Preparations for President Nazarbayev's visit to China discussed in Beijing
During the talks, the sides discussed progress in preparations for the upcoming visit of President Nursultan Nazarbayev to China in early June. Utmost attention was paid to the documents in the sphere of investment, industrial and trade and economic cooperation which are set to be signed during the visit.
"Kazakhstan and China have been enjoying strategic partnership mostly thanks to initiatives of heads of our countries. Following results of 2017 two-way trade demonstrated a 30% increase. It has preserved the positive dynamics in 1Q," Minister Kassymbek said.
He also reminded of 51 Kazakh-Chinese joint projects worth over $27 billion for the development of production capacities in Kazakhstan.
In his words, four projects have already been put into commission. Construction of 11 projects is underway. 30 more projects are under preparation. "We hope that construction works on them will begin in 2018-2020," Kassymbek stressed.
He emphasized that in order to speed up implementation of the program of industrial cooperation between Kazakhstan and China, the sides need to agree and sign the updated draft agreement on encouragement and mutual protection of investment until yearend.
Zhong Shan, in turn, praised the fact that Kazakh-Chinese strategic partnership has been gaining momentum recently. He reassured the Kazakh side that China is keen to continue implementing the agreements reached between leaders of our countries and harmonizing the One Belt, One Way initiative and the Nurly Zhol program.
