BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 16. Kasym-Jomart Tokayev, in his speech to the German-Kazakh forum, highlighted several promising areas of cooperation, Trend reports via Akorda.
''Extraction and processing of natural resources based on the pragmatic formula “investments and technologies in exchange for essential raw materials”. Our mineral resource base includes more than five thousand undiscovered deposits, the deposits of which are estimated at trillions of dollars. Today, we produce 19 of the 34 rare earth materials critical to the EU economy. As part of this effort, the German Mineral Resources Agency (DERA) and Kazakh partners are establishing a consortium to trade critical raw materials. We look forward to the early practical realization of this initiative. In addition, we welcome HMS Bergbau's plans to undertake exploration for the construction of a lithium processing plant in eastern Kazakhstan. Investment in this project will amount to $500 million. The country's rich strategic resource base provides many opportunities for expanding industrial cooperation,” the President said.
The next promising area the head of state named was the energy sector.
He pointed out that Kazakhstan has the second-largest proven oil reserves in Eurasia and is a major supplier of energy resources to world markets.
''Given that 70 percent of Kazakhstan's oil exports go to the European Union, our country is ready to increase export opportunities and contribute to reducing the global shortage of energy resources,'' he noted.
''Localization of German production of oil and gas equipment and components in our country is a key priority. In a nutshell, we would welcome the presence of German manufacturing in Kazakhstan to bring additional advanced technologies to our industrial landscape. Kazakhstan has significant untapped potential in the renewable energy sector, which attracts many major global players. For instance, Germany's Svevind group is investing $50 billion in Kazakhstan. The goal of the project is to produce “green” hydrogen and supply it to the European market,” he added.