Atkins has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna to establish and develop long-term cooperation in design and implementation of major infrastructure projects. The agreement is for an extendable period of 12 months, covering potential projects around the Kazakhistani capital of Astana and Aktau, the country’s biggest seaport. It is focused on the future provision of multidisciplinary design, project management and engineering services.

The agreement was signed today (1 July) as part of UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s visit to Kazakhstan by Prof Dr Uwe Krueger, Atkins’ chief executive officer, and Umirzak Shukeyev, chairman of Samruk-Kazyna’s Management Board.

Prof Dr Uwe Krueger, Atkins’ chief executive officer said: “We recognise Kazakhstan’s ability and ambition to upgrade its infrastructure network to benefit business and its people and we are exploring ways in which we can support that. The first step is our agreement with sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna which is responsible for some $78 billion of the country’s assets including energy, transport and telecommunications. This is a developing relationship and we will be assessing how we build on that in the future, in particular around the sustainable growth of Kazakhstan’s most important sectors and infrastructure.”

Commenting on today’s announcement, UK Trade and Investment Minister Lord Green said: "Kazakhstan is emerging as the dominant economy in central Asia and offers many opportunities for British businesses small and large across a wide variety of sectors. This first ever visit by a UK Prime Minister demonstrates our commitment to strengthen the trade and investment links between our two countries.  I am delighted that Atkins has secured this Memorandum of Understanding in Kazakhstan and I wish them every success."

Kazakhstan has a population of some 17 million people, with a growing economy and an urgent need to upgrade its infrastructure in order to benefit business and its communities. It is an oil producing country and became the first former Soviet state to receive an investment grade credit rating in 2002. According to the Asian Development Bank, the country should expect growth in the region of 5.3 per cent in 2013.

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Notes to editors:

Atkins (www.atkinsglobal.com) is one of the world's leading design, engineering and project management consultancies*, employing some 18,000 people across the UK, North America, Middle East, Asia Pacific and Europe. Over 75 years, from post-war regeneration and the advent of nuclear engineering to high speed rail and the integrated sustainable cities of the future, our people’s breadth and depth of expertise and drive to ask why has allowed us to plan, design and enable some of the world’s most complex projects.

*14th largest global design firm (Engineering News-Record 2012) and the third largest multidisciplinary consultancy in Europe (Svensk Teknik och Design 2012).

Recent projects:

Atkins is working across urban regeneration, masterplanning, national energy programmes, major transport schemes, water and environment projects - applying smart design solutions on projects including:

• Doha Central Planning Office – helping to resource Qatar’s Central Planning Office (CPO) to co-ordinate the efficient delivery of multi-modal transport services across land, air and sea as part of its 2030 National Vision;
• The London 2012 Games infrastructure transformation – technical advisor on the legacy use transition of the Olympic Park as a follow-on role to our work as the Games’ official engineering and design provider;
• UAE’s peaceful nuclear new build programme – providing technical assurance to lenders backing the United Arab Emirates’ most ambitious energy infrastructure projects;
• North Sea and Gulf of Mexico oil and gas platforms - extending the operational life of critical oil and gas platforms to allow cost-efficient and safe recovery of fuel sources from mature fields;
• SSE offshore wind alliance - provision of expert engineering and design support for the UK’s biggest offshore wind alliance with Scottish and Southern Energy;
• Crossrail - designing the Central London twin tunnels and station architecture for Europe’s biggest civil engineering scheme which will see tunnels passing beneath 470 listed buildings and critical infrastructure;
• Etihad Railway - providing multidisciplinary design expertise on the 1,200 km Etihad Rail network which will revolutionise passenger and freight transport in the UAE;

• Denmark ERTMS - providing multidisiplinary signalling expertise on the first countrywide installation of an ERTMS train control and management system in Denmark;
• Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge - lead consultant on this integral part of the new Hong Kong link road scheme which will significantly boost land connectivity in the region;
• Lowestoft Sixth Form College - design of the ultralow energy consumption Lowestoft College in the UK which aims to reduce operational energy use by more than 60% compared to previous designs;
• UK National Composites Centre – providing technical expertise to bring the latest lightweight carbon fibre materials to all engineering sectors, helping to develop innovative applications and reduce costs and carbon;
• US Environmental Protection Agency - providing technical assessment and analysis of national water-related resources and ecological systems in North America.
• Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) superfast broadband – providing technical, commercial and procurement support to help deliver superfast broadband to one of Europe’s most remote regions.