Kazakhstan aims at strengthening the role of its foreign ministry in foreign economic activity.
Thus, in accordance with the recent decree of President NursultanNazarbayev, the ministry of investment and development of
Kazakhstan (MID) was transformed into the ministry of industry and infrastructure development.
At the same time, the functions and powers of the former MID on attracting investments were transferred to the ministry of foreign affairs. Moreover, committee on investment and controlling stake at JSC “Kazakh Invest” passed over to foreign ministry as well.
National company Kazakh Invest has a wide network of its representatives abroad and provides a full range of services to support investment projects from idea to implementation on the principle of one window and acts as a single focal point for special economic zones.
Committee on investments is a regulatory body in the field of investment policy, creation of a favorable investment climate, operation of special economic zones.
“In addition to the main foreign policy activities, we will actively use the mechanism of the above agencies. This will give reason to expect that emphasis on foreign investors will be accentuated in attracting investments, said recently appointed foreign minister of Kazakhstan Beibut Atamkulov.
Moreover, the foreign ministry will coordinate activities in the field of export promotion of Kazakh products in foreign markets.
It is planned to harness the ministry’s overseas representation potential through raising awareness in host countries, organization of bilateral meetings and negotiations, and providing direct support to exporters of Kazakh goods.
Coordination of activities in the export sector will allow to study the availability of foreign markets for Kazakh products and, equally, to build a coherent negotiating tactics on the removal of hurdles the goods and services from Kazakhstan face, added Atamkulov.
Simultaneously, Turkmenistan decided to intensify the participation of the ministry of foreign affairs in the realization of foreign economic policy. To this end, a new unit was opened at the foreign office – the department of foreign economic cooperation.
The department is tasked with preparing proposals for the study and implementation of major international projects, analysis of existing economic contacts, coordination and control over performance of joint commissions on economic, scientific and technical cooperation of Turkmenistan with various countries. It is reasonable that, the efforts taken by both countries to intensify the engagement of foreign ministry’s resources in external economic activity are not accidental.
These steps should be accessed in line with the more ambitious goals that Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan strive for. That is cutting down dependence on the hydrocarbon-raw material economy and the transition to a diversified value added industrial development model. In addition, the target is on phased increasing the share of the private sector in the economy.
On the other hand, the promotion of exports and searching for new markets is a catalyst for domestic production.
In turn, the foreign ministry of any country, one way or another, through its diplomatic missions, monitors the economic situation and has insights on state of the market in the host country. Naturally, having such knowledge obtained from its missions, the foreign ministry can best guide foreign economic actions, at least at the level of recommendations. /// nCa, 4 January 2019