ASTANA, Kazakhstan, December 9. Development and attracting investment from abroad are top priorities for Kazakhstan, President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said in an interview with the Euronews TV channel, Trend reports.
According to him, Kazakhstan is number one in this part of the world or even beyond in terms of attracting foreign investments per capita.
Speaking elsewhere, he welcomed the upgrade of Kazakhstan's ranking by international institutions.
Tokayev specifically pointed to the importance of developing the country's energy sector, as well as pay extra attention to mining sector.
"In this respect, we are very much hopeful about our future cooperation with the European Union. We committed ourselves to being good partners in this very sensitive and strategically important area," he said.
"We need international cooperation. We need more investment in this area. And I believe that in this particular area, Kazakhstan and the EU will become good partners and will be very much successful," Tokayev noted.
Trade turnover between the EU countries and Kazakhstan amounted to 25.35 billion euros from January through July 2023. This figure exceeds by 19 percent the figures for the same period in 2022 (21.31 billion euros).
Kazakhstan’s exports to the EU reached 18.157 billion euros, which is 7.33 percent more than in the same period in 2022 (16.9 billion euros).
Imports for the same period amounted to 7.2 billion euros, which exceeds the figure for the first 7 months of 2022 (about 4.4 billion euros) by 63.91 percent.