillment center in Astana in March and registered 15 thousand Kazakhstani sellers at its site with their sales volume exceeding 10 billion tenge in 2022.
The reimbursement of part of the costs to exporters is one of the most popular measures of state support. The costs in the amount of 8.8 billion tenge were returned by the state by the end of 2022.
The share of small businesses (companies operating in the fields of food production and wholesale trade) among the recipients of funds was about 48%.
The Ministry of Trade and Integration reports that this support measure made the geography of exports add three countries (Cyprus, France and Japan) and the range of goods for which cost recovery is carried grow by 53 positions.
Companies can apply for cost recovery from April 21 to July 21 2023. It is planned to approve applications in the amount of about 10 billion tenge by the end of the year, and the number of enterprises that have used this support measure will be increased to three hundred.

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As Varos Simonyan, a Eurasian Economic Commission (executive arm of EEU) Minister for Internal Markets, Information and Communication Technologies, said in an interview with sb.by, putting the trusted third party service into commercial operation this year is the goal of building cross-border trust space across the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU).
He emphasized on the necessity of cross border trust space for implementation of legally relevant interstate electronic document management and development of information exchange in the EEU.
According to the minister, draft rules for the recognition of digital electronic signatures in electronic documents and ensuring the validity of electronic documents in cross-border information interaction of legal entities with state authorities of EEU member states has been developed by the EEC.
He also added that a trusted third party service will be used as a universal mechanism for the provision of interstate services in electronic form.
Data protection in cross-border information exchange in the current geopolitical conditions also got a special attention.
According to Simonyan, an active work is being done by the EEC and the countries to create a secure data transmission network and joint development of specialized cryptographic information protection tools.

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