President Tokayev welcomes participants of 19th Kazakhstan-Russia Interregional Cooperation Forum
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev welcomed the participants of the 19th Kazakhstan-Russia Interregional Cooperation Forum, Kazinform News Agency reports.
The leaders of the two countries attended the event via videoconference.
Members of the governments, governors of the regions of Kazakhstan and Russia, representatives of authorities, scientific communities, and more than 200 businessmen are participating in the event.
I am pleased to welcome you at the 19th Kazakhstan-Russia Interregional Cooperation Forum. Throughout 20 years of its functioning, the platform has proved its effectiveness by contributing to the strengthening of the mutually beneficial strategic partnership between Kazakhstan and Russia, said the Kazakh President.
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev emphasized sustainable growth in trade-economic, investment and industrial interaction. Thus, bilateral commodity turnover hit a record 27 billion US dollars to date, he noted.
According to him, the volume of direct investments from Russia to Kazakhstan has exceeded 20 billion US dollars.
He then said that Russian companies comprise almost half of 42,000 enterprises with foreign capital operating in Kazakhstan.
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said that both countries interact almost in all sectors of economy: industry, agriculture, transport, and infrastructure. He particularly pointed out the growing level of energy cooperation and recent launch of the transit of Russian gas to Uzbekistan through the territory of Kazakhstan. He emphasized a key role of this project in strengthening regional stability and energy security in Central Asia.
