More than 20 heads of the Iranian companies, in particular Imidro, Ghadir Investments Group, Sunir Group, IRISL, Jahad-eSabz that work in various areas, including the energy sector, agriculture, construction and mining, attended the meeting.
The participants of the meeting from the Iranian side underscored the great potential for cooperation with Kazakhstan in the developed areas and new sectors. In this regard, the business executives have expressed a high interest in working with Kazakhstan, having noted the joint projects that are currently underway.
The President of Kazakhstan noted the mutual interest in enhancing the bilateral cooperation in the number of areas. In this regard, Nursultan Nazarbayev called for the Iranian companies to actively use the potential of the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway route.
The head of state gave detailed information on the advantages of the cooperation with our country. Kazakhstan’s membership in the Eurasian Economic Union allows the Iranian companies to trade with other members of the Union without customs duties. Moreover, our country has recently become the member of the World Trade Organisation and ratified the Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with the European Union, having the best investment climate rating in the region.
Nursultan Nazarbayev noted that Kazakhstan can suggest a large-scale package of trade preferences for investors that provides investment grants, stability of the legislation and taxation privileges. In addition to this, within the framework of the Plan of the Nation “One hundred steps” a range of reforms are currently underway to further improve the investment climate. Moreover, a significant privatization process is underway as well. The International Financial Centre is going to start its activities.
President Nazarbayev also stated that the EXPO-2017 international specialized exhibition under the theme “The Energy of the Future” would be held in Astana next year. In this regard, there is a high interest in modern technologies in the sphere of alternative energy.
The head of state also said that a number of priority state programmes were implemented in the country that the Iranian companies could be a part of. Among them are the state programme of infrastructure development “Nurly Zhol” (Bright Path), the second state of industrialization programme, and the agriculture development programme.
Moreover, Kazakhstan is interested in dynamic cooperation with Iran in such areas as medicine, biotechnologies, agricultural complex, and space technologies. The bilateral cooperation may be developed on the basis of innovation clusters that are actively underway nowadays in the country.
At the end of the meeting, Nursultan Nazarbayev highly appreciated the Iranian companies for their aspiration for constructive cooperation and wished them success in their work.
