Prime Minister of Kazakhstan to pay official visit to China

ASTANA. KAZINFORM - Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Karim Massimov is expected to pay an official visit to China, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of China to Kazakhstan Zhang Hanhuey told at the Kazakh-Chinese expert forum today.

"We have already reached many agreements. We have joint projects totaling more than 40 bln US dollars. It demonstrates our willingness to cooperate and develop our relations. We also expect the visit of your Prime Minister to China. We are preparing for this visit already. We plan to sign more bilateral documents within his trip to China. I think the amount of implemented by our countries joint projects will top 50 bln US dollars this year," the Ambassador said.

Besides, the diplomat told about some barriers that hamper dynamic development of bilateral relations. First of all, the barriers are on the Chinese side of the cooperation. For example, there are some problems with visa issuance.

"In June, we organized a forum of peaceful ideas of Nursultan Nazarbayev. On behalf of the Chinese Government we sent invitations to the guests, scientists, political figures of Asian countries. We sent an invitation even to the Prince of Cambodia, but they could not come to the forum because of the visa problems. However, Chinese authorities have already started the process on simplification of visa issuance," the Ambassador noted.