The potential for economic co-operation between India and Kazakhstan is more and south India is economically significant to Kazakhstan, said Bulat Sarsenbayev, Ambassador of Kazakhstan.
He was in the city on Monday to take part in a programme organised for the inauguration of an office of the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Chennai.
“For us, it is really important to have our representative in different parts of India. We could do many things together. We are celebrating this year 25 years of establishing diplomatic relationship between the two countries. From then, the relationship between the two countries is only growing,” he said.
Among the countries that were part of the former USSR, Kazakhstan is the second largest economic partner for India. The potential is more for development of economic ties in several areas.
Kazakhstan is rich in natural resources, minerals, oil and gas and chemical products. It is the largest exporter of Uranium to India and also globally the fifth largest exporter of wheat. There was a meeting in south Kazakhstan recently between the special working groups on textiles from the two countries.
The bilateral trade between the two countries stood at 618 million $ in 2016. The main exports by Kazakhstan include oil products, metals and natural minerals and the imports are pharmaceuticals, tea, tobacco, and engineering equipment.
Suraj Shantakumar, the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Chennai (covering Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka), said the aim of the consulate will be to enable further growth of co-operation between Kazakhstan and this region. There are various avenues to explore opportunities. “Our plan is to increase awareness about the potential in Kazakhstan in this region. Companies can go from here to Kazakhstan for infrastructure development and IT.”
During the next two days, the Ambassador will address the students of Bharathiar University, meet members of CII in Chennai, take part in the opening of the office of the Honorary Consul in Chennai, and also have a meeting there to promote tourism between the two countries, he said.
Shyam Jaju, national vice-president of BJP, was also present.
