Olzhas Bektenov meets with Li Qiang, Premier of the State Council of China, on trade and economic cooperation issues

Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Olzhas Bektenov discussed with the Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China Li Qiang the development of trade and economic relations within the framework of the tasks set at the level of Heads of State, El.kz cites primeminister.kz.

They discussed measures to strengthen cooperation in trade, investment, transport and logistics, agriculture, energy, tourism, as well as the expansion of cultural and humanitarian ties.

The parties positively assessed the dynamics of cooperation between Kazakhstan and China on a wide range of issues. In January-September this year, the volume of bilateral trade totalled $33bn.

"President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev pays special attention to the development of cooperation with China, our largest trading partner.The state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Kazakhstan has given an additional impetus to Kazakhstan-China co-operation in another era of "golden 30th anniversary". In accordance with the task set at the highest level, we intend to increase mutual trade turnover in the near future. The Government of Kazakhstan is ready to develop full-scale and mutually beneficial cooperation with China across the entire spectrum of interaction," Olzhas Bektenov noted.

The head of the Government stressed that Kazakhstan is ready to increase the scale and optimise the structure of trade, including at the expense of value-added products. We are talking about 180 commodity items worth $1.6 billion. There is a possibility of increasing supplies of products of metallurgical, petrochemical, food, engineering and construction industries.

An important component in Kazakhstan-China relations is co-operation in agriculture. According to the results of 9 months of this year, mutual trade in the sphere of agro-industrial complex increased by 5.8%, which indicates the demand for Kazakhstani organic and environmentally friendly agricultural products from Chinese citizens. In this regard, discussed the possibility of not only expanding the export of Kazakh grain, crop and livestock products, but also accreditation for supplies to the Chinese market new Kazakh enterprises for the production of wheat and barley feed flour, wheat bran, wheat, oilseed crops, etc., as well as the possibility of increasing exports of Kazakh grain, crop and livestock products. Also noted the importance of increasing the acceptance of goods transported by all types of railway wagons.

Prime Minister of Kazakhstan and Premier of the State Council of China discussed issues of strengthening cooperation in the transport and logistics sector. Over 80% of land transportations from China to Europe today are carried out through Kazakhstan. In this context, Kazakhstan is interested in deepening cooperation within the framework of the implementation of the One Belt, One Road initiative. Olzhas Bektenov noted that the globally important project together with the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, running through the territory of Kazakhstan, can unlock the potential of the North-South and East-West corridors. In the first 9 months of this year, the volume of traffic along the Middle Corridor exceeded the previous year's figures by 23% and amounted to 3.4 million tonnes. It is planned to increase cargo traffic to 10 million tonnes per year by 2030.

In the field of container transportations, as a result of the opening of the Kazakh logistics centre in Xi'an, transit transportations along the China - Europe - China route increased 24 times and reached 24 thousand TEU. In October this year, in cooperation with Lianyungang Port, construction of a container hub in the port of Aktau began. The project will increase the capacity of the port of Aktau on container TFE transshipment up to 300 thousand TEU per year. Also the issues of acceleration of customs processes against the background of 60% increase in the volume of cargo transportation by road transport were discussed. Currently work is underway to open new checkpoints in Almaty and East Kazakhstan regions.

In turn, Premier of the State Council of China Li Qiang noted that China intends to continue to follow the course taken by the leaders of the countries to deepen the Kazakh-Chinese strategic partnership.

"China and Kazakhstan are long-time friendly neighbours, we are connected by a common border of over 1,700 kilometres. In the 30 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, our countries have built mutually beneficial cooperation on the basis of good neighbourliness, friendship, respect and equality. Under the strategic leadership of the Heads of State, our relations have gained a new breath in recent years, reaching a high level of stable and comprehensive strategic partnership," Li Qiang said.

The two sides reaffirmed their intentions to ensure the progressive development of investment and trade and economic cooperation between the two states.

A number of documents were signed at the end of the talks.

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