The capital of Kazakhstan hosted one of the most significant global events, the Astana Economic Forum (AEF): Global Challenges Summit 2018. More than 6,000 participants from 111 countries have discussed the present-day global issues within three days.

One of the main events of the forum was the speech of President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev. At the plenary session, President Nazarbayev singled out five major megatrends of the world’s development.

More than 20 different agreements were signed at the summit. Among the deals include a temporary agreement on a free trade zone between the Eurasian Economic Union and Iran. This should become a new growth point for development of trade and economic relations.

The largest transnational corporations of the meat industry from South Korea, the United Kingdom, Italy, the United States and China came to transform Kazakhstan’s agriculture. Contracts worth 300 billion Tenge were concluded. The agreements in agricultural machinery on Kazakhstan’s territory were reached between the world leaders.

SERGIO COMIZZOLI, SPOKESPERSON, ITALIAN MEAT PRODUCING COMPANY :
- We have discovered very good potential here because there is a tradition to engage in the livestock sector. Now there is a very good program for livestock development which focuses on the development of small and medium-sized businesses. It is very important to have farms near our plants so we can be a potential customer who will buy the farms’ cattle for 30 years. The better the quality of their cattle, the more we will pay them.

The second day of the AEF was also eventful. The program included over twenty events covering five main challenges facing the mankind.

A Kazakh national company and a British agency signed a memorandum on the establishment of the investment projects fund. Its goal is to develop high technologies and manufacturing industry of Kazakhstan’s agricultural sector at the expense of private investments with a special emphasis on deep processing and export.

ALEKSEI PETROV, EXECUTIVE PARTNER, DA VINCI CAPITAL:
- We cooperate in the high technology segments of the agro-industrial sector. We are also considering cooperating in other sectors that may interest Kazakhstan, such as food production and technology sector.

Autonomous Cluster Fund “Park for Innovative Technologies” and Institut Choiseul are set to cooperate in the field of innovations. They are expected to implement several large projects that will contribute to the effective development of Kazakhstan and France.

PASCAL LOROT, PRESIDENT, INSTITUT CHOISEUL, FRANCE:
- Through this MoU we will try to develop cooperation with Tech Garden and bring to Kazakhstan some new opportunities of partnership with French companies, with French startups, with French expertise in this very strategic field.

In the third day of the forum, leading international and local experts discussed adaptation of projects announced at the Global Challenges Summit to the Kazakh economy. At the Strategic Session, the experts outlined a draft to implement reforms in Kazakhstan. According to the experts, the AEF is currently not only an international dialogue platform, but also a concrete platform for mutually beneficial partnerships.