PARIS (Interfax-Kazakhstan) – Kazakhstan Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Industry and New Technologies Asset Isekeshev during a working visit to France discussed implementation of joint projects with representatives of the French business community, said the press office of the Ministry of Industry in a statement on Wednesday.

Asset Isekeshev

French businessmen expressed their willingness to participate in implementation of investment projects in the energy, engineering, renewable energy, transportation, tourism, and agriculture sectors.

Particularly PSA Peugeot Citroen, AgromashHolding and Allur Auto signed an agreement to create an assembly line of Peugeot four models in Kazakhstan. French company CNIM and Kazakhstan’s On Olzha expressed readiness to jointly build a waste disposal plant and a thermal power plant with the capacity of generating up to 25 MW of heat and 5.3 MW of electricity in Kokshetau (the administrative centre of Akmola region), said the statement. French SOITEC intends to invest $150 mln in a joint venture to produce solar panels and construct a plant with the total capacity of 200 MW per year. Bureau Veritas proposed to the Kazakh side goods unified handling management, integrated in “trade facilitation single window”.

The opportunities for establishing production facilities in Kazakhstan were also discussed with the management of such holdings as CEA, Saft, Fonroche, EDF, CNIM, Santi-Gobain PAM, Degremont, Veolia, ROMA, PSA, Vallourec, Vicat, Vinci, Alstom, Eurocopter, Sanofi, Cifal, BRGM.

According to Kazakhstan Ministry of Industry and New Technologies, trade turnover between France and Kazakhstan exceeded $6 bln. Over 100 French and French-related companies are active in Kazakhstan’s oil and gas, mining, energy, construction, transportation industries and services sector.

French President Francois Hollande if expected for his first official visit to Kazakhstan. The visit is aimed at further enhancement and expansion of the bilateral cooperation and implementation of the earlier agreements in different areas.