On 16 September 2024, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Federal Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz had summit talks in Astana.
Tokayev called Scholz’s visit historic, as it is the first visit of the head of the German Government to Kazakhstan in the last 14 years.
As Tokayev noted, Germany is one of Kazakhstan’s main trading partners and top investors.
Last year, the bilateral trade turnover increased almost 1.5 times and reached $ 4 billion. Over the past seven months, the volume of mutual trade has exceeded $ 2.3 billion.
Between 2005 and 2024, German direct investments in Kazakhstan totaled approximately $6.7 billion. Notably, 90% of these investments were concentrated in non-resource sectors, indicating a diversified economic partnership. Over a thousand German-owned companies established operations in Kazakhstan.
The German Chancellor expressed a keen interest in strengthening economic ties with Kazakhstan, emphasizing a desire to ‘foster favorable conditions for direct investments, expand bilateral trade opportunities, and enhance economic relations between two countries.’
Both parties affirmed their commitment to developing mutually beneficial trade and economic cooperation, particularly in the areas of energy, green transition, mining, transportation and logistics, climate change mitigation, environmental protection, and agriculture.
Peaceful settlement in Ukraine
During the meeting in a narrow format, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, at the request of Scholz, spoke about the settlement of the situation around Ukraine.
Tokayev said: “The fact is that Russia is invincible militarily. Further escalation of the war will lead to irreparable consequences for all mankind and, above all, for all countries directly involved in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Unfortunately, a good chance to achieve at least a truce was missed with the refusal to conclude the Istanbul Agreement. But the opportunity for peace still exists.”
He called for careful consideration of all peace initiatives of various states and urged a decision to cease hostilities, paving the way for subsequent discussions on territorial matters.
“In our opinion, the peace plan of China and Brazil deserves support,” the President of Kazakhstan stressed.
“Heads of state come and go, and peoples, especially neighboring peoples, should live in peace and mutual understanding. Kazakhstan has the longest delimited land border in the world with Russia, and cooperation between our countries is developing within the framework of strategic partnership and alliance. In Kazakhstan, we treat the Ukrainian people and their distinctive culture with genuine sympathy. There have never been disagreements between our states. The Embassy of our country continues its work in Kiev,” Tokayev said.
Kazakh-German Business Forum
During Scholz’s visit to Astana, a joint business forum was held.
During host remarks at the forum, President Tokayev highlighted the robust state of the economic partnership between Kazakhstan and Germany. He noted that bilateral trade surged by 41% in 2023, reaching $3.9 billion. Additionally, German direct investments experienced a significant increase of 64%, reaching a new high of $770 million.
Both countries have formalized a comprehensive portfolio of 66 joint investment projects, with a combined value of $55 billion.
Kazakhstan is promoting a new economic paradigm designed to form an economy based on knowledge and innovation. To achieve this goal, Kazakhstan is carrying out deep economic and social reforms aimed at liberalizing the economy based on the principles of fair competition and freedom of entrepreneurship. Aiming for further growth, Kazakhstan has launched a new investment cycle to attract $150 billion in foreign direct investment by 2029, Tokayev said.
Prospects of Kazakhstan-Germany cooperation
In his speech, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev highlighted several promising areas of cooperation.
Extraction and processing of natural resources: The mineral resource base of Kazakhstan has more than 5,000 undiscovered deposits, estimated at trillions of dollars. Kazakhstan produces 19 of the 34 rare earth materials that are crucial for the EU economy. As part of these efforts, the German Agency for Mineral Resources (DERA) and Kazakhstani partners are creating a consortium for trade in essential raw materials.
HMS Bergbau plans to carry out exploration work with the aim of building a lithium processing plant in East Kazakhstan. Investments in this project will amount to 500 million dollars.
Energy: Kazakhstan has the second largest proven oil reserves in Eurasia. 70% of Kazakhstan’s oil exports go to the European Union and Kazakhstan is ready to increase exports and help reduce the global energy deficit.
Localization of oil and gas equipment production: Localization of German production of oil and gas equipment and components in Kazakhstan is a key priority.
Renewable energy: Kazakhstan has significant untapped potential in the renewable energy sector, which attracts many major global players. For example, the German Svevind group invests $50 billion in Kazakhstan. The aim of the project is to produce “green” hydrogen and supply it to the European market.
Logistics: The Middle Corridor is currently the shortest and most reliable route to Europe with a potential capacity of up to 10 million tons of cargo. Tokayev proposed linking the Middle Corridor with the Trans-European Transport Network and the EU Global Gateway initiative to facilitate the growing trade between East and West.
Among the potential areas of effective partnership, Kazakhstan also sees pharmaceuticals, agriculture, information technology, partnership with German business on the platform of the Astana International Financial Center.
Signed documents
At the end of the summit talks, Tokayev and Scholz adopted a Joint Declaration on Cooperation between the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Federal Republic of Germany.
Joint Declaration on Cooperation between the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Federal Republic of Germany: https://www.akorda.kz/ru/sovmestnaya-deklaraciya-o-sotrudnichestve-mezhdu-respublikoy-kazahstan-i-federativnoy-respublikoy-germaniya-1683715
The delegations of the two countries signed the following documents:
1. Memorandum of Understanding on technical issues of central banks’ cooperation between Deutsche Bundesbank and the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan;
2. Memorandum of Intent to establish the Kazakh-German Institute of Science and Technology at the East Kazakhstan Technical University named after Serikbayev between the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany;
3. Memorandum of intent to establish a Kazakh-German school between the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan, JSC “National Welfare Fund “Samruk Kazyna”, “Kazakh Association of Germans “Vozrozhdenie” and the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Following the results of the business forum, a package of the following documents was signed:
• Roadmap of the Kazakh-German Initiative for cooperation in the field of technical regulation between the Ministry of Industry and Construction of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Eastern Committee of the German Economy;
• Memorandum of cooperation in the field of research related to the Green Hydrogen project between the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Svevind Energy;
• Strategic Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Kazakhstan, the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry of Kazakhstan and Siemens LLP;
• Strategic Partnership Agreement between Samruk-Kazyna JSC and Siemens Central Asia LLP;
• Framework agreement on the joint implementation of the project for the construction of an international cargo and passenger airport between the Ministry of Transport of Kazakhstan and SKYHANSA LLP;
• Cooperation agreement between JSC “NUH “Baiterek” and HORSCH Maschinen GmbH;
• Memorandum of Understanding between JSC NUH Baiterek and KfW Bankengruppe;
• Cooperation agreement between JSC “NUH “Baiterek” and CLAAS Global Sales GmbH;
• Memorandum of Intent between the RSE “National Center for Technological Forecasting” and the Federal Institute of Geosciences and Natural Resources of the Federal Republic of Germany (BGR);
• Letter of mandate between Development Bank of Kazakhstan JSC and Deutsche Bank;
• Memorandum of mutual cooperation on the project “Construction of a processing and production complex for the production of potassium salts and boric acid on the basis of the Satimola deposit in the West Kazakhstan region” between JSC Qazaq Kalium Ltd. and KfW Bankengruppe, Euler Hermes Group;
• Agreement on the implementation of a project for the joint production of Condor seeders in Kostanay region between Agromashholding JSC and Amazonen-werke H. Dreyer Se & Co.Kg .
During the visit of the German delegation, 23 documents were also signed between various central and local government agencies and private sector of the two countries.///nCa, 17 September 2024