The UAE and Kazakhstan have embarked on an ambitious project to implement joint venture projects worth $11 billion mainly in the oil and gas, and petrochemical sectors, the president of the former Soviet Republic has said.

Speaking during his keynote speech at the UAE-Kazakhstan business meeting in Abu Dhabi, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said that the two countries have maintained exemplary relations and cooperation in many respects.

“I am very pleased to visit your beautiful country. It can be said with confidence that over 28 years we have established exemplary relations between our states and our people. Regular and comprehensive dialogue at the highest level has served as a solid foundation for our relations,” he stated.

“In this context, I would like to particularly emphasise warm and trusting relations between the First President of Kazakhstan N Nazarbayev and HH Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces,” he added.

According to him, the two-way trade grew by 10% from January to November 2019 compared to the analogous period of 2018.

“The UAE is our key trade and economic partner in the region. During the nine months of 2019 mutual trade increased by more than 10% compared with the same period of 2018. Total amount is half a billion dollars,” remarked Tokayev.

The business meeting was organised by the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in collaboration with the Federation of UAE Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Tokayev said the stock of direct investment from the UAE to Kazakhstan amounted to $2.1 billion while the Kazakhstan to UAE investments reached $1 billion, while close to 350 legal entities, branches and representative offices from UAE are successfully operating in Kazakhstan.

He also pointed out that the UAE was among the top five attractive destinations for tourists from Kazakhstan, with around 100,000 Kazakh citizens visiting the UAE every year.

On the industrial front, Tokayev said that despite the large number of developed deposits of solid minerals such as gold, copper, lead, zinc, iron, manganese, the subsoil of Kazakhstan still has large undiscovered reserves.

“We are currently negotiating with Mubadala Investment Company to implement a $6.6 billion petrochemical project for polyethylene production in the west of Kazakhstan,” he added.

The meeting was attended by Suhail bin Mohammed Faraj Faris Al Mazrouei, Minister of Energy and Industry, Ahmed Ali Al Sayegh, Minister of State and Chairman of Abu Dhabi Global Market, ADGM, heads of the UAE chambers, government representatives and Emirati and Kazakh business owners.

In his address, Al Sayegh said the two-way trade between the two countries had witnessed a significant rise from $273 million in 2015 to $415 million in 2018.

“The UAE is currently investing over $2 billion in Kazakhstan, which makes it one of the top sources for Foreign Direct Investments.”

He also referred to the partnership with Digital Spring Ventures, ADGM’s first approved growth equity fund manager from Kazakhstan.

The meeting saw three agreements signed between the Emirtati and Kazakh sides, spanning educational, agricultural and logistics sectors.