Head of State Kassym-Jomart Tokayev took part in the second meeting of leaders in the "Central Asia - European Union" format, which was held in Cholpon-Ata (Kyrgyzstan).
At the beginning of his speech, the head of state expressed satisfaction with the fact that, despite the unprecedented geopolitical aggravation, the countries of Central Asia have strengthened the intra-regional dialogue. Considerable merit in this, in his opinion, belongs to the European Union.
The prospects for cooperation between Central Asia and the EU, as Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev said, are really extensive.
“According to the results of last year, the inflow of European investments to Kazakhstan increased by 23%, amounting to $12.5 billion. Of the $350 billion in foreign direct investment attracted to Kazakhstan over 30 years of independence, almost half is of European origin. The European Union is Kazakhstan's largest trading partner, accounting for over 40% of our foreign trade. Last year, the volume of mutual trade between Kazakhstan and the EU countries amounted to $40 billion. I believe that we have every opportunity to bring this figure to $50 billion by 2025,” the president said.
As he noted further, more than three thousand companies with European capital are operating in Kazakhstan, including such transnational corporations as Shell, Eni, Total, Air Liquide, Alstom, Siemens and others.
“I am pleased to note that our comprehensive partnership is reinforced by new agreements in such promising and strategically important industries as the extraction of rare earth metals and the production of green hydrogen. One of the breakthrough projects was the start of construction by the German-Swedish company Svevind of a plant to install wind and solar power plants and produce three million tons of "green" hydrogen in Kazakhstan. This is about 20% of the EU needs for this product. Last November, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and I signed a Memorandum of Strategic Partnership on sustainable raw materials, batteries and renewable hydrogen value chains,” the head of state said.
Further, in the speech, priority areas of cooperation were presented, which will be of strategic importance not only for Kazakhstan, but also for all countries of the region. First of all, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev focused on increasing trade. The priority task, in his opinion, is to increase exports by expanding the trade nomenclature.
“Kazakhstan is ready to increase its exports to the EU countries on 175 non-primary commodity items worth $2.3 billion in such areas as engineering, iron and steel production, and the food industry. There are also great prospects for cooperation in agriculture,” the leader of Kazakhstan believes.
The second priority in the speech was the development of transport and logistics infrastructure. According to the President, at the current stage, the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route has acquired strategic importance.
“I think it is able to significantly increase the level of interaction between our regions. During a recent state visit to China, we launched the construction of a logistics terminal in the city of Xi'an with our Chinese partners. We expect that this port will become an important hub for sending direct container trains through the territory of Central Asia to Europe. We also agreed to link the Trans-Caspian route with the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative,” the head of state said.
Particular attention in the speech was paid to the diversification of energy transportation routes.
“Currently, 80% of Kazakh oil exports to Europe are carried out through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium. Based on common interests, we count on further support from the EU to ensure long-term and stable supplies through this strategically important oil pipeline,” the President said.
Along with this, the speech outlined the prospects for oil exports via other routes.
“For example, since the beginning of this year, Kazakh oil has been pumped along the Aktau-Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan route with a volume of 1.5 million tons per year. In the medium term, we plan to expand oil exports in the Aktau-Batumi direction, as well as increase the volume of pumping through the pipelines of the Trans-Caspian route. At the same time, Kazakhstan began to supply oil to Germany through the Druzhba pipeline. Since the beginning of this year, deliveries in the amount of 90 thousand tons have already been implemented. There is a potential to bring this figure up to 1.2 million tons per year with the possibility of increasing in the future,” said Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
In addition, such areas as climate and the "green transition" were named among the priorities of interaction.
“We are implementing the principles of a circular economy. The share of renewable energy sources in the structure of the energy balance of our country has reached 4.5%. By 2030, this figure should be 15%. We believe that in this vein it is advisable to intensify joint efforts as part of the implementation of the Global Gateway strategy and Team Europe initiatives on climate change, water resources, and the development of renewable energy sources in Central Asia,” said Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
Speaking about the development of digitalization, the President pointed to the wide opportunities for cooperation.
“In March of this year, Microsoft announced the opening of a Multi-regional hub in Kazakhstan, which will become a center for attracting advanced technologies. We have set a goal to train at least 100,000 highly qualified IT specialists by 2025. Therefore, I invite European universities to open branches in Kazakhstan, including on the basis of the Astana Hub technopark, which has become an important regional IT platform. In general, we plan to scale up our developments in the field of digitalization and share our experience at the regional level,” the head of state suggested.
At the end of his speech, the leader of Kazakhstan highly appreciated the support of the European Union in promoting our country's foreign policy initiatives and implementing large-scale democratic reforms.
President of the European Council Charles Michel, President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov, President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan Nurmuhammet Amannepesov also spoke during the summit.
As a result of the meeting, its participants adopted a joint press communiqué.
By the Kazakhstanskaya Pravda
