A business forum in honor of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Republic of Korea, was held online.

The purpose of the forum was to extend and strengthen economic and investment cooperation between the two countries.  
The event gathered together representatives of the Samruk-Kazyna group of companies, Korean and Kazakh business circles, competent authorities and departments.

During his speech at the opening of the business forum, Yernar Zhanadil, the Managing Director for Development and Privatization of Samruk-Kazyna JSC, noted that to date, investment cooperation between Kazakhstan and Korea covers 49 projects totaling $ 4.4 billion, including 24 projects for $2.5 billion, 12 projects for $680 million and 13 promising projects totaling $1.2 billion are under implementation.  

“We are interested in the development of Kazakh-Korean cooperation and offer the Korean business community an investment partnership in such promising areas as the mining sector, information technology and digitalization, petrochemical industry, energy, transport and logistics,” said Yernar Zhanadil.

Saken Abilmazhinov, the General Director of Samruk-Kazyna Invest, in turn, presented investment projects that provide promising opportunities for cooperation.

“We are working on launching a captive investment fund with a target size of $200 million. The geography of investments is mostly focused on Kazakhstan (75%) with its significant agricultural potential for creating sustainable food value chains. We also plan to implement a project ono creation of a silicon carbide production in the Kostanai region for a total amount of $ 50.3 million,” Saken Abilmazhinov said.

As Daniyar Myrzakhmetov, the Director of the Investment Department of Tau-Ken Samruk noted, the so–called juniors are leading in geological exploration - these are relatively small companies with low administrative costs, low capitalization, high decision-making speed, market flexibility, but often experience a shortage of their own funds.

“The Company has developed a special program “From junior to champion” just for such companies, according to which financial, marketing and expert support is offered. Financing can be carried out at the expense of own funds or the capital of the Company’s strategic partners, the choice depends on the conditions of the project implementation,” concluded Daniyar Myrzakhmetov.

The business forum also paid attention to the pharmaceutical market of Kazakhstan and South Korea. In his speech, Yerkhat Iskaliyev, the CEO of SK-Pharmacy, stressed that Kazakhstan is a profitable platform for exporting manufactured products to the member countries of the Eurasian Union, whose population numbers more than 180 million people and occupies more than 14% of the world’s land.

“In June this year, on our initiative, the Kazakh delegation visited South Korea, within the framework of which a round table was organized for more than 40 pharmaceutical companies, 5 memoranda were signed on localization of production in Kazakhstan of medical products for neonatology, ultrasound diagnostic devices, X-ray equipment, reagents for PCR tests, mammography, etc.”, - Yerkhat Iskaliyev concluded.

It should be noted that today more than 550 enterprises with Korean capital are successfully operating in Kazakhstan, including leading corporations such as Samsung, Hyundai, Lotte, Posco, KNOC and others.