The 12th session of the Intergovernmental Commission on Economic, Agricultural, Environmental, Industrial, Technical and Technological Cooperation (IGC) between Kazakhstan and Austria took place in Astana today, DKnews.kz reports.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Roman Vassilenko and Director General for Economics, Innovation and International Cooperation of the Federal Ministry for Economics, Energy and Tourism of the Republic of Austria Florian Frauscher co-chaired the meeting attended by representatives of the two countries’ line ministries and agencies.
According to the IGC’s agenda, the participants discussed the economic situation in the two countries and measures of the governments to promote economic development in Kazakhstan and Austria as well as issues of bilateral and multilateral cooperation.
Deputy Minister Vassilenko informed the Austrian delegation about the ongoing reforms in Kazakhstan, the expanding cooperation with the European Union and specific steps undertaken to ensure economic diversification and favorable environment for attracting foreign investments and doing business in the country.
The Kazakh diplomat noted that, since the first meeting of the IGC in Vienna in 2009, the joint Commission has made an important contribution to strengthening trade and investment ties between Kazakhstan and Austria. Underlining the high level of bilateral partnership and successful operation of Austrian companies in Kazakhstan, including Andritz Hydtro, PlanRadar and others, he called for boosting business interaction between the two countries.
In turn, Director General of the Ministry for Economics, Energy and Tourism of Austria Florian Frauscher informed that Kazakhstan is a leading partner for Austria in Central Asia. He expressed the interest in Vienna in strengthening partnership across all priority areas of cooperation with Kazakhstan.
The participating delegations reviewed opportunities for engagement in energy, renewables, mining, transport, agriculture, healthcare, tourism, and digitalization sectors.
They agreed to continue exchanging information about potential mutually beneficial projects, facilitate regional and commercial ties, including by exchanging the visits of business delegations between the two countries to enhance bilateral trade and economic cooperation.
The parties also noted opportunities for promoting regional partnership within the framework of memorandums on cooperation between the East Kazakhstan Region and Styria, the Turkistan Region and Carinthia, and the Pavlodar Region and Upper Austria.
On the same day, the 10th Kazakh-Austrian Business Council meeting took place in Astana to present the investment potential of Kazakhstan and review engagement in machinery, agriculture and other industries.
According to the Kazakh statistics, in 2024, the Kazakh-Austrian trade reached 280.8 million US dollars (exports – 4.1 million dollars, imports – 276.7 million dollars). The gross inflow of investment from Austria to Kazakhstan in 2024 reached 20.7 million dollars and overall since 2005 it has amounted to over 3 billion dollars. There are around 180 enterprises with the participation of Austrian capital registered in Kazakhstan.
