Kazakhstan Deputy Minister,Alibek Kuantyrov,
Tuesday said his country and Nigeria have the potential to improve on the current trade relations.
Currently, the trade volume between both countries is hovering around one million dollars.
This, Kazakhstan Deputy Foreign Minister said, would be addressed by developing the value-added trade between two countries.
He explained that the visit to Nigeria is aimed at exploring all avenues.
He said: “The trade is not that big. I think it’s less than one million dollars. And, of course, we have to raise this figure manifold, because we have a great potential for that.
“On the one hand, Kazakhstan is rich in one kind of resources, mineral resources and agricultural resources, and Nigeria is also rich. And more than that, we should develop the value-added trade between two countries.
“And that’s why we are here, and that’s why we are discussing this potential, not only in trade, but also in mutual investment and in cooperating in the ICT, IT and AI spheres.”
Kuantyrov explained that some agreements have already been signed.
He said, “We already, for example, today, signed a memorandum between Astana International Financial Centre and the Taj Bank. So, this in particular is directed at developing the Islamic banking and Islamic finance in Kazakhstan, where, you know, Nigeria has a great experience. So, we have quite a big Islamic population in our country.
“So, this is just a particular project that we are developing at the moment. And of course, there will be other projects.”
Speaking further on the the delegations activities in Nigeria, the Kazakhstan head of delegation, Alibek Kuantyrov, the delegation had been involved in government to government and business to business meetings.
The issue of visa was also part of discussion, the Deputy Foreign Minister said.
“Well, for the last two days, these have been very active days, and we had plenty of G2G and B2B meetings. Well, yesterday we started with a meeting with the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where we discussed issues on political consultations, visa requirements, and also mutual support at international platforms, including the UN. After that, we had a meeting with the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Investment.
“And we are very much interested in developing cooperative projects in the sphere of solid minerals with Nigeria, and, of course, increasing our bilateral trade. For example, one of the interests is directly importing cocoa beans, of which the chocolate, the Kazakhstani chocolate, is made. And, of course, there are many, many other spheres where we can cooperate, including exporting Kazakhstani grain, high-quality grain, wheat, to be particular, to Nigeria.
“After that, we also had a meeting with two ministers, one of the Minister of Oil and also the Minister of Gas, where we also expressed mutual interest in developing oil and gas projects together and exchanging technologies and expertise in developing these spheres. Also, we had a meeting with the EXIM Bank that is helping trade operations, export and import operations. And we decided to have close cooperation with the Kazakhstani EXIM Bank as well.
“And today, we also had a meeting with the Minister of Agriculture, where we discussed phytosanitary and other restrictions, that elimination of them will be helping us in boosting our bilateral trade, especially in the agricultural sector. I personally had a meeting with the Minister of Digital Economy, where we also agreed upon cooperating in the spheres of cost monitoring, in the sphere of IT development, ICT development, smart bridges, e-golf, etc., where Kazakhstan has a lot of experience and is one of the forerunners in the world in e-golf and ICT. And Nigeria has a great potential to do the same, and Nigeria has been developing very rapidly in the sphere of ICT and smart cities.”
He therefore concluded that the visit has been a great success.
“So, I consider this visit to be very successful, and we’re going to continue our joint work with the Nigerian side. And in the coming future, we’re also awaiting a business delegation led by His Royal Majesty, His Royal Highness, to Kazakhstan, to Astana International Forum, where we’re going to go on with mutual realisation of investment and trade projects.”
