ASTANA ( WNAM MONITORING ): Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) concluded a few more commercial agreements on the sidelines of the Kazakhstan-UAE business forum on May 12 during the official visit of the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to Kazakhstan, reported Akorda.
Earlier, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Crown Prince Al Nahyan welcomed the signing of more than 20 commercial agreements valued at $5 billion.
Among the latest ones is an investment agreement to build a sugar factory in Kazakhstan, a memorandum on the construction of a data processing center, a memorandum of cooperation between Astana’s education department and Emirates Kazakhstan Education Investment Group, and a memorandum of cooperation in data protection.
KazMunayGas Engineering and AIQ, the UAE’s AI champion, signed a strategic cooperation agreement for knowledge exchange and solution development.
Khalifa Economic Zones Abu Dhabi also signed two memoranda of cooperation: one with the Atameken National Chamber of Commerce and another with the Seaport Aktau special economic zone. Semurg Invest and Abu Dhabi Ports Group agreed on principles for building and developing the Kuryk multi-purpose terminal.
A memorandum of understanding was also signed to promote trade and procurement of agricultural products.
President Tokayev stressed the UAE’s role as Kazakhstan’s leading trade and investment partner in the Gulf – Emirati investment in Kazakhstan exceeded $4.3 billion. He highlighted alignment between Kazakhstan’s national priorities and the UAE Development Strategy 2031 in innovation, industrial growth and diversification.
“We see significant potential for expanding cooperation in various sectors of the economy, including energy, logistics, finance, smart technologies, agriculture, and much more. The dynamics of our partnership are confirmed by several important projects with Masdar, Presight, Abu Dhabi Ports Group, Terminal Holdings, and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank,” he said.
President Tokayev and Crown Prince Al Nahyan also visited the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), where 46 UAE-based companies operate in finance and insurance, information and communication technologies, trade, transport, manufacturing, and mining industries.
Contacts between the capital markets are deepening: Nasdaq Dubai and Astana International Exchange (AIX) launched a direct depository link on May 7. AIX also joined the Tabadul digital exchange hub established by Abu Dhabi Exchange in 2024.
