ASTANA, Kazakhstan, September 23. The 11th meeting of the Kazakh-Kyrgyz Intergovernmental Council was held in the Kyrgyz Taraz with the participation of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov and the Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers, Head of the Administration of the President of Kyrgyzstan Akylbek Japarov, Trend reports.
During the negotiations in one-on-one and expanded formats, the parties exchanged views on topical issues of bilateral cooperation.
The main topics of the Intergovernmental Council, which was also attended by the heads of the central government agencies of the two countries, were strengthening trade and economic cooperation, interaction in the field of water use and energy, implementation of cooperative projects in industry and agriculture, development of the transit and transport potential of the republics, and joint initiatives in the fields of tourism and culture.
The Kazakh PM said that mutual trade turnover between the republics is steadily growing. In 2022, trade volume increased by about 19 percent and reached $1.3 billion. At the same time, positive dynamics are observed this year: over the past 7 months, trade turnover increased by 13 percent and amounted to $757 million.
As he noted, along with this, cooperation is developing in transit and transport, communications, tourism, and other areas. There are good prospects in the areas of industrial cooperation, agriculture, and digitalization.
According to him, in this context, it is necessary to accelerate the implementation of a number of important joint projects. In particular, the creation in the near future of an Industrial Trade and Logistics Complex (ITLC) in border areas will contribute to the implementation of new cooperation projects. This will also contribute to achieving the goal set by the heads of the two states to increase trade turnover to $2 billion.