Italian aerospace and defense company Finmeccanica has signed a memorandum of understanding with a Kazakhstan sovereign wealth fund for a raft of cooperation deals.

The agreements cover helicopters, railways and electro-optics, including tank upgrades.

Kairat Kelimbetov, the chairman of the Sovereign Wealth Fund Samruk-Kazyna, and Pier Francesco Guarguaglini, chairman and CEO of Finmeccanica, signed the Memorandum of Understanding in Rome in the presence of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

The agreement includes the possibility of setting up technological centers of excellence.

One specific provision of the MoU with the Samruk- Kazyna fund -- it is an industrial and financial state holding company -- is "the establishment of a working group to analyze Kazakhstan's changing needs and the business opportunities for Finmeccanica Group companies," Finmeccanica said in a statement.

Within the context of the MoU, KazEngineering and SELEX Galileo signed a cooperation agreement for the development of civil and military applications. The agreement provides for the use of SELEX Galileo electro-optics systems to upgrade the T72 tank for use by the Kazakh armed forces and for foreign markets, Finmeccanica said in its statement.

It added that plans "were being made to evaluate a joint venture between Finmeccanica unit AgustaWestland and Samruk-Kazyna to build a civil helicopter training and maintenance center, as well as a joint venture to build natural gas-powered buses in Kazakhstan."

The Rome-based company estimates 2009 revenue to be between 17.1 billion and 17.7 billion euros. Its 2008 revenue was 15 billion euros.

Last year the Italian company bought DRS Technologies for $5.2 billion to boost its presence in the United States, the world's biggest spender on defense.

The signing of the MoU came against the backdrop of a top-level business forum in Rome in which Kazakhstan was given particular focus.

In 2008 Kazakhstan's annual gross domestic product increased by 3.2 percent, expected to end 0.1 percent higher at the end of 2009.

An estimated 130 Italian companies currently do business in Kazakhstan, with bilateral trade valued at $13 billion a year.

Major Italian companies including Finmeccanica and ENI are among 13 leading firms that will benefit from the new bilateral accords endorsed this week within the context of the MoU.

Last month Alenia North America, a unit of the Italian Finmeccanica, was awarded a $7 million contract for the provision of G-222 air crew and training maintenance to the U.S. Air Force.

The training program is said to include pilots, loadmasters and crew, and will last between 15 and 40 days at Alenia's facility in Italy.