Kazakh and Tajik officials reaffirmed their commitment to maintaining the high dynamics of the strategic partnership in all areas and outlined prospects for trade and economic cooperation during Kazakh Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov’s official visit to Tajikistan on April 30, reported the Prime Minister’s press service.
Bektenov’s visit program to Dushanbe included meetings with Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and Tajik Prime Minister Kohir Rasulzoda to address Kazakh-Tajik interaction in trade and investment, industrial cooperation, energy, agriculture and transport connectivity, as well as water and energy cooperation.
Kazakhstan is Tajikistan’s fourth largest trading partner. The governments of both countries are expected to double trade turnover to $2 billion.
Intergovernmental negotiations took place in an expanded format and were devoted to measures to strengthen cooperation and diversify trade flows. The Kazakh side expressed readiness to increase exports of 85 commodities worth nearly $190 million.
The sides emphasized the importance of developing industrial cooperation and outlined the relevance of creating new export-oriented joint ventures. Given Kazakhstan’s extensive experience, the parties discussed the possibility of jointly developing deposits and implementing projects in Tajikistan.
Kazakh and Tajik delegations also considered the opportunity to increase the export volumes of locomotives, diesel locomotives, turnouts, transformers, agricultural machinery, batteries, and vehicles made in Kazakhstan.
Cooperation in the water sector, including Kazakhstan’s chairmanship of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea, was also high on the agenda of the meeting.
Addressing cooperation in digitalization, the sides discussed implementing cooperation agreements, as part of which components of Kazakhstan’s e-government were exported to Tajikistan.
During the meeting, the parties also focused on cultural and humanitarian cooperation, including the upcoming Days of Culture of Kazakhstan in Tajikistan. Bektenov noted the monument’s importance to the great Kazakh poet and writer Abai Kunanbayev, which is about to open in Dushanbe.