ASTANA, Kazakhstan, January 24. Kazakhstan's Samruk Kazyna (Sovereign Wealth Fund) and Italian company Ansaldo Energia SpA have signed a cooperation agreement, Trend reports.
The document was signed during the official visit of President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to Italy.
The agreement provides for the supply of gas turbines for the project "Reconstruction of Almaty CHPP-3 (Combined Heat and Power Plant)" and cooperation on long-term service and personnel training.
At the same time, the reconstruction of CHPP-3 provides for the construction of a new power station with significantly greater power and operational flexibility. The new power station will combine the generation of electrical and thermal energy.
In addition, modern, environmentally friendly combined cycle power units running on natural gas will be installed at the plant instead of outdated pulverized coal equipment.
Meanwhile, Italy is one of Kazakhstan's three largest trading partners in the world and ranks first among the EU countries. Thus, bilateral trade between the countries in 2022 grew by almost 55 percent last year, reaching about $15 billion.
However, Kazakhstan sees significant potential for increased trade. The country is ready to increase the export of products to Italy by 110 commodity items worth over $900 million.
In addition, Italy is consistently among the top five largest investors from the EU in the economy of Kazakhstan. The total inflow of investments over the past 17 years has reached $7.3 billion. At the end of last year, their volume increased by almost 2.5 times and amounted to about $300 million.