Kazakhstan-British cooperation to discuss in Nur-Sultan city

Nur-Sultan, November 4, 2021 - The Eighth Plenary Session of the Kazakhstan-British Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technical and Cultural Cooperation (IGC) was co-chaired by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Almas Aidarov and the Minister of State for International Trade of Great Britain Ranil Jayawardena.

The Meetings of the six Task Forces of the IGC were previously held online from October, 21 to November 2, 2021.  

The sides reviewed the results of the IGC's activities over the past year, as well as discussed new areas of bilateral cooperation. They heard the reports of Task Forces in the financial, mining, energy, education, agriculture and digitalization sectors.  

In his speech, Almas Aidarov stressed that, despite the pandemic, in 2020 the volume of British investments in Kazakhstan increased by 36%, from $620 to $849 million.

“I am pleased to note that this positive trend continues in 2021. According to the results of the first half of this year, British investments in the economy of Kazakhstan grew by 32% compared to the same period last year, amounting to $612 million,” the Deputy Minister said.

In turn, Ranil Jayawardena highly appreciated the Kazakhstan’s efforts to create the most favorable conditions for doing business in the region and confirmed the interest of the British side in further building up cooperation in such sectors as digitalization, agriculture, green energy and healthcare.

The event resulted in signing the Protocol of the 8th meeting of the IGC, as well as a Memorandum of Cooperation between the Ministry of Healthcare of Kazakhstan and the largest British pharmaceutical company Astra Zeneca, which opens up further prospects for cooperation in the treatment of respiratory, oncological and other diseases, including through the introduction of new technologies.

The sides agreed to hold the next 9th Meeting of the IGC in 2022 in London with the involvement of a wide range of business circles of both countries.

https://www.gov.kz/memleket/entities/mfa/press/news/details/280040?lang=ru