Last year, the volume of bilateral trade between the countries grew 25 percent to $2.8 billion, as stated by Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev during the Kazakh-German Business Forum in Astana. The countries now have great opportunities for innovative interaction, considering that Kazakhstan seeks to become a regional digital hub in Eurasia. The Head of State stressed that domestic startups and research are quite promising to attract European partners. In addition, transport and logistics industry was highlighted as one of the most perspective sectors for further cooperation.
“Kazakhstan is strategically situated in the Eurasian heartland. Our country accounts for 80 percent of all continental traffic between China and Europe. In our new geopolitical reality, the Middle Corridor is becoming increasingly important. It is the shortest but also the most sustainable route for transportation from Central and Eastern Asia to Europe. Since 2022, freight traffic through the Caspian Corridor to the European Union countries has doubled to 1.7 million tonnes. To sustain the growing volumes of the east-west trade, we are working on modernizing our infrastructure and eliminating bottlenecks. We aim to increase the capacity of Kazakhstan’s ports to 30 million tonnes,” said Tokayev.
Another remarkable event was the forum of Kazakh and German rectors, which was attended by the presidents of Kazakhstan and Germany, as well as representatives of 25 domestic and 11 German technical universities. Such interaction will strengthen the scientific potential of Kazakh universities, Tokayev noted.
“It is my personal priority as the Head of this State. Yes, we have a long path to go on, but I am absolutely sure that all obstacles on this way, on this path will be successfully overcome because our commitment in this regard is absolutely clear. And once again, I would like to express my appreciation to all of you for your willingness to be engaged with cooperation with our universities. And I encouraged the Ministry of Science and Higher Education to be more active, to be business-oriented, to be target-oriented in terms of achieving these goals. In my speeches to the local community, I always keep saying that we need to make focus on high technology. We have a lot of universities that provide excellent education but still we need your experience in this regard. Germany is a stakeholder in terms of providing education in technologies, in making technological development for so many countries,” the Kazakh President noted.
The Kazakh-German Engineering Institute will be opened in the near future at the Yessenov Caspian State University of Technology and Engineering in Aktau. It is also planned to open the Kazakh-German Institute of Science and Technology at the East Kazakhstan Technical University. The joint universities will further enhance human capital and competitiveness in the country.
