On August 4, 2020, the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture of Germany, the managing company GFA Consulting Gmbx, the Kazakh-German Agrarian-Political Dialogue (APD) and National Agrarian Science and Educational Center (NASEC) according to the joint initiative organized Steering Committee Meeting on ​​the implementation of the APD project and preliminary approval of cooperation plans for the next 12 months.    

The meeting was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture of Republic of Kazakhstan, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture of Germany, GFA Consulting GMbH, AFC Consulting, subsidiaries of the NASEC, the “KazAgro” National Management Holding, “Agrarian Credit Corporation” JSC and others.

The meeting began with welcoming speeches from representatives of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture of Germany, the Ministry of Agriculture of Republic of Kazakhstan and NASEC.

Bruno Hoffstadt, Director of the Department of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture of Germany, noted that the APD project is of high relevance in Kazakhstan, and also said that Germany, as part of the EU presidency, will focus on projects in the field of agriculture.

The representative of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan, welcoming all the participants of the meeting, expressed a general willingness to implement initiatives within the framework of the APD and noted that this project is a key project of Kazakh-German cooperation at the country level.

Dana Borumbayeva, Director of the Department of International Cooperation and Investments of NASEC, in her welcoming speech spoke about the activities of NASEC and listed a number of NASEC subsidiaries that are already implementing joint projects with German partners, and also have great potential for the development of organic products.

The current state of implementation of the roadmap of cooperation was presented by the head of the project Alexander Barnewitz. In his speech, he emphasized a number of key points of the work plan for the further implementation of projects in 2020-2021.

Also, within the framework of the event, it was planned to discuss a number of issues, thus, the international expert of the APD Zhasurbek Rustamov made a more detailed presentation of the development of the certification system in organic agriculture, the implementation of training and support for the export of organic products. The concept for the development of the agro-industrial complex for 2022-2026, the further development of credit partnerships and attraction of investments was presented by Lunara Umralinova (local expert of the APD). Then the head of the project Alexander Barnewitz answered the questions of the meeting participants.

Following the meeting, the parties expressed their willingness for fruitful cooperation in the future and further implementation of projects in the field of agriculture.