National capital New Delhi will host an investment potential-related road show on East Kazakhstan on February 11 this year.
The signature business-to-business event, which is expected to take India-Kazakhstan commercial ties forward, will be held at the Shangri-La Hotel. It is being organised by the Embassy of Kazakhstan, the Government of the East Kazakhstan region in partnership with the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).
The road show is titled "Possibilities of business cooperation between Indian and East-Kazakhstani companies".
The road show will feature presentations on East Kazakhstan, its investment potential climate and its most attractive business projects.
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The Kazakhstani side will be represented by the Ambassador of Kazakhstan to India Bulat Sarsenbayev, the First Deputy Governor of East Kazakhstan Oblast (Region) Narymbet Saktaganov, the Mayor of Semeysity, Salimov Yermak, and government and business representatives of East Kazakhstan.
The East Kazakhstan delegation consists of eight members and it is expected that around 100 businessmen will attend the event.
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The East Kazakhstan region is situated in the north-east of the country, on the borders aligning the Altai Republic of Russia, in the east - the Chinese province of Xinjiang in the north-east, Pavlodar in the south, Almaty, in the west and the Karaganda region of Kazakhstan.
East Kazakhstan comprises 10.2 percent of the entire territory of Kazakhstan and stretches over 283.3 thousand square kilometers.
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Eight hundred rivers flow through the region, including the Irtysh River. It has some of the world's largest lakes such as Zaisan, Markakol, Alakol and Sasykkol, besides several reservoirs, such as the Bukhtarma.
The region's climate is continental and about 30 percent of the territory is covered by forests. It is a combination of steppes, desert and mountain-taiga landscapes.
East Kazakhstan has 19 administrative units, including 15 districts, 10 cities, 754 villages and towns, 246 rural and township districts.
Its administrative center is Ust-Kamenogorsk city with a population of 316,900 people, representing 23 percent of the population of the region.
In terms of industry and investment potential, East Kazakhstan provides a unique combination of industry cooperating with agriculture, thus ensuring food security and a significant contribution to the Kazakh economy.
The basic component of the region is agriculture, which is realised in six soil-climatic zones of the seven available.
The total land fund of the region is 28.3 million hectares, including 22.7 million hectares of farmland; 10.2 million of them of are agricultural land and 1.4 million hectares of arable land.
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The region has large land and water resources for the development of irrigated agriculture. At present, it includes more than 200 thousand hectares of irrigated land, out of which only 79 hectares are used.
These days, the investment package for the construction and reconstruction of irrigated lands on the area of 20000 hectares to provide them to investors is formed.
The soil cover includes all types of ground, chestnut and gray. The average yield class of arable land is 39, hayfields (40) and pastures (21). In the northern areas, the ball bonitet arable land reaches up to 70.
The variety of soil and climatic zones, large areas of agricultural land, the market demand for agricultural products defines the multi-disciplinary field of agriculture.
Today, the region is developing dairy, beef cattle, sheep, horses, pigs, poultry, reindeer antlers, beekeeping and fish farming.
Crop production is represented by corn, sunflower seeds, potatoes, vegetables, melons and gourds and fodder crops.
Given the need and the opportunities and resources for investments is a list of guidelines and projects of agricultural development area.
East Kazakhstan is one of the leading industrial and agricultural regions of the country with huge economic potential.
It has large enterprises of non-ferrous metallurgy, mechanical engineering, power engineering, food and light industry. It also has the world's largest plant for production of fuel for nuclear power plants.
Its mineral resources are also substantial. For instance, its lead reserves are an estimated 48 percent, while its zinc reserves are an estimated 49 percent.
It produces six percent of industrial products throughout the country, one-fifth of the manufacturing industry and the fourth part of the output of metallurgy and machine building.
Over the past five years, investment amounted to 8.3 billion U.S. dollars.
The state program for accelerated industrial-innovative development includes 76 investment projects. Of these, 47 are worth 1.4 billion dollars.
The focus is on promoting public-private partnership, attracting foreign investments through concession projects and the European Bank of reconstruction and development.
The February 11 road show will include an address by R. K. Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director of WAPCOS; opening remarks by Ambassador Sarsenbayev, a representative of the ASSOCHAM President's Office and
K. Nagaraj Naidu, Director (ITP), Ministry of External Affairs.
The special address will delivered by Mr. Saktaganov Narymbet, the First Deputy to the Governor of the East Kazakhstani Region.
The pre-lunch session will focus on business cooperation between India and Kazakhstan in which Indian and Kazakh panelists will take part.
This will be followed by a networking lunch.