Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Emmanuel Macron held a press briefing

Images | Akorda

This year marks the 15th anniversary of the signing of the Strategic Partnership Agreement between the two countries. Our common goal is to further strengthen cooperation based on mutual friendship and support. I am sure that by joint efforts we will achieve these noble goals. Therefore, your visit today is of special significance," Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said.

France is one of the largest trading partners of Kazakhstan. For 8 months of the current year, the volume of trade between our countries increased by 21 percent compared to the last year reaching 2.7 billion dollars. France is also one of our main foreign investors. Over the past 15 years, French directed about $18.7 billion investment to our economy. Today we are implementing important projects in the energy, nuclear industry, mining, chemical industry, machinery, construction, aerospace and pharmaceutics. The successful operation of more than 170 French companies, such as Alstom, Total Energies, Orano, Vicat, in our country proves this fact," the President said.

This is especially relevant in today's difficult geopolitical and geo-economic situation. Today we`ve signed Joint Declaration between Kazakhstan and France on intention to cooperate in strategic materials. As you have seen, we have also reached arrangements with Boehringer Ingelheim, Total Energies, and Alstom. These deals will be beneficial for both economies. In order to effectively implement the envisaged actions, it is necessary to promote investment projects at the ministerial level. To this end, I suggested establishing a special work group," the President said.

Kazakhstan's geographical location and role is significant for us, so we thoroughly discussed the prospects of our economic cooperation. It was confirmed by the agreements signed this morning. You, Mr President, reminded us the importance of French enterprises that are already present in Kazakhstan. They are long standing partnerships in the areas of trade and energy. Several French companies have been operating here for a very long time. We would like to bolster the involvement of our companies in many other fields. We have fundamental areas for partnership. As I mentioned these are the energy sector and aerospace industry," Emmanuel Macron said.

I am convinced that our companies can also contribute enhansing the markets. To this, we signed an important agreement on local production FMD vaccines in Kazakhstan. Another promising area for partnership is healthcare. Mr President, you also have mentioned the importance of people-to-people links. Today we have signed a number of agreements on education field," the French leader underlined.