Building strong economic base in CA is a crucial task – President

At today’s VI Consultative Meeting of the Heads of State of Central Asia, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called on his counterparts to concentrate all efforts on ensuring that the Central Asian region remains the space of security, cooperation and prosperity, Kazinform News Agency learned from the Akorda press service.

According to the Kazakh President, another crucial task is to build a strong economic base of multilateral interaction. 

"Significant results have been achieved in this area in recent years. The volume of interregional trade is gradually increasing having already achieved $11 billion," Kassym-Jomart Tokayev addressing the meeting participants.

The Head of State emphasized the importance of ramping up commodity turnover and bringing it to $15 billion in the foreseeable future.

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said that large joint projects in infrastructure and transport sector could become new growth points in economies of Central Asian states. He reminded of the construction of Kambarata-1 Hydropower Plant in Kyrgyzstan, Rogun Hydropower Plant in Tajikistan, gas projects in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, construction of new transport corridors and a number of other important projects.

“The development of trade-logistics and industrial hubs in near-border regions is of priority importance. We need to reinforce our comprehensive partnership with new agreements in such promising sectors as agriculture, logistics, textile, chemical industry and construction,” stressed the President.