Kazakhstan-Singapore business forum was held Nov. 21 in Singapore with the participation of over 500 business representatives of the two countries. The event was aimed at discussing the deepening of trade and economic cooperation and the development of priority areas of interaction between business structures of Kazakhstan and Singapore. The Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Bakytzhan Sagintayev addressed the forum participants with a welcoming speech.

Dear ladies and gentlemen!

I am sincerely happy to welcome you to our forum!

We are meeting during the anniversary year of establishment of diplomatic relations of both our countries.

Exactly 25 years ago, after the historic visit of the first Prime-Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew to Kazakhstan, we have established friendly and trust-based relations for the years ahead. President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev highly appreciates the friendship with Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, and our people will never forget that big contribution of the founder of Singapore’s statehood to construction of thorough relations of mutual trust and respect.

Today, Singapore has become one of the most important trade and economic partners of Kazakhstan in Southeast Asia.

We have more than 100 joint ventures in the manufacturing industry, trade, ICT, construction and finance.

However, time zips along, new challenges appear, but also new opportunities.

The world is at a fateful moment. Global security and international trade rules are suffering pressure of many factors. New technologies and innovations are transforming the way of life.

Nevertheless, our country is looking to the future with confidence. President Nazarbayev announced the course of the Third Modernization of Kazakhstan, aimed at creating a new model of growth and joining the ranks of the top 30 advanced countries in the context of the new global reality. A clear strategy of digital transformation of the country is being implemented. The announced two social packages of measures shall  ensure the inclusiveness of economic growth and the subsequent growth in income for all citizens.

The first outcomes of the strategy are here.

The economic growth rate of Kazakhstan is ahead of the world average. In 2017, our economy grew by 4.1%, and for the first 10 months of this year — also by 4.1%. At the same time, non-primary sectors provide two-thirds growth.

We have done a lot of work to improve the investment climate and intensified the liberalization of laws on entrepreneurship. We have improved mechanisms for the protection of property rights. We have ensured the rule of law. We have encouraged competitiveness. We have restricted monopolies.

National companies Kazakh Invest and Kazakh Export were created to build effective interaction with investors on the principle of “One-stop-shop”.

Today, in the World Bank's Doing Business-2019 rating, Kazakhstan ranks 28th among 190 countries of the world.

Kazakhstan become an associate member of the OECD Investment Committee and has joined the Declaration on International Investment. I am confident that we have great potential for cooperation. Let me share my vision of the promising areas.

First — cooperation in the field of innovations.

You are aware that Kazakhstan has begun the accelerated introduction of new technologies and innovations, elements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Our goal is to create a national mechanism and use science, innovations and technologies to prepare for future development.

Singapore rightfully occupies a leading position in this field. This is proven by Singapore’s successful presidency in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations; and the 33rd ASEAN Summit, recently held in Singapore under the guidance of such ideas, as Sustainability, Flexibility and Innovation.

The Government of Kazakhstan invites Singaporean companies to the IT sector; to cooperate on the systemwide implementation of innovative digital methods and technologies; Smart City Development.

Experience of Singaporean companies in creating a modern infrastructure of an innovation cluster is valuable for us. And today, right after our meeting, I will purposefully visit the Fusionopolis innovation cluster.

In Kazakhstan, we have already created an innovation cluster. Its core is represented by Nazarbayev University, the Park of Innovative Technologies, and the International Center for IT Startups Astana Hub.

The law on venture financing is adopted. All this creates favorable conditions for the development of an innovation ecosystem, technologies, and venture businesses.

Today I offered the Baiterek National Holding to work with their colleagues from Enterprise Singapore on creation of a joint venture fund to promote start-ups through, and with the help of Singapore, to the countries of Southeast Asia, as well as in the opposite direction — including markets of the EEU countries.

The second promising direction in my consideration is joint work in the field of transport and logistics.

Kazakhstan, being the first country on the path to the “Belt and Road” Chinese initiative is actively developing its infrastructure and logistics capacities.

The multi-modal Eurasian transcontinental corridor has been launched, that link Central Asia with Europe through Russia, the Caspian and Black Seas, as well as Iran and Turkey.

Five railway and 6 automobile international routes ensure transit of commodities through the territory of Kazakhstan 2 times faster than maritime transports.

The Kazakhstan section of the International Corridor "Western Europe — Western China" reduces the time for transportation of goods from the port of Lianyungang to Saint Petersburg to 10 days.

