«Hydrogen Energy»: The Strategic Vector of the Economic Development
On the initiative of the Embassy of Kazakhstan in France and «KAZAKH INVEST» NC» JSC, as well as with the active support of the Movement of the Enterprises of France MEDEF and France Hydrogen movement «Kazakh-French webinar on the development of hydrogen energy» was held.
The relevance of this event was confirmed by the high level representation of entities fr om both sides: the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Institute of Nuclear Physics, the Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan, «KazMunayGas» NC» JSC, ERG, Total Energies, Total Eren, Air Liquide, Syndyne International, Technip Energies, EDF, Linde Gas Kazakhstan and others.
Addressing the participants of the webinar with a welcome speech, Jean Galiev, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the French Republic noted the importance of this dialogue in the context of strengthening ties between countries within the framework of the second decade of the strategic partnership. Last year Kazakhstan and France signed the Road map of the economic and investment cooperation until 2030, whereas the important aspect is the joint development of new technological and environmental projects.
At the same time, the Ambassador stressed that «green» hydrogen can become the strategically important energy sector of our country, given the plans to decarbonize the economy and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, as President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said on September 1st last year in his Address to the people of Kazakhstan.
The purpose of this webinar is to study the accumulated experience of the french companies in the hydrogen sector in our country, wh ere there are all the necessary resources for the implementation of such innovative projects that will meet all modern challenges of energy security and help in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Alongside this, Azamat Kozhanov, Managing Director of TASK FORCE «KAZAKH INVEST» NC» JSC noted: «Today, we as the country, are at the stage of studying the possibility of implementing the large projects in the production of «green» hydrogen. The foreign investors are ready to study 5 regions of Kazakhstan for the economic feasibility of implementing major projects.Probably, we are now living through the last decade of high oil prices and we are determined to fit into the new global supply chains of the fuel energy industry. The possible solution is the export of hydrogen produced in Kazakhstan to the markets of the European Union.
At the level of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, together with the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, we are accompanying two mega-projects, research is underway at the expense of the foreign investment. KAZAKH INVEST acts as a strategic consultant.
The global market for «green» hydrogen will be formed over the next 10 years. During this time, we, as the country, are obliged to give an offer on the future market in the form of products. We cannot wait, we need to act now, work is underway at the Government level. The foreign investors do apply. I think in the next two or three months the strategy will be announced». The foreign business community was invited to the hydrogen energy session, planned to be held within the framework
of «Astana Finance Days 2022».
As a result of the negotiations held the days before, with the assistance of the Embassy of Kazakhstan in France, the special unit of negotiators TASK FORCE «KAZAKH INVEST» NC JSC it is planned to sign the «Agreement on cooperation» in the field of «green» hydrogen, whereas on the French side the movement MEDEF International uniting about 400 companies in this industry, France Hydrogen TASK FORCE will participate.
From the Kazakh side, the Ministry of Energy in the person of Zhaslan Kasenov, Director of the Department of Nuclear Energy and Industry, also indicated its support and invited the French business-society to Kazakhstan to implement promising projects.
During the webinar, the participants received comprehensive answers to the questions and outlined further steps to continue the mutual cooperation in abovementioned direction.
