Nizhny Novgorod business moves towards Kazakhstan

Business communities from all over the world will gather in Nizhny Novgorod this autumn for the second International Business Summit on September 11-12. This year, the main topic for discussion will be the investment attractiveness of Russia. 

More than 20 countries, including China, Italy, Spain, UK France, Netherlands and  Japan announced their willingness to take part in "Investing in the Future: Russia" business summit. 

Kazakhstan will be another participant of the summit. The country will also become a business partner of the Nizhny Novgorod region in the future. On July 17^th, Nizhny Novgorod Governor Valery Shantsev held a meeting with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Kazakhstan Galym Orazbakov.

The conversation between Shantsev and Orazbakov was primarily devoted to  the prospects of development of trade-economic and investment cooperation between the Nizhny Novgorod region and the Republic of Kazakhstan.

As Valery Shantsev noted, today Kazakhstan is a major economic partner. Kazakhstan stands on the list of ten countries, with which the Nizhny Novgorod region cooperates most actively. In 2012, the trade turnover between the Nizhny Novgorod region and Kazakhstan increased by 15 percent. About 40 Nizhny Novgorod companies supply their products to Kazakhstan.

"For the time being, not all possibilities of cooperation have been taken into consideration. For example, main supplies from Kazakhstan to the Nizhny Novgorod region account for imports of ferrous metals. We need to expand the cooperation between the two territories, create joint ventures. Also, we need to cooperate in the field of culture and education," Shantsev said. 

In turn, Orazbakov expressed interest in the proposal and pointed out positive changes that are taking place in the region. "The potential of the Nizhny Novgorod region is huge. The region is an industrial center of Russia. I would like the Nizhny Novgorod business to come to Kazakhstan, where we could set up  joint ventures, and I would like Kazakhstan products to come to the Nizhny Novgorod region," added Galym Orazbakov. 

During the meeting, the governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region invited Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Kazakhstan Galym Orazbakov to take part in the second International Business Summit and assist in bringing the official delegation of Kazakhstan and the business community of the republic to participating in the event. 

As a result of the Business Summit in 2012, the Nizhny Novgorod region obtained 17 investment agreements, including the ones about the creation of regional biomedical, aviation and petrochemical clusters. The signed agreements were evaluated at over 13 billion rubles of private investment.