QazTrade introduced the participants of the second stage of QazTrade Accelerator 2021 for the markets of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China
QazTrade under the Ministry of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan held the first meeting with a new composition of participants in the second stage of the Export Acceleration Program 2021, focused on the markets of the Russian Federation and China.
Azamat Askaruly, General Director of CRPT QazTrade JSC, addressed the participants with a welcoming speech. In his address, he noted “…the Program covers about 2,000 enterprises of the food, light, chemical and machine-building industries. Of these, 350 enterprises have applied for participation in the Program through the export.gov.kz website. We believe this is a very good result, indicating the demand for this tool among the business community of Kazakhstan.”
At the same time, partner of the Acceleration Program, international consulting company PwC representatives Natalya Lim (Partner, PwC Kazakhstan), Mikhail Magrilov (Partner, PwC Russia), Myrza Sokurov (Director of PwC Kazakhstan) presented the main stages of the Program implementation to the participants.
A participant of the first Export Acceleration Program 2020, Miras Kilybaev, head of the sales department of TOO “Mareven food Tian Shan”, was invited to the session, who noted: “… the program is focused on beginners and established exporters. To find Chinese business contacts and conduct B2B meetings was useful for our company. We continue business communication with these companies to this day. We have gained qualified expertise and practical knowledge of exporting to the Chinese market. “
The series of training webinars began with an overview of the Russian market, which was presented by the Chairman of the Board of the Council for the Development of Foreign Trade and International Trade Relations of the Russian Federation, Maxim Chereshnev.
Russia is traditionally a strategic trade partner of Kazakhstan and Kazakhstan ranks 2nd among Moscow’s largest foreign trade partners. Trade turnover between neighboring countries for the period January – August 2021 amounted to $ 16.1 billion. However, the geography of trade between the two countries is rather narrow. The main regions exporting products to Kazakhstan are Moscow, Moscow region, St. Petersburg. The main regions importing products from Kazakhstan are Moscow, Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk regions.
The webinar participants also received research material on the Chinese market prepared by the PwC Shanghai office. The participants learned the current structure of demand for the main categories of food products, and about the procedures and features of the entry of non-primary goods from Kazakhstan into the Chinese market. In terms of trade, China is one of the largest partners in Kazakhstan’s export structure. According to ITC, Kazakh companies exported $ 9 billion worth of products to China in 2020, but this is still less than one percent of China’s total imports. The potential of this country for domestic non-resource companies is enormous.
It is worth noting that the Export Accelerator-2021, as a new tool for SMEs to build up their export potential, is aimed at facilitating the entry of our companies into the target markets of Russia and China. The pilot project of the Program was launched last year.
The Export Accelerator program plans to cover about 1000 domestic producers in the period from 2021 to 2025. Of these, 30% have not previously tried themselves in export activities and will receive their first export contracts, 70% are participants in export activities who will increase their export volumes or discover new target markets with regular supplies.
The recording of the meeting is available here: https://youtu.be/1siDThVwHzk
