The forum was opened by Vice-President of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber Richard Schenz and Minister of Finance of the Kyrgyz Republic Baktygul Jeenbaeva, the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry reported.

Minister Jeenbaeva urged Austrian businesspeople to invest in Kyrgyzstan and to cooperate more actively with Kyrgyz businesspeople.

“I ask you to pay particular attention to the tourism industry of our country, which has great potential to become a locomotive of the economy of the republic,” she said.

The meetings held within the forum will help the business communities of both countries to strengthen existing ties, as well as to establish new partnerships, the Minister added.

The Kyrgyz business delegation included representatives from tourism, construction, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, logistics, and agricultural processing sectors.

On January 28, at the seventh meeting of the Joint Kyrgyz-Austrian Commission on Bilateral Foreign Economic Relations, the Austrian side confirmed its interest in further cooperation on the development of hydropower sector in Kyrgyzstan. The potential of the Kyrgyz Republic in the field of energy production from wind and sun is very high.

The Kyrgyz side expressed interest in the joint implementation of large projects in the construction and modernization of hydropower plants.

Austrian companies are also interested in cooperation with the Kyrgyz Republic in the field of digitalization, in particular in the field of e-government, e-education and e-learning.

On May 7, 2019, a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the field of information and communication technologies and digitalization was signed between the Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology of the Republic of Austria and the State Committee for Information Technologies and Communications of the Kyrgyz Republic.

The Republic of Austria is one of the leading countries in the field of e-government.

The meeting participants stressed the great importance of economic relations between the European Union and Kyrgyzstan. New opportunities are opening up thanks to the initialed Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (EPCA) and the EU’s new Central Asia Strategy.

The eighth meeting of the Kyrgyz-Austrian Joint Commission on Bilateral Economic Relations will be held in the Kyrgyz Republic.

***

The Joint Kyrgyz-Austrian Commission on Bilateral Foreign Economic Relations was established in accordance with Article 13 of the Agreement on Bilateral Foreign Economic Relations between the Kyrgyz Republic and the Republic of Austria, signed on January 30, 1995.