Kazakhstan seeking Indian tractors, in talks with M&M

Kazakhstan is seeking Indian tractors and agri-input mechanisation equipment to boost its agriculture and is in talks with a few tractor makers including Mahindra and Mahindra, the country's ambassador Iskander Baitassov said Friday.

Baitassov said though the talks are moving ahead, some issues need to be ironed out before the orders cyrstallise.

"We are holding dialogues with a few Indian tractor makers. Negotiation with Mahindra & Mahindra is ahead than others. We are also inviting another tractor maker Sonalika for an assembly line in Kazakhstan," he said.

The central Asian country has 220 million hectares cultivable land and the tractors in use there are 20 years old Russian-made ones and need to be replaced, Kazak Invest deputy chairman Marat Birimzhan said at an interactive session between the Merchants' Chamber of Commerce and Kazakhstan delegation.

Mahindra is seeking protection and assurance on sales and "This is not possible. But we will offer help to export products to other markets to which the country has preferential access," Baitassov said.

He said the Indian companies had shown greater interest in Kazakhstan in the past few years and there had been registration of about 200 of them with the country.

He expressed optimism that there will be healthy growth in bilateral trade to US dollar 1.5 billion in 2019 compared to 1.2 billion in 2018.