By Abdul Kerimkhanov

Representatives of the Turkish company Biotrend intend to build a plant to generate electricity from cotton waste in Kazakhstan.

The first deputy akim of the Turkestan region, Kairat Nukenov, met with a group of Turkish businessmen headed by Murat Aslan, chairman of the board of the Biotrend energy company.

According to the press service of the akimat, the deputy head of the region familiarized the delegation with the economic and investment potential of the region, and also expressed readiness to establish cooperation in various fields.

“We have started the revival and modernization of the city of Turkestan, as the spiritual and cultural center of the Turkic world and Central Asia. We face great challenges in this direction. Between the Turkestan region and Turkey there are all opportunities for building mutually beneficial industrial, trade, economic and investment cooperation. In our region, a favorable investment climate has been created, there are appropriate mechanisms for stimulating and developing business, as well as measures to support entrepreneurship. In addition, we are ready to listen and support your proposals for the development of tourism in our region,” said Nukenov.

In turn, Aslan noted that Biotrend energy is the leading enterprise for the processing of agricultural products, and expressed his intention to invest in the Turkestan region. In particular, company representatives intend to build a plant to generate electricity from cotton waste.

According to Turkish investors, about 3 tons of cotton waste remains from 1 ha of cotton, from which 30-40 MW of electricity can be produced. However, the head of the delegation requested to provide the necessary support in terms of the allocation of land and paperwork.

Deputy of akim replied that investors will be given appropriate support from the akimat.

Turkey was the first country to recognize the independence of Kazakhstan and established diplomatic relations with it.

Since Kazakhstan gained independence, Turkey has invested more than $3 billion in the country. Moreover, Turkey is among the top 10 trade partners of Kazakhstan. Trade turnover between the two countries in 2017 increased by 27 percent and amounted to almost $2 billion.

Kazakhstan sells oil and petroleum products, metals, grain and other raw materials to Turkey. In turn, Turkey supplies fabrics, clothing, footwear, industrial equipment, household goods and construction to Kazakhstan.

Turkey is in second place after Russia to establish joint ventures and companies with foreign participation in Kazakhstan. Currently, there are 1939 of them, 31 of them are large, 53 are medium and 1855 are small.

Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94