ASTANA, Kazakhstan, October 17. President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayevhas met with the Chairman of the Board of the Chinese CITIC Group, Zhu Hexin, as part of his visit to Beijing, Trend reports.
The parties discussed issues of strengthening partnerships in such key industries as energy, the petrochemical industry, and others.
Tokayev was informed about the progress in implementing the previously reached agreements between CITIC Group and the Kazakh side.
"Our regular meetings indicate the strategic nature of our cooperation. In May of this year, CITIC Construction (a subsidiary of CITIC Group) signed five documents with Kazakh partners on the implementation of projects with a total investment of $2 billion. One of the key projects is the expansion of the production capacity of the Aktau bitumen plant Caspi Bitum for oil refining to 1.5 million tons per year. I was informed that a corresponding agreement was signed between KazMunayGas and the CITIC Group. Considering your extensive experience in construction, I believe that the project will be implemented efficiently and in a short time," Tokayev noted.
In turn, the Chairman of the Board of CITIC Group highly appreciated the mutually beneficial cooperation with the Kazakh side.
"Our corporation, CITIC, successfully operates in Kazakhstan. It is a great honor for me and my colleagues to meet with you today. The main goal of all our work is to deepen cooperation with Kazakhstan," Zhu Hexin said.
During the conversation, prospects for cooperation in the fields of investment and the agro-industrial complex were also discussed.
The Caspi Bitum Aktau bitumen plant plans to increase its processing capacity to 1.5 million tons of oil per year by the end of 2024. This will increase the production of road bitumen at the enterprise by up to 750,000 tons per year.