January 1, 2023 marked the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Czech Republic, El.kz cites MFA.
On the occasion of this significant date, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Roman Vassilenko and Ambassador of Czech Republic to Kazakhstan Rudolf Hykl held a solemn ceremony of exchanging congratulatory messages on behalf of the heads of state and ministers of foreign affairs.
As President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev noted in his message, “the scope for political dialogue, trade and economic ties and integration of our countries within multilateral structures has expanded steadily over a short period of time”.
In turn, President of the Czech Republic Miloš Zeman stated, “Bilateral relations between the Czech Republic and the Republic of Kazakhstan have a long-standing friendly character and cooperation in many areas is successfully developing”.
During the conversation, the Kazakh diplomat expressed satisfaction that over the three decades, the cooperation of our countries has developed rapidly and turned into a strong mutually beneficial strategic partnership. Bilateral relations are characterized by regular exchanges of delegations. One of the effective and efficient mechanisms for the development of cooperation between the two countries is the Intergovernmental Commission on Economic, Industrial, Scientific and Technical Cooperation. It was noted that today there are real prospects for cooperation in such areas as investment, transport and logistics, IT, agriculture, tourism, healthcare, culture and education.
Robust Kazakh-Czech political relations as well as diversified legal framework have created a favorable ground for the implementation of potential in trade, economic and investment spheres.
The Czech Republic is one of Kazakhstan’s key trading partners in the European Union. In January-November 2022, the trade turnover between Kazakhstan and the Czech Republic grew by 57.7 % compared to the same period of the previous year and reaching $370.9 million (at the same time according to Czech statistics, during the same period the trade turnover amounted to $1.132 billion). For two quarters of 2022, the gross inflow of FDI to Kazakhstan amounted to $15.3 million. A total of 138 Czech companies operate in Kazakhstan.
Vassilenko and Hykl confirmed mutual interest in further expanding and deepening trade, economic, investment, cultural and humanitarian ties. They expressed confidence in further strengthening partnership for the benefit of the peoples of Kazakhstan and the Czech Republic.
In this regard, they discussed plans for high-level visits and exchanges of business missions between the two countries.