JAPAN BOOSTS ECONOMIC PRESENCE IN KAZAKHSTAN.

The government of Kazakhstan announced yesterday the signing of four contracts, totaling approximately US$2 billion, with Japan’s Marubeni and Mitsubishi companies. The contracts concern, respectively: reconstruction and expansion of the Atyrau oil-processing plant (on the Caspian coast), construction of a petrochemical plant specializing in plastic materials, construction of a plant to manufacture oil- and gas-drilling equipment, and construction of an aluminum plant.

In addition, the Japanese company Inpex Nord and its U.S. partner Phillips Petroleum signed yesterday an agreement to develop a ten-bloc oil deposit area on Kazakhstan’s Caspian shelf. Also yesterday, Astana announced that it has received a Japanese long-term, low-interest credit of US$1 billion for the development of infrastructure and social services. President Nursultan Nazarbaev announced these developments at a special ceremony in Astana (International agencies, September 14).–VS

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