Kazakhstan, Hungary Create Joint Agricultural Development Fund
By Julia Rutz in Business on 14 April 2015
Kazakhstan established an agricultural development fund during Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban's recent visit to Astana, the KazAgro press service reported.
A $40 million development fund to promote investment into agriculture and food processing companies in Kazakhstan.
KazAgro established the fund jointly with the Hungarian Export-Import Bank (Eximbank) in a project spearheaded by both Orban and Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Masimov. The main mission of the new fund is to provide investment support to Kazakhstan's agricultural sector. A total of 40 million dollars has been set aside for the fund's use; 50 percent is controlled by Hungary and 50 percent by Kazakhstan.
The fund is also charged with fostering bilateral trade links between the two countries. It is a pilot project and in June 2014, topped the two countries' agenda during the meeting at which the first cooperation memorandum was signed in Budapest. The fund is meant to create a platform for direct investment in Kazakhstan's agricultural sector and transfer Hungarian and Western technologies and knowhow. The agricultural development fund will facilitate investments between companies located in Kazakhstan or ones with operations mostly carried out in one or both of these states in the agricultural or food processing sectors.
KazAgro is the largest national holding responsible for executing national development policies in the agricultural sector through managing its subsidiaries' investment funds. The holding includes the National Company, Food Contract Corporation, KazAgroProdukt, KazAgroFinance, the Agrarian Credit Corporation, the Fund for the Financial Support of Agriculture, KazAgroGarant and KazAgroMarketing.
Orban also visited President Nursultan Nazarbayev on April 1. The Kazakh leader noted the importance Hungary plays in Kazakhstan's foreign policy and Astana's willingness to develop trade relations with the Central European nation.
"Hungary is a very important European partner of ours. I know that you came with business people this time. This gives us the opportunity to exchange our views," Nazarbayev said during the meeting.
The President also reminded that Hungary was the first European country to sign a cooperation agreement with Kazakhstan. The Hungarian Prime Minister thanked the Kazakh President for inviting him to the country and said that Kazakhstan has a reliable European partner in Hungary.