Hyderabad: During his two-day visit to Hyderabad, Nurlan Zhalgasbayev, the Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan to India, held discussions with officials from T-Hub, the Telangana government-promoted startup innovation centre, to explore collaborations between the startup hubs of both cities, Hyderabad and Astana.

The Kazakhstan government wants to build a workforce of IT specialists by sending their students to study at Engineering Colleges in Hyderabad. The government is also keen on learning from Hyderabad’s IT stakeholders on how to develop the IT industry back home.

Speaking to Bizz Buzz, Nurlan Zhalgasbayev said, “I met with T-Hub and an IT company’s official. I informed them that according to the instruction of Kazakhstan President, we want to prepare 100s and 1,000s of IT specialists within five years. I informed T-Hub that by end of November, 2023, Kazakhstan’s Minister of Digital Development, during his visit to India, will fly down to Hyderabad to interact with the IT companies’ management, and government officials here. The main task of his visit to Hyderabad is to learn how to develop IT sphere.”

Creating all favourable conditions for travel between the two countries, the Ambassador informed of working on launching a new route between Hyderabad and Almaty (City in Kazakhstan), which is likely to be operated by Air India.

On collaboration prospects, Zhalgasbayev said, “We can work on common ground, for example, I will propose to my Minister to set up a representative here. We also have Astana Hub, built on the lines of T-Hub, I hope that both the Hubs can find ways of cooperation to set up joint startups, because it is prospective here, and we have got to learn more from India. We would be happy to send young people from Kazakhstan to study in Hyderabad IT colleges. I hope this visit of our Minister of Digital Development will give a great impetus in enhancing bilateral cooperation in the IT sphere.”

According to the latest data provided by Zhalgasbayev, around 300 Indian companies have invested in Kazakhstan in pharmaceutical, tourism, mining, and finance sector. Last year, Kazakhstan government introduced a new mechanism for investment cooperation. A foreign investor looking forward to invest in Kazakh economy will have to enter a strategic agreement with the Government of Kazakhstan which will facilitate special conditions, in terms of tax exemption, take-off conditions, permanent residency, among others. The investment amount has to be above $50 million. In 30 years of India-Kazakhstan cooperation, India has invested around $300 million in Kazakh economy.

Speaking on bilateral cooperation, the Ambassador said, “We are working with the Indian government to expand the list of goods which we can export to India and also import from India. Agriculture is an area of mutual interest. Recently I interacted with an Indian agricultural company and invited them to come to Kazakhstan. We have a lot of space for production of agricultural goods. Indian companies can rent land in Kazakhstan for producing agricultural goods which can be brought back and sold at local markets in India. This is good scope of cooperation as we can provide a lot of land for agricultural production.”