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Kazakhstan could become Singapore's gateway to Central Asia
According to Serikbay Bisekeev, businessman and president of Arman Holding, trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Singapore is extremely low. The Kazakhstan-Singapore Business Forum was held last week in Almaty with the aim of rectifying this situation. "Trade turnover is very low. Granted, joint ventures have been set up, but things are still quite bureaucratic and laborious over there. This particular event was specially organised for small and medium businesses," said the organiser of the forum, Serikbay Bisekeev. Given that SMEs make up at least 60% of the total number of enterprises in Singapore, it is not surprising that the forum organisers paid particular attention to this category of business.
According to Percy Chan, entrepreneur and representative of the Singapore business delegation, Kazakhstan is not very well known among Singaporeans. However, in the future our country can become a key economic partner of Singapore in Central Asia. "Perhaps this is the beginning of closer cooperation. We regard Kazakhstan as a gateway to Central Asia. Similarly, Singapore may open the way for Kazakhstan to the Southeast Asian market," the Singaporean businessman remarked.
The achievements and advantages of Singapore are globally renowned: their triumph over bureaucracy, ease of doing business and the absence of corruption obstacles. Serikbay Bisekeev, who lives and works in Singapore, said that the nation-state has great potential in the field of IT – boasting an industrial park that is supported by the state both financially as well as with specialists. "This is an industry inherently linked to logistics. In the sphere of logistics Singapore is number one, and we are reinventing the wheel here. As such, it is necessary to come to Singapore and learn from experience," the businessman affirms.
It should be borne in mind that Kazakhstan is a country that occupies a much larger territory than Singapore, with vast reserves of valuable natural resources, says Percy Chan. "We will do everything possible to strengthen our economic cooperation in various fields. As for geography, we are interested in the Central Asian region. We, in turn, can offer solutions in the fields of IT, logistics, and the construction of storage facilities," said Mr. Chan.
The Singapore company "Jurong Consulting" is currently operating as consultant in the further development of free economic zones in Kazakhstan. It is also developing a general plan and feasibility study for a petrochemical complex in the Atyrau region, using "Karabatan" power station as a base. More specifically, in the seaport of Aktau, where the joint Kazakh-Singaporean company Keppel Kazakhstan has been established. In addition to the petrochemical complex project in the west of the country, "Jurong Consulting" is also stakeholder in the Chemical Park "Taraz ". The total funds that the company has invested in projects amounts to $8 billion.
We note that the business forum was organised in order to acquaint representatives of small enterprises of the two countries with one another. B2B meetings were arranged in order to enhance cooperation at this level.
Before starting the meeting, business weekly "Kapital.kz" talked to forum participant Kudiyarov Arslan, expert from the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the International Academy of Business (IAB). IAB representatives are interested in cooperating with colleagues from Southeast Asia in order to develop business education in Kazakhstan. "None of the universities in Kazakhstan has a business incubator like they do overseas. Accordingly, we would like to set up an incubator to generate ideas, to get people thinking and working. We plan to organise a contest of new ideas in IAB - where the winners will get the chance to go to Hong Kong, Israel and Singapore. We came here today to get acquainted with the representatives of Singapore," said Mr. Kudiyarov.
The forum's results include Kazakh University representatives agreeing with colleagues from Hong Kong to open a start-up incubator, which will embrace universities in Hong Kong and other world institutions. Perhaps the relationship between Kazakhstan and Singapore will soon reach far beyond the petrochemical industry.But first a number of issues need to be addressed. One of the main problems in bilateral relations between Kazakhstan and Singapore is the remoteness of the two countries from each other.
Source: http://kapital.kz.
