Tengrinews.kz — President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev noted that China has invested more than $30 billion in Kazakhstan’s economy.
According to the Head of State, the high level of political trust creates a solid foundation for further expanding trade, economic and investment cooperation.
“Last year, bilateral trade reached $49 billion. This is a record figure. China has invested more than $30 billion in Kazakhstan’s economy. Today, more than 8,500 enterprises with Chinese capital are successfully operating in Kazakhstan. Among them, major companies such as CNPC, CITIC and Huawei deserve special mention. We highly value the significant contribution of Chinese business to the modernization of Kazakhstan’s economy. In previous years, our countries successfully implemented many important joint projects. As a result, we created jobs, introduced advanced technologies and strengthened cooperation in the industrial sector. Today, we are jointly implementing new strategic projects,” he said.
In particular, construction of a major gas chemical complex has begun with Sinopec, a deep corn processing plant with Fufeng Group, and a modern cotton and textile cluster with Lihua Group.
“Chinese automotive enterprises are opening their production facilities in Kazakhstan. Cars of the HOWO, Yutong and JAC brands are produced in our country. Last year, multi-brand production of Changan, Great Wall Motor and Chery vehicles was launched. These projects show that our bilateral partnership is based on innovation, advanced technology and industrial modernization,” the President emphasized.
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev also noted the symbolism of holding the meeting in Shanghai — one of the world’s centers of science and innovation — on the eve of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference.
He also presented Kazakhstan’s digital transformation priorities to the participants and outlined key areas of technological cooperation.
According to the President, Kazakhstan views artificial intelligence as one of the main drivers of future economic growth and is creating modern digital infrastructure to attract international investors.
“I would like to focus in particular on the Data Center Valley project in Ekibastuz. This is a unique strategic initiative of our country. We believe this project will become a key pillar of the digital infrastructure of Kazakhstan and the whole of Central Asia. Its main goal is to create an international-level platform for the development of data centers, cloud services and artificial intelligence infrastructure,” the Head of State said.
Investors will be provided with fully equipped sites and modern infrastructure. They will be able to operate under a special investment regime, using stable electricity supply.
“However, large-scale work in this area is not limited to the construction of data centers. We aim to create a comprehensive innovation ecosystem. This will bring together supercomputer capacity, artificial intelligence laboratories, research organizations, educational programs, startups and export-oriented digital services into a single system. We are interested in further strengthening mutually beneficial cooperation with Chinese partners,” the President noted.
Today, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev met with heads of Chinese high-tech companies. At the meeting with representatives of China’s business community, held in a roundtable format, the Head of State expressed sincere gratitude to Chinese partners and highly praised the comprehensive strategic partnership between Kazakhstan and China.