KAZAKHSTAN ambassador to Malaysia Bulat Sugurbayev expressed hopes of linking his country to collaborate with Penang on three key areas – information technology, agriculture, and tourism.
Sugurbayev, who was appointed Kazakhstan ambassador to Malaysia in March last year, regarded the three areas as an important driving tool for Penang and Kazakhstan to strengthen their diplomatic and socio-economic ties.
“As for information technology, we will be meeting a few semiconductor companies based here in Penang, mainly to discuss available opportunities to collaborate.
“We understand Penang has an upper hand when it comes to the IT industry, and its capacity just keeps on growing over the past few years.
“Through this partnership, we look forward to securing joint ventures between companies in Kazakhstan and Penang, while focusing on exporting and looking out for potential investors for expansion plans,” Sugurbayev said during his courtesy call on Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow in Komtar today.
While on agriculture, Chow said many factories in Penang are involved in the food industry, and that it is a crucial aspect that could be explored by both Kazakhstan and Penang.
“We have both the halal and non-halal industries here. These are something that we can explore,” Chow said.
It is understood that Kazakhstan’s economy is driven by the food processing industry, whereby the country is famously known for producing wheat.
“We export a lot of wheat to our neighbouring countries, and we understand that some food processing companies in Malaysia used to import wheat for bread-making and pasta.
“This can potentially be another area to collaborate. Some companies that may be interested can reach out through our embassy to discuss further,” Sugurbayev added.
Also present during the courtesy call was state Tourism and Creative Economy Committee chairman Yeoh Soon Hin.
Yeoh said that Kazakhstan and Penang should explore tourism opportunities as well.
“Opportunities are wide and with increased efforts taken to boost the tourism sector, Penang and Kazakhstan have the potential to mutually promote the state and country respectively,” Yeoh said.
Sugurbayev acknowledged Yeoh’s remarks and said Kazakhstan would consider developing interesting and exciting tourism programmes which would benefit both parties.
Story by Kevin Vimal
Pix by Adleena Rahayu Ahmad Radzi