Kazakhstan sees investment projects with Russia doubling in 2023, puts pool at $75 bln to 2029

YEKATERINBURG. July 11 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan and Russia currently have about 125 joint investment projects and aim to double this figure to 250 by next year, Kazakhstan's industry and infrastructure development minister, Marat Karabayev said.

"Overall, we have a pool of investment projects totaling $75 billion in the next five years. This is more than 800 projects," Karabayev said at the Innoprom-2023 exhibition in Yekaterinburg on Monday.

Areas of interest include manufacturing, iron ore processing, the aluminum and copper industries, construction and light industry, among others, he said.

The president of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), Alexander Shokhin said Russian companies have been showing growing interest in the Eurasian market and Kazakhstan in particular.

"Despite the difficult international conditions, we see interest in development and cooperation on the part of both Russian businesses and from other member countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). This is also confirmed by mutual trade figures," Shokhin said.

He said previously suppliers are essentially being replaced by companies from EAEU countries, and mutual trade has grown by almost 15% in the past year.

"It is absolutely clear that we cannot solve the problems of diversifying [the Russian] economy and import substitution only through trade, so it is necessary to develop industrial cooperation, which has now become a driver of deepening integrationary cooperation," Shokhin said.