NUR-SULTAN

Kazakhstan and South Korea have agreed to boost economic and business ties and signed investments projects worth $1.7 billion in the automotive industry, housing construction, metallurgy and agriculture.

Agreements have been reached during President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s two-day visit to South Korea, where 21 commercial contracts have been signed.

Sixteen investment projects worth over $1.5 billion will be implemented in the automotive industry, housing construction, metallurgy and agriculture. Kazakhstan is also interested in developing innovations and new technologies.

“High-tech industries in the manufacturing industry … are of strategic interest to us. South Korea is a recognised world leader in the digitization of the economy and a pioneer in 5G networks,” said Tokayev.

He also invited Korean businessmen to explore investment opportunities in subsoil use and proposed joint research of natural resources in Kazakhstan, where priority rights could be given to Korean companies. Only a quarter of Kazakhstan’s vast territory, abundant in natural resources, has been geologically explored.

Kazakhstan sits on some of the most impressive natural resources in the world. Foreign energy majors poured into the country in the 1990s, attracted by the country’s oil fields. Of the $150 billion in foreign investment in the Central Asian country since independence, $120 billion – or more than 70 percent – has been in natural resources extraction.

And while the vast country, with its relatively small population, attracts about 60 percent of all capital invested in the five former Soviet Central Asian states, the COVID-19 has taken its toll, with FDI forecast to decline by 5-10 percent in 2021, before recovering in 2022.

Another untapped sector that has a potential for joint projects in mechanical engineering and renewable energy, the president said.

“Kazakhstan is the most economically developed country in Central Asia – a market for nearly 75 million people. The modern legal, tax and financial system, coupled with Central Asia’s duty-free trade regime, make Kazakhstan an ideal springboard to work across the region,” he said.

South Korea has already invested more than $6 billion in projects in Kazakhstan over the past 15 years. More than 550 enterprises with Korean capital are operating in the former Soviet country, including leading companies such as Samsung, Hyundai, Lotte, Posco, Korea National Oil Corporation. With their participation, 24 major projects worth more than $2.5 billion have already been implemented.