On July 2, Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao met with Minister of Trade and Integration of Kazakhstan Arman Shakkaliyev in Astana. The two sides had an in-depth exchange of views on China-Kazakhstan trade and economic cooperation.

Wang Wentao said that China stands ready to work with Kazakhstan to deliver on the important consensus of Chinese and Kazakh heads of state, work to elevate bilateral trade to a new level, explore new growth drivers such agriculture and high value-added products while strengthening the foundation of energy and mineral trade, and move faster to grow new business types including digital trade and cross-border e-commerce. The two sides need to make good use of the China-Kazakhstan sub-committee for trade and economic cooperation, and China supports Kazakhstan in hosting a successful second China-Central Asia Economic and Trade Ministers’ Conference. China welcomes Kazakhstan’s participation in CIFTIS, the Global Digital Trade Expo and the CIIE.

Wang Wentao pointed out that given the close link between investment and trade, expanding investment cooperation serves as an effective way of boosting high-quality trade development. It is hoped that China and Kazakhstan work together to accelerate upgrading negotiations of the bilateral investment protection agreement, with a view to ensuring high-standard legal protection and institutional arrangements for mutual business investment.

Arman Shakkaliyev said that the Ministry of Trade and Integration of Kazakhstan works closely with the Ministry of Commerce of China. In May, the two sides successfully co-hosted the 13th meeting of the Kazakhstan-China subcommittee for trade and economic cooperation. Kazakhstan supports the facilitative role of investment in trade development. It stands ready to further expand non-resource exports to China, step up cooperation in e-commerce and other sectors, boost subnational cooperation, and actively participate in exhibitions held in China, in order to jointly strengthen China-Central Asia trade and economic cooperation.

(All information published on this website is authentic in Chinese. English is provided for reference only.)