Korea’s biggest trade partner in Central Asia, Kazakhstan aims to strengthen those ties even more with further cooperation in mineral mining and power plant projects.
Easing regulations for foreign companies’ mining projects is one of the many modes of support the country aims to provide, welcoming more partnerships with Korea.
Korea’s biggest trade partner in Central Asia, Kazakhstan aims to strengthen those ties even more with further cooperation in mineral mining and power plant projects.
Easing regulations for foreign companies’ mining projects is one of the many modes of support the country aims to provide, welcoming more partnerships with Korea.
“It’s all about how much Korean companies are interested in mining rare earth minerals in Kazakhstan,” said Said Ayan Yerenov, chairman of the Chamber of International Commerce of Kazakhstan, in speaking with the Korea JoongAng Daily during his recent visit to Seoul. “If countries show interest in wanting to participate in lithium mining in Kazakhstan, we are willing to start such projects as fast as even next week.”
Since establishing diplomatic relations in 1992, the two countries have become reliable economic partners. Korea’s exports to Kazakhstan rose 167.8 percent on year to $473 million in the third quarter, with imports from the country rising 45.6 percent on year to $968 million. The country is also home to various Korean companies’ plants such as Hyundai Motor’s manufacturing plant in Almaty that started operations in 2020.
Welcoming its further plans to strengthen economic relations, Kazakhstan was also one of the countries invited to Korea to attend the Korea-Central Asia Cooperation Forum, held in Busan on Oct. 25.
Following the forum, Yerenov sat down for an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily at the Lotte Hotel Seoul on Oct. 28, discussing specific ways through which the two countries can expand their economic ties.
The following are edited excerpts of the interview.
Q. This year marks the 30th anniversary of Korea and Kazakhstan’s diplomatic relations. How would you evaluate the countries’ relations over the past 30 years?
A. For Kazakhstan, Korea is a very important strategic partner, with significant trade volume. Korea’s cumulated investment into Kazakhstan for the past 17 years has been around $800 million as well. Intergovernmental cooperation is also strong, with the Korea-Central Asia Business Council actively working to discuss economic cooperation between the five Central Asian countries and Korea.
At the recent Korea-Central Asia Cooperation Forum, Central Asian countries selected five areas in which cooperation is needed: health, digital technology, tourism, energy and economic security. For Kazakhstan, which of the five areas is the country looking for cooperation with Korea?
Cooperation in technology is one area that is very important. When we say technology, it basically covers all areas of business — including fintech, greentech and biotech — and all five areas that were mentioned at the forum require technological cooperation.
Fintech is an area that’s very important to Kazakhstan, with our country leading the market out of not only all Central Asian countries, but also out of all Commonwealth of Independent States. Our payment systems greatly developed due to the surge of online purchases during the Covid-19 pandemic. Our greentech market also has high potential, with Kazakhstan actively participating in achieving the United Nations’ sustainable development goals. We are interested in adapting sustainable power plants, including solar power plants and wind power plants.
Kazakhstan is shifting toward renewable energy sources, and the country will select a supplier for nuclear power technology solutions sometime next year. Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power is also competing in the bid, alongside other countries. What are some factors that the Kazakhstan government prioritizes when awarding contracts?
It will be the responsibility of the government to decide, but, generally, the most important factor is safety standards. And then, the government also looks into how eco-friendly and efficient the plants can be.
From the point of view of the Chamber of International Commerce, we do hope foreign companies use products and labor from Kazakhstan when participating in various big-scale infrastructure projects. For instance, when constructing a plant, it would be best if the materials used — like cement or steel frames — are from a Kazakhstan company.
There are few projects to build wind power plants ongoing at the moment. When picking which foreign company will lead the project, the Kazakhstan government highly valued companies that were willing to locally manufacture the wind turbines.
One of the markers for closer relations is trade volume, with Kazakhstan being Korea’s biggest trade partner in Central Asia. Do you see trade growing more in the future?
Yes, we do see trade volume growing. According to the United Nations, Kazakhstan is a very young country, with the median age of our population being 27 years. We also project our population to increase by around 2 percent per year. Each family has around three children, and when those children grow up and get jobs, our economy will grow in size as well. This means people who use smartphones, televisions, cars, cosmetics products, medical devices and much more will grow at an enormous pace, which will make trade volume grow.
Of course, we won’t end here and just be satisfied with importing finished products and technologies from other countries such as Korea. We plan on creating various industrial clusters to make our own manufacturing facilities and on using our rich source of natural resources to attract foreign countries interested in mining.
Kazakhstan is a country rich in minerals, and Korea has also shown interest in mining minerals, especially those used to make batteries. But with countries like the United States imposing the Inflation Reduction Act and pressuring Korea to get battery materials in the United States or other countries it has free trade agreements with, things could change. In such situations, would there be a way for Korean and Kazakhstan to continue or enhance cooperation?
In just one Kazakhstan city, we have around 50,000 to 100,000 tons of lithium buried. There are also other cities with a lot of tungsten and other rare earth minerals.
For more cooperation, we plan on lifting various regulations imposed on mineral mining to attract more foreign investors. We already have a lot of companies from the United States, Germany, France and China showing interest in mining minerals from us. And we think specific methods to enhance cooperation will differ based on how much Korea shows interest in mining our minerals.
You mentioned lifting restrictions. Could you elaborate on any plans the Kazakhstan government has to do so?
We plan on transparently disclosing information on the various rare earth minerals buried in Kazakhstan, and that information will be given to foreign investors who show interest in our country. We also plan on simplifying the process of issuing licenses to mine various rare earth minerals for foreign companies, even benchmarking Australia’s mining license issuing process.
Source : Korea joong Ang Daily
