On February 5-7, 2021, a reciprocal Kazakh-Egyptian trade and investment business forum was held in Egypt. The event was attended by about 300 people.
According to Kairat Lama Sharif, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the Arab Republic of Egypt, both sides intend to build up cooperation in all areas of interaction to further increase the level of trade, economic and investment ties between the two countries, Kazakh-Invest reports.
“Kazakhstan considers Egypt as the “gateway” to Africa and is ready to promote exports, including with the assistance of the Kazakh-Egyptian Business Council and the Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation. An additional impetus to increase the export of Kazakhstani products will be given by the signing of the Free Trade Agreement between the EAEU member states and Egypt, which will open access to the Egyptian market with a population of over 100 million people," – said Kairat Lama Sharif in his speech.
According to the speakers, the rise in the price of products and the slowdown of trade between the two countries is due to the geographical remoteness of the states. However, as noted by the Vice Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kairat Torebayev, despite this, Kazakhstan sees the potential for increasing trade turnover by almost 4 times. “In this context, domestic companies can offer quality goods worth about $ 300 million. In order to ensure food security, Egyptian companies can locate their export-oriented production facilities in Kazakhstan. For this direction, concessional lending for such projects, insurance of export contracts, reimbursement of costs for the transportation of goods and service support are provided. In addition, in the near future, Kazakhstan will subsidize the interest rate for foreign buyers of domestic products at the CIRR level. In other words, at the interest rate set by the OECD Secretariat on a monthly basis,” – said Kairat Torebayev.
During the event, a universal exhibition «Made in Kazakhstan» was als.organized, where products of Kazakh manufacturers were presented, including companies that are already exporting to the African continent. In addition, bilateral B2B negotiations were held between domestic and Egyptian companies. As a result of the event, a number of economic documents were signed. Thus, Kazakh and Egyptian companies have agreed to supply 1 million bottles of bottled water to the Egyptian market with the prospect of increasing supply by up to 3 million, the production of pharmaceuticals on the basis of a Kazakh enterprise, and the acquisition of a copper deposit in Kazakhstan.