On the border with China, modern warehouses of the Land port “Khorgos — Eastern Gate” were constructed. It is the largest logistics park in Central Asia.

In the west of Kazakhstan, on the Caspian Sea, a modern port infrastructure has been built, which increased the terminal throughput capacity of the Aktau and Kuryk ports.

All this can be interesting for your companies that have extensive experience in the development of transport and logistics facilities not only in Singapore, but also in the region.

The third direction is cooperation in housing construction.

Kazakhstan has implemented large-scale housing construction programs and provide citizens with preferential mortgage lending, affordable and high-quality housing. The country is progressively urbanizing. Four major agglomerations are consistently developing.

Just now, before I met you, I visited the Singapore Housing and Development Board (HDB) Office.

The experience of HDB is very interesting. We will study it and develop a vision of how the Singaporean experience can be applied in the housing policy of Kazakhstan.

The fourth area is investment in the development of the processing industry and non-primary exports.

We continue to diversify the economy and invite investors to the metallurgy, oil refining, chemistry, and engineering. For these purposes, we have 12 special economic zones and 22 industrial zones with different sectoral orientation and different preferences.

Kazakhstan has a large number of projects on exploitation and development of production of copper, gold, rare and rare-earth metals, including lithium and vanadium, phosphate raw materials and much more.

We are interested in investing in geological exploration, new technologies for enrichment and processing of raw materials.

We have begun a large-scale modernization of the agro-industrial complex. Structural reform and diversification of the agricultural sector is underway.

The scientific, technical and technological re-equipment of the entire industry has begun. All these provide great opportunities for investments in the food industry.

The Government of Kazakhstan is actively working to develop trade with China and other neighboring sales markets — this makes export-oriented agribusiness especially attractive for investment. Tomorrow I will be in Beijing, where we plan to continue our dialogue with Chinese colleagues in this direction.

A new direction for our economy is the development of tourism. For this purpose, a specialized company “Kazakh Tourism” has been created, which provides special conditions for companies interested in the development of tourist infrastructure.

With the opening of new flights connecting Kazakhstan with Southeast Asia, we invite interested Singaporean companies to implement joint tourism projects and express our readiness to open a direct flight with Singapore.

The fifth area of joint work is participation in the privatization and the work of the Astana International Financial Center.

Kazakhstan carries out a campaign on privatizing the largest state-owned mining and metallurgical companies, oil and gas, energy, transport and communications, and infrastructure enterprises.

Last week, the AIFC Stock Exchange launched the first trading in shares of privatized enterprises.

The national company Kazatomprom was the first company listed on the stock exchange; A successful IPO on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and the AIFC confirmed its status as a leader in the global uranium industry. This is a good signal for Singaporean businesses.

In the near future, large national assets in the telecommunications, aviation, railway and oil and gas industries will be put for the IPO.

The AIFC is the only center in the region of Central Eurasia, the work of which is governed by English law. An independent Court and the International Arbitration Center guarantee fairness and protection of the rights of the parties. The participants are granted with tax benefits up to 50 years, simplified currency, visa and labor regimes.

Therefore, the Government of Kazakhstan invites Singaporean companies, banks and financial institutions to work together at the AIFC.

Dear ladies and gentlemen!

These are the main areas of cooperation that are beneficial for business, and which, in my opinion, will allow us to bring our countries even closer together.

In this regard the signing of an intergovernmental agreement on the promotion and mutual protection of investments is symbolic event for me.

The great Lee Kuan Yew once said: “If I were to describe in one word why Singapore succeeded, then that would be “trust”. It was our trust that allowed foreign investors to establish their factories in Singapore.”

To me this statement seems decisive, fundamentally important in establishing business relations. It is similar to one of the basic principles that our President Nursultan Nazarbayev adheres in working with foreign partners: “cooperation based on trust; working together on mutually beneficial terms".

Kazakhstan is a country that investors trust and with which it is profitable to work!

I will cite only one fact. In the past 10 years alone, about 250 billion dollars of foreign direct investment has been invested in the economy of our country. This brought us to the 1st place in Central Asia: more than 70% of investments in the region fall to Kazakhstan.

The Government of Kazakhstan is ready to provide full support to your projects and is open to dialogue on the whole range of issues.

I invite Singapore to actively cooperate and implement new joint projects!

I wish success to all forum participants!

Thank you for attention.