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Kazakhstan has invited India to set up joint ventures in Kazakhstan in the oil and natural gas sector, besides other sectors such as information technology, chemicals & pharmaceuticals, engineering and textiles. Apart from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, which were already priority countries under the Focus: CIS programme of the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Turkmenistan has also been identified as a high-priority country for trade and economic cooperation in view of the discovery of oil there. Shri E.V.K.S. Elangovan, Minister of State for Commerce & Industry, recently led a large business and official delegation to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan (from 8th to 14th January 2005) and held bilateral meetings to discuss cooperation in various sectors. Shri Elangovan was accompanied by Shri S. Ramasundaram, Joint Secretary, Ministry of commerce & Industry, along with business delegation.
In Uzbekistan, Shri Elangovan attended the first Conference of Heads of Six Indian Missions in the Central Asian Region, as well as the 5th Meeting of the India-Uzbekistan Joint Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technological Cooperation, besides bilaterals in Kazakhstan. The general view at the meeting of the Heads of Indian Missions was that, despite the logistic barriers, the Central Asian Region needed consistent attention from both government and business from India. The Indian Ambassadors of the region welcomed the initiative of the Department of Commerce in organising such a conference where senior government officials and nearly 70 Indian businessmen from various sectors were able to interact and formulate plans for accelerating India’s trade with the region. In the bilateral meetings, both sides recognized the growing interest in two-way trade and economic cooperation.
There was also enormous interest and response for the buyer-seller meets both in Uzbekistan and at Almaty in Kazakhstan. Businessmen from both sides agreed that such interactions at regular interval would go a long way in boosting bilateral trade. It has been agreed after the successful visit of Shri Elangovan such official cum business delegation to priority countries namely Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan need to be held on a regular basis alternately, in India and in the Central Asian countries.
Other highlights of the business meetings were the commencement of trade in a joint venture between State Trade Corporation (STC) of India and M/s. Eke Pharma, a Kazakh Pharma company and the annual trade volume is about US $ 40 million. Two new joint ventures in the engineering sector were also signed between M/s. Rakesh & Associates and M/s. Sharp Power & Communication of India and M/s. Kainar and M/s. AVYL of Kazakhstan (industrial batteries and concrete). More such Indo-Kazakh joint ventures are in the pipeline and would materialize over the next few months.
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