On September 5, the U.S. Commercial Service in Almaty and the American Chamber of Commerce in Kazakhstan held a half-day Trade and Project Financing Seminar designed to inform local firms about the variety of financing solutions available to fund imports and how to take advantage of the business opportunities the weaker dollar provides in sourcing U.S. goods and equipment.  As Kazakhstan faces a continued credit crunch made worse by the recent global economic crises, firms looking for new finance tools to assist them in importing foreign equipment were able to hear from a variety of financial and banking experts. This event, which featured the COO and Senior VP of the U.S. Export Import Bank, was sponsored by John Deere, Bank Turan Alem, FedEx and the U.S. Commercial Service.  Please follow the following links for presentations from the seminar: BTA.pdf (280KB), EBRD.pdf (1154KB), Business Leasing Kazakhstan.pdf (180KB), OPIC.pdf (426KB), US Commercial Service.pdf (163KB), and ExIm Bank.pdf (1101KB).

Kazakhstan's booming mining sector presents many sales opportunities, and five U.S. firms sought out new prospects in this growing market at the Central Asia Mining Exhibition, held from Sep 17-19, 2008. Kazakhstan is endowed with a wide range of mineral resources -- including coal and ferrous and non-ferrous metals.  Much of the technology and management practices of this industry, however, date from the Soviet times, which has hampered productivity, and several mining accidents in the last few years have highlighted the need to improve safety and operating methods.  Tapping into this demand, the Commercial Service office in Almaty hosted a US Product Literature Booth at the Central Asia Mining Expo ( http://www.miningworld.kz/en/2008/).  Additionally, CS staff is promoting the products and services of participating companies during commercial outreach to the country’s mining centers, allowing participants to gauge interest in their product while also creating brand recognition.

The Commercial Service office in Almaty hosted an Agriculture Equipment Catalog Show and Road Show at the AGROPRODEXPO'2008 expo in Astana, from Oct 30-Nov1. Teaming up with the North Dakota Trade Office, CS Almaty then ventured out to meet with distributors and clients in the farming area around Astana.  Four US companies participated in this unique event (and several more through the state of North Dakota).   Agriculture accounts for about 8% of Kazakhstan’s economic production.  Wheat exports, a major source of hard currency, rank among the leading commodities in Kazakhstan's export trade.  In 2007, the Kazakhstani agricultural machinery and equipment sector was estimated at $430 million with $420 million of that from imports. The U.S. is a market leader for agricultural machinery and equipment with a 30% market share.