Alikhan Smailov meets with Secretary of Communist Party Committee of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China Ma Xinzhui

A wide range of issues of trade and economic cooperation were discussed by Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov and the Secretary of the Party Committee of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of PRC, member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the 20th Convocation Ma Xingzhui, who arrived on his first visit to Kazakhstan, El.kz cites primeminister.kz.

Prime Minister noted that China is one of the largest trading partners of the country with a share of 18%. Thus, last year the trade turnover between the countries increased by 34% and exceeded $24 billion, which was a new record for 30 years. He added that more than 40% of the total volume of mutual trade accounted for the XUAR.

"Given the task set by the two heads of state to increase trade turnover to $35 billion by 2030, mutual trade between Kazakhstan and Xinjiang becomes even more important. We are ready to work together with our Chinese colleagues on this ambitious goal," Alikhan Smailov said.

According to him, currently the dynamic growth is supported by new, including non-resource commodity positions. In this regard, the Prime Minister offered to support the positive trend by increasing exports of Kazakhstani products to China by $1 billion for 135 types of goods.

An important area of interaction is also the investment cooperation, in particular the implementation of 52 joint projects worth over $ 21 billion. In general, China is one of the top 5 countries-investors in the Kazakhstan economy. The total inflow of investments from China over the past 15 years has reached almost $23 billion.

"We invite the investment community of Xinjiang UAR to expand its participation in joint projects," the Prime Minister addressed the Chinese delegation.

Alikhan Smailov emphasized the special role of interaction between the border regions. In this regard, he noted the importance of holding in Almaty the 2nd Friendly Dialogue of cross-border cooperation, on the margins of which it is planned to sign a number of inter-regional agreements and commercial documents.

In his turn, Ma Xingzhui underlined that Kazakhstan and China have close economic relations and expressed XUAR's readiness to activate mutually beneficial cooperation in such spheres as agriculture, industry, energy, logistics, education, innovations and etc.

"China and Kazakhstan are connected by common mountains and rivers, we are good neighbors and partners. Over the past 30 years, our countries have developed relations in a spirit of mutual trust. The two heads of state have outlined plans for further cooperation together. We have to implement the agreements reached in various spheres," Ma Xingzhui said.

During the meeting, issues of synchronization of actions to eliminate bottlenecks at the border were discussed in detail. It was noted that thanks to joint efforts, there has been an increase in the capacity of road border crossings, which benefits the economic development of the two countries.

The Prime Minister emphasized that two of the five points have already launched "green corridors" to accelerate the movement of agricultural products, and stressed the importance of launching them at the remaining three: "Dostyk - Alashankou", "Maikapchagai - Zimunai" and "Kalzhat - Dulaty". In addition, Alikhan Smailov raised the issue of accelerating the procedures for issuing visas for Kazakh cargo carriers to enter China, which will increase the rate of trade turnover as a whole.

At the same time, prospects for deepening cooperation within the framework of the Trans-Caspian international transport route, the progress of resumption of ICBC "Khorgos", plans for modernization of checkpoints, issues of using transboundary rivers and a number of others were discussed.

At the end of the meeting, the parties reaffirmed their willingness to make all necessary efforts to further develop mutually beneficial partnership between the two countries.

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