ASTANA, Kazakhstan, November 27. Kazakhstan will continue to fully promote the implementation of One Belt, One Road initiative, said President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev during a meeting with Vice Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China Ding Xuexiang, Trend reports.
The parties discussed the state and prospects for the development of the Kazakh-Chinese strategic partnership, as well as the progress in implementing the agreements previously reached by Tokayev and President of China Xi Jinping.
As Tokayev noted, bringing bilateral relations with China to a new qualitative level is the most important priority for Kazakhstan.
"I believe that Kazakh-Chinese relations are, in fact, a model of mutually beneficial, effective interstate interaction. We consider China as a very important strategic partner and have high hopes for achieving concrete results of our cooperation in all areas," he said.
President of Kazakhstan reminded that the recent Third 'One Belt, One Road' Forum was a great success and determined the future path for the development of a large-scale initiative.
"I recently visited Beijing and held detailed negotiations with President Xi Jinping. The negotiations were highly substantive and became an important step towards deepening cooperation. A visa-free regime has come into force," he said.
According to him, developing cooperation with China is a priority.
"We are paying special attention to this issue at the highest level," Tokayev noted.
In 2022, Kazakhstan’s trade turnover with China amounted to $24.1 billion, which is 34.1 percent more than a year earlier.
Exports from Kazakhstan increased over the year by 34.7 percent, to $13.2 billion. The share of Kazakhstan's exports to China accounted for a significant 15.6 percent of the country's total trade turnover.
Imports from China to Kazakhstan grew by 33.5 percent over the year, to $11 billion. China's share in the structure of imports of the Republic of Kazakhstan amounted to 21.9 percent.