ASTANA – Kazakhstan and Austria are strengthening their partnership through expanded economic cooperation, as highlighted during the 12th session of the Intergovernmental Commission (IGC) on Economic, Agricultural, Environmental, Industrial, Technical, and Technological Cooperation held on April 24.
Kazakhstan and Austria are strengthening their partnership through expanded economic cooperation, as highlighted at the 12th Intergovernmental Commission session on April 24. Photo credit: gov.kz
Co-chaired by Kazakh Deputy Foreign Minister Roman Vassilenko and Austrian Director General for Economics, Innovation and International Cooperation of Ministry for Economics, Energy and Tourism Florian Frauscher, the meeting focused on diversifying bilateral trade, attracting investment, and exploring joint opportunities in energy, digitalization, transport, and agriculture.
During the meeting, 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, reported the Foreign Ministry’s press service.
Roman Vassilenko and Florian Frauscher. Photo credit: gov.kz
He 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 effective operation of Austrian companies in Kazakhstan, including Andritz Hydtro, PlanRadar and others, he called for boosting business interaction between the two countries.
Frauscher said that Kazakhstan is a leading partner for Austria in Central Asia. He expressed the interest 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 officials 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 the Kazakh capital 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, including exports – $4.1 million and imports – $276.7 million. The gross inflow of investment from Austria to Kazakhstan in 2024 reached $20.7 million and overall since 2005 it exceeded $3 billion. There are around 180 enterprises with the participation of the Austrian capital registered in Kazakhstan.
