On Thursday, 4 April, the Governor of the Pilsen Region Rudolf Špoták received the Ambassador of Kazakhstan, H. E. Bakyt Dyussenbayev, together with the Commercial Counsellor of the Embassy of Kazakhstan in the Czech Republic, Mr. Timur Akhmetzhanov.
Bakyt Dyussenbayev emphasized that he considered his visit and reception by the Governor of the Pilsen Region Rudolf Špoták a great honour. He was appointed Ambassador of Kazakhstan to the Czech Republic at the end of last year and the Pilsen Region became the first Czech region he decided to visit. The reason, according to him, is the industrial and technical maturity and the presence of companies focused on the development of new technologies, science and research. All this is of main interest to the Kazakhstan party, which would like to cooperate and collaborate with Czech companies in these areas. He also briefed Mr. Špoták on the development of the economy of Kazakhstan. He presented it as a country located at the very threshold of Europe and Asia, which is characterised by a huge stock of mineral resources necessary for the use of new technologies and as a transport corridor between Asia and the European Union. Rudolf Špoták welcomed Kazakhstan’s interest in the Pilsen region and its economic sphere, saying that he was ready for further cooperation and closer relations.
In the afternoon B. Dyussenbayev visited the University of West Bohemia and visited the Škoda Transportation Company whose production includes mainly low-floor trams, electric locomotives, suburban train sets, rapid transit sets, electric buses and trolleybuses. The company is the largest transport engineering group in Central and Eastern Europe and has sales offices in Germany, Hungary and other countries. In Kazakhstan, it has been involved in several tenders for the production of trains, trams and trolleybuses. He also had meetings with representatives of the Regional Chamber of Commerce in Pilsen Region and visited Pilsner Urquell Brewery, which is already one of the European leaders in water and energy saving and supports ecological innovation.
Kazakhstan is one of the leading suppliers of oil to the Czech Republic and is the richest country in Central Asia, with which the Czech Republic has historically had very good trade relations. The local uranium reserves are also important, and the Czech Republic could use them for nuclear power plants. The turnover of mutual trade with Kazakhstan in 2022 reached almost 1.3 billion dollars (about 28 billion crowns). The biggest growth in Czech exports to Kazakhstan was in reactors, boilers, motor vehicles, tractors, bicycles, as well as sound recording and reproduction equipment. There are currently about 30 Czech companies operating in Kazakhstan.