Belarus and Kazakhstan Reach Agreement on 37 Joint Projects

    Belarus has offered Kazakhstan 37 joint projects which can be included into Kazakhstan’s industrialization plan, the Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Sidorsky told reporters following a meeting with the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Karim Masimov.
    This year the two countries have been cooperating within the framework of Kazakhstan’s programme for industrial and innovative development and Kazakhstan is working on a programme of accelerated industrial and innovative development lasting until 2014.
    At the meeting, Belarus presented its investment proposals which the two countries have been working on for the past year. The projects are aimed at developing agricultural production in Kazakhstan (cultivation of grain, beets, and potatoes) using Belarusian equipment, Sergei Sidorsky said.
    Apart from joint projects in machinery construction Belarus also proposes constructing dairy farms on a turnkey basis in Kazakhstan.
    Belarus has also offered specific projects in medicine and the production of household appliances.
    The proposals include mainly long-term projects at a combined estimated cost of over USD 6.5 billion.
    Implementation of bilateral agreements has already started to show results. Assembly lines for lifts and baling machines as well as joint enterprises in furniture and dairy production have already been set up in Kazakhstan. Despite the difficult economic situation, the two countries managed to increase the output of joint ventures assembling tractors and grain harvesters. In 2009 some 350 Belarus tractors have so far been assembled in Kazakhstan and are being used by farmers in the Akmolinsk, Kostanai, North-Kazakhstan, East-Kazakhstan and Karaganda districts, BelTA reports.