Alikhan Smailov takes part in 16th summit of Economic Cooperation Organization
As part of a working visit to Uzbekistan, carried out on behalf of the Head of State, Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov took part in the 16th summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization, El.kz reports with reference to the press service of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
In his speech, Alikhan Smailov noted that the ECO unites an important strategic region of the world with huge reserves of natural resources that have importance not only for the participating countries, but also for the entire world economy. In general, the ECO states cover an area of 8 million square kilometers with a population of about 500 million people and a total GDP of $2 trillion.
"This testifies to the significant economic potential of the Organization, which makes it possible to set very ambitious tasks for the further growth of its authority in the international arena," the Prime Minister said.
According to him, one of the priority areas for strengthening cooperation should be the stimulation of interregional trade.
"At the end of last year, Kazakhstan's trade turnover with the ECO countries increased by 40% and reached $16.5 billion. To increase these indicators, we are ready to export an additional average of about 100 types of goods to each country of the Organization," Alikhan Smailov emphasized.
He added that the republic is implementing large-scale projects for the construction of cross-border hubs, which will increase the volume of transportation of processed and food products. Thus, one of the key points of growth in the development of modern cross-border trade and logistics infrastructure is the international center of industrial cooperation "Central Asia" on the Kazakh-Uzbek border.
"Along with this, we propose to strengthen cooperation within the framework of the ECO using the temporary storage warehouses already created and operating in Kazakhstan along the perimeter of our borders," the Prime Minister said.
The Prime Minister added that at the same time, Kazakhstan is taking measures to unlock the potential of the North-South transport corridor. For the development of this route, a Roadmap has been developed jointly with Iran, Turkmenistan and Russia, the implementation of which will increase the capacity of the corridor from 10 to 15 million tons by 2027.
Of particular importance is also the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway as the shortest route between the ECO states in Central Asia and the Middle East. For 9 months of this year, cargo traffic along this route in the direction of Iran increased by 9% and exceeded 1.5 million tons.
"In general, it seems expedient to strengthen joint work both to remove administrative barriers and to deepen the integration of transport and logistics systems," Alikhan Smailov emphasized.
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