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Home > CANADA > Business events in Italy
OIL AND GAS COMPANIES BETTING ON KAZAKHSTAN MEET AT KIOGE 2007
It's the 15th edition of the Kioge fair (www.kioge.com), one of the major global events in the oil and gas sector which will take place in Almaty from 2 to 5 October 2007. This year, as a confirmation of the growing interest for the local market, approximately 600 companies from all over the world are expected at the Atakent Exhibition Centre, the highest recorded participation for the event, which has attracted an increasing amount of interest in the past few years. If in 2000 the exhibition area was approximately 7,000 square metres, the capacity of the new pavilion - to be inaugurated in the upcoming edition - will grow to 22,000 square metres. Approximately 12,000 traders are expected to attend.
At Kioge 2007, Italy will be represented by an official delegation organised by ICE (Italian Trade Commission), with the aim to support the international expansion in a difficult market, but where the companies expected to participate in the fair are already present. On the whole they are medium-sized enterprises (as well as two large players), that have entered the Central Asian state by developing contacts with local suppliers or distributors. By taking part in the event, therefore, these firms aim to reinforce and eventually expand their presence.
Italy - among the countries that are planning a national pavilion along with the United Kingdom, Norway, France, Germany, China, Turkey, Poland, Canada and the Netherlands - is one of the 32 countries which are represented at Kioge: 40% come from markets outside the Community of Independent States (the remaining 60% is divided between Kazakhstan - 31% - and CIS - 29%). The 2007 event also has a high proportion of first-time exhibitors: 120 out of a total of 600.
Figures therefore confirm the event's international status, which each year brings to Kazakhstan the most qualified international professionals in the oil and gas sector, as Matthew Moss, Kioge International Conference director, emphasises. "The first week of October - says Mr. Moss - is now recognised as an important date, not only for the Kazakh industry, but for the global sector as a whole.".
Kioge is thus the main event for sector operators who are looking to the Kazakh market with the aim to establish trade relations as well as trade and distribution partnerships with local companies. The openness of Kazakhstan's economy, despite dropping from 86.5% to 80.4% in first nine months of 2006, still remains high. Last year the biggest share of Foreign direct investiment (FDI) came from Netherlands, the United States, France and Italy.
In 2006 the local mining industry registered a total growth rate of 7.9% to 2,305 billion tenghe (about 13.6 billion euros), led by the increase in gas extraction (+29.9), while oil production contributed only marginally, with a 5.2% growth. This year Kazakhstan's oil and gas production is expected to reach, respectively, 65 million tons and 29.3 million cubic meters.
For more information visit www.ice-sanpaolo.com.br/fenaf2007"
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