Kazakhstan’s President invites Japanese companies to partake in privatization of Kazakhstan companies

Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev invited Japanese companies to partake in privatization of some Kazakhstan-based companies, a Tengrinews.kz journalist reports.

«Kazakhstan is taking efforts to deregulate some of its industries. We are expecting a second unprecedented wave of privatization and sales of key public assets. The list includes government-owned stakes in mining, O&G, transport, communications industries, as well as some infrastructure facilities. Participation of Japanese companies would be a great opportunity to galvanize the bilateral cooperation between the two nations”, President Nazarbayev said October 27 when speaking at the Kazakh-Japanese business forum held in Astana.

“Today we are welcoming Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe here in Astana. He is here on an official visit at my invitation. We have held in-depth bilateral talks and covered all issues of mutual interest. Our talks took longer than usual. That is the reason we are late for the forum. My apologies”, Head of State said when addressing the audience.

He emphasized that the two nations had been keeping their economic ties at a high level. According to him, for the last 10 years the inflow of Japan’s FDI made up about $ 5 billion. The trade turnover between the two nations for the last 7 years totaled $10 billion. As of today, Kazakhstan is home to around 50 JVs in transport, mining, chemicals and machinery building realms.

President Nazarbayev also broached promising directions of cooperation. “Talks are under way to launch some investment projects totally worth $700 million, including a center for cancer diagnostics, a facility to produce ethanol and some other projects (…)”, President briefed, stressing that nuclear industry cooperation remains a key realm for joint work. “Kazakhstan is interested in supplying uranium products to global markets, including the market of Japan”, he said.