Astana wants to garner Hannover support in view of upcoming EXPO-2017
The aim of the visit was to familiarize the social, political and business circles of Lower Saxony with the "Kazakhstan-2050" Development Strategy, implementation of the State Program of Industrial and Innovative Development, and international initiatives of Kazakhstan such as G-Global, ATOM and make a presentation of the EXPO-2017 national project.
During the meetings in Lower Saxony, Ambassador Onzhanov stressed the importance of further strengthening and development of cooperation between the business circles of the German state and Kazakhstan, especially in the context of the Agreement between the governments of Kazakhstan and Germany on partnership in raw materials, industrial and technological spheres.
The development of interregional contacts was pointed out by Mr. Onzhanov as well. He reminded of a memorandum of cooperation signed between Hannover and Petropavlovsk in February 2012 during President Nazarbayev's visit to Germany. In addition, the Kazakh envoy noted favorable conditions for collaboration in the sphere of dual education and agricultural processing.
It is worth mentioning that Lower Saxony, as one of the leading German states, has huge potential in terms of cooperation with Kazakhstan. Companies based in Lower Saxony should play a bigger role at Kazakhstani market," said N. Onzhanov.
In 2000, Hannover hosted the international specialized exhibition EXPO-2000. In this connection, Ambassador Onzhanov took part in the Day of economy of Kazakhstan and Lower Saxony dedicated to the preparations for EXPO-2017 in Astana under the topic "Energy of the future".
At the event, the Kazakh diplomat said the presentation of Astana's EXPO-2017 bid in Hannover in December 2010 was one of the first within the PR campaign. He also called on German businessmen and Deutsche Messe AG, the organizer of EXPO in Hannover, to take an active part in the preparations for this major event in the capital of Kazakhstan.