Astana. April 2. Kazakhstan Today - The first international Kazakhstan metallurgical conference - 2008 opened in Astana, the agency reports. Kazakhstan and foreign business-structures involved in various areas of metallurgy, including extraction of raw materials and preparation of scrap, smelting, rolling of black and nonferrous metals, sell of commodity products, as well as introduction of the advanced technical and technological equipment are participating in the conference. About 200 experts from 20 countries: Kazakhstan, Russia, China, Italy, Latvia, the USA, Ukraine, Switzerland, Estonia are taking part in the forum. "The main purpose of the conference - to analyze level of development of black and nonferrous metallurgy of Kazakhstan and its place in the world market. The conference provides, in conformity with the strategy Kazakhstan - 2030, development of new recommendations on the innovative policy in metallurgy, increase of competitiveness of production of the industry, expansion of commodity market and attraction of investments," the press service of the ministry explained. During the conference the participants plan to discuss opportunities of cooperation with administrative, metallurgical, industrial, banking and trading structures of Kazakhstan with the companies of Russia, near - and far - abroad.