We should not compete with Russia in EAEU's internal market - President Tokayev

Addressing the plenary session of the XX Forum of Interregional Cooperation of Kazakhstan and Russia, held via videoconference, the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said that Kazakhstan and Russia possess significant potential for expanding cooperation in agricultural sector, Kazinform  News Agency reports.

"This year, our farmers have gathered a record grain harvest - almost 27 million tons. This is especially symbolic in the year of the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the development of Kazakhstan's virgin lands. In addition, we have begun implementing a number of large-scale projects aimed at reducing dependence on the import of key food products. We plan to build 116 modern dairy farms in coming years, to increase milk production by 600 thousand tons. We plan to commission 29 meat poultry farms with a total capacity of more than 220 thousand tons of meat per year, as well as 11 egg farms that will produce 850 million eggs per year. Our countries have enormpous export potential in agro-industrial sector. I am convinced that we should not compete with each other in the domestic market of the EAEU. This causes obvious harm to integration. On the contrary, we can join forces to become a key food hub for the export of agricultural products to third-country markets," said the President of Kazakhstan.

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev also outlined another priority task - strengthening the transport and logistics framework throughout the Eurasian space, which is "of strategic importance both for Kazakhstan and Russia." Kazakhstan plans to repair 11 thousand and build more than 5 thousand kilometers of new railways by 2030.

"An important priority for us is to create a network of modern multimodal centers and "dry ports" abroad. One of successful examples of such cooperation was the construction of a new transport and logistics center at the Selyatino station in the Russian Federation. At the opposite end of the transit corridor, cargo is collected at the recently built Kazakhstan terminal in the Chinese city of Xi'an. Thus, in fact, key support points of the unified cargo transit system along the China-Kazakhstan-Russia route are created," the Head of State emphasized. 

The President also touched upon the development of the tourism sector pointing out that Kazakhstan offers visa-free regime for the nationals of 86 countries and launched direct flights to 31 countries.