Czech Republic, Kazakhstan sign trade agreements for CZK 4bn

Prague, Oct 24 (CTK) - Representatives of Czech and Kazakh firms Wednesday signed trade agreements and investment contracts worth EUR155m (Kc3.8bn) for works and services in the pharmaceutical and food industries, health care and agriculture.

The signing of the contracts is part of a two-day working visit by Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev to the Czech Republic.

The biggest contract worth EUR45m (Kc1.1bn) was signed by the Czech company Impex for supplies of rapeseed oil from Kazakhstan to the Czech Republic.

The Czech company Favea signed a EUR36.5m (Kc912m) contract for the construction of two pharmaceutical facilities in Semey and Pavlodar.

Agroexpo CZ group signed a deal to build a EUR22m (Kc550m) bird farm and Puro-Klima will build a rehabilitation centre in Aktay and a plant producing polymer preparations in Almaty.

Czech exports to Kazakhstan posted a rise of 40 percent to $215m in Jan to Aug this year. Imports from Kazakhstan amount to $649m a year.

"We are pleased that Czech trade with Kazakhstan is growing, the figures are good but still they are not as high as they could be," Czech President Vaclav Klaus said at the two-countries' business forum in Prague Wednesday.

According to him, there is "a big space" in this respect as the two countries' economies complement one another in a number of aspects.

"Big restructuring and diversification of foreign trade is one of our fundamental interests," said Klaus. That is why the Czech Republic is greatly interested in non-European markets, markets in Central Asia, among them also Kazakhstan, he added.

Kazakhstan is one of the 12 priority countries for Czech foreign trade and the third largest oil supplier to the Czech Republic.

Major Czech exports are machinery and equipment. Trade balance is passive, however, because of high imports of crude oil.

Czech firms have a chance to succeed in the Kazakh energy sector, extraction and processing of raw materials, chemical industry, transport infrastructure, municipal, water management and waste management sectors and in health care.