Alatau City Authority presented the city’s investment potential and opportunities for Belgian business at the Kazakhstan–Belgium Business Council, held as part of the state visit of King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of the Belgians to Kazakhstan.
The programme brought together representatives of government bodies and business communities of the two countries. Alatau City Authority Chief Executive Officer Alisher Abdykadyrov spoke at the panel session “Europe – Central Asia: new trade routes and new opportunities”. The central theme of the discussion was the shift from the transit model of the Middle Corridor towards locating production facilities and developing logistics services in Kazakhstan.
“The Middle Corridor should not work only as a transit route. Our task is to create added value along it, bringing together manufacturing, logistics and business services. Alatau can become a platform where Belgian companies place their projects and serve Central Asian markets from Kazakhstan. For the country, this means new production facilities, skilled jobs and opportunities for local suppliers,” Alisher Abdykadyrov said.
Two framework cooperation documents were signed during the Business Council, marking the move to detailed development of high-technology projects in Alatau City.
The first document concerns a joint assessment with IBA of the possible implementation of Shipa Zholy, a proton therapy centre in Alatau City. The parties will examine the technical, clinical, commercial, financial and legal aspects, and will define the parameters of the medical and research cluster, the implementation model and the terms of the partners’ participation.
The second document was signed by Alatau City Authority, For.Energy / FSM Global and Caspian Integrity. The parties will assess the feasibility of establishing a production and technology complex for manufacturing battery cells, modules and energy storage systems, the requirements for the site and the engineering infrastructure, and the investment model. The volume of investment and the participants’ commitments will be determined on the basis of this work.
Discussions with Johan Vanderplaetse, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ahlers Logistics, covered warehousing and multimodal infrastructure, international supply chains and the role of Alatau City as an industrial and logistics hub on the Middle Corridor. The city is interested in the Belgian model, in which the Port of Antwerp-Bruges, inland logistics networks and industrial production form a single system. Given Alatau’s plans to create around 2.7 million square metres of warehouse capacity by 2040, the parties considered launching a pilot warehousing or consolidation project with an international operator.
With Sébastien Wagemans, Chief Commercial Officer of Waterleau, the parties reviewed solutions for water supply, wastewater treatment and water reuse for industry and urban infrastructure, as well as possible models for implementing and financing water projects.
Following the business programme, Alatau City Authority will continue working with potential partners on site selection, assessment of infrastructure requirements and definition of the parties’ participation models.
For reference: the Kazakhstan–Belgium Business Council is a platform for developing bilateral trade, economic and investment cooperation and for establishing direct contacts between companies of the two countries.
