ASTANA, KAZAKHSTAN- Kazakhstan and South Korea have signed a package of investment project agreements to a total sum of seven billion USD, Kazakhstan’s ministry of industry and new technologies reported on Tuesday.
According to the ministry, the agreements were signed within the framework of a business forum in Seoul timed to coincide with a working visit of Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who arrived in Seoul to attend the second nuclear security summit. The business forum brought together more than 100 businessmen and executives from South Korea’s biggest companies, such as POSCO, LG, Woolim Construction, LOTTE, Samsung, Hyundai, SK C&C, Kepco, and KOLON.
The package of agreements was signed by Kazakh Minister of Industry and New Technologies Aset Isekeshev and South Korea’s Minister of Knowledge Economy Hong Suk-woo. These agreements provide for cooperation in such areas as petrochemicals (construction of a gas chemical facility in Kazakhstan’s western Atyrau region, construction of R&D centers, production of cross-linked polyethylene chemical foam), electric power generation, machine building, construction, and consultancy.
“Taking into account today’s agreements in the area of petrochemicals, South Korea has become number one investor under the state program for intensive industrial and innovation development of Kazakhstan,” Isekeshev said. “Thanks to the strong foundation laid by the presidents of our states, our countries have high-level relations.”
According to Kazakhstan’s ministry of industry and new technologies, trade turnover between Kazakhstan and South Korea in 2011 reached 901.2 million USD, or 18 percent more than in 2010. Average annual trade growth is 7.25 percent. South Korea’s direct investments over the past 19 years have reached 9.938 billion USD, with the bulk of them coming in the past six years.
