The 15th meeting of the Kazakh-German Business Council for Strategic Cooperation was held in Berlin on August 28. First Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Roman Sklyar and Director of the Eastern Committee of the German Economy Michael Harms co-chaired the meeting, and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Alibek Kuantyrov also spoke on the sidelines of the event, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry reported.
During his speech, Deputy Minister Kuantyrov said that more than 740 German companies and about 400 joint ventures operate in Kazakhstan.
“Today, economic cooperation between our countries is reaching a new level. The total pool of German projects in Kazakhstan includes 66 projects with a total value of 54 billion US dollars, creating about 15 thousand jobs. Thirty-two projects have been commissioned, which provide 6 thousand permanent jobs. Given that Germany is a key trading partner of Kazakhstan in the EU, we should further intensify cooperation between the two countries’ business communities,” Kuantyrov stressed.
The Deputy Minister noted the important role of German companies in the country’s industrialization and the region’s socio-economic development: “From 2005, German companies invested about 7.8 billion US dollars in our country’s economy. The significant increase in foreign direct investment in the past year, which reached 770 million US dollars, stands out in particular. I am confident that the upcoming visit of German Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Kazakhstan will bring bilateral relations to a new level and give an additional impetus to strengthening existing, as well as creating new economic ties.”
With regard to the transport and logistics sphere, especially in the context of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR), also known as the Middle Corridor, it was noted that cargo traffic through the Middle Corridor to Germany and the EU countries has increased almost three times since the beginning of 2022 — to 1.5 million tons and 2.6 million tons in the first 7 months of this year. At the same time, the potential of TITR is estimated at 10 million tons of cargo. In this regard, Kuantyrov invited German partners to take an active part in developing the Caspian ports of Aktau and Kuryk.
