Olzhas Bektenov and Tajikistan's Head of Government discuss prospects for trade and economic cooperation

Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Olzhas Bektenov paid an official visit to Dushanbe. On the agenda are issues of Kazakhstan-Tajik cooperation in the field of trade and investment, industrial cooperation, energy, agriculture and transport connectivity, as well as water and energy cooperation, El.kz cites primeminister.kz.

On arrival, Olzhas Bektenov was received by President of the Republic of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon. Kazakhstan is Tajikistan's fourth largest trading partner. Today, thanks to the intensive political dialogue and agreements reached between the Presidents of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon, bilateral trade and economic cooperation is progressively developing. In view of the existing wide potential, the governments have set a task to increase trade turnover by 2 times - up to $2 billion.

The intergovernmental talks were held in an extended format and were devoted to measures to strengthen cooperation and diversify trade flows. The readiness of Kazakhstan to increase exports of 85 commodity items worth about $190 million was noted.

Government delegations noted the importance of developing industrial cooperation and outlined the relevance of creating new export-oriented joint ventures.

Given the extensive experience of Kazakhstan, the possibility of joint development of deposits and implementation of projects in Tajikistan was considered. Along with this Kazakhstan has large production capacities of railway equipment for Tajik railways. Aktobe plant is ready to co-operate in terms of supply of rail products. There is also a possibility of increasing export volumes of locomotives, diesel locomotives, switches, transformers, agricultural machinery, batteries and motor vehicles produced in Kazakhstan.

An important item on the bilateral agenda is cooperation in the water sector, which is strengthening every year and is characterised by a high level of mutual understanding. Joint actions taken by the countries allow ensuring the necessary operation regime of the Bakhri Tojik reservoir during the growing season. Here were also discussed the efforts to organise the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea, where the chairmanship since the beginning of this year was transferred to Kazakhstan from Tajikistan.

In the agricultural sphere, after last year's reduction in trade volumes, positive growth dynamics is noted. For two months of the current year, trade turnover of agricultural products totalled $84.9 million with an increase of 8.9 per cent compared to the same period of 2023. At the same time, there is a diversification of the structure of agricultural exports to Tajikistan. Among the current tasks in the industry is to increase the volume of flour supplies. The creation of joint projects on flour milling, processing of livestock products, etc. is seen as promising.

Among the new areas of cooperation is the sphere of digitalisation, where within the framework of implementation of agreements at the highest level Kazakhstan has started work to assist Tajikistan in deployment of its own national eGOV systems, such as Smart Bridge, UPIR (Unified Platform of Internet Resources), Smart Data Ukimet. Fruitful co-operation in the IT sphere will contribute to the development of the economies and improvement of the lives of the citizens of the two countries.

The sides also discussed cultural and humanitarian co-operation. An important event this year will be the holding of Days of Culture of Kazakhstan in Tajikistan. Olzhas Bektenov noted the importance of the upcoming opening of the monument to the great Kazakh thinker and writer Abai Kunanbaev in Dushanbe.

Following the talks, the Heads of Government reaffirmed their readiness to maintain the high dynamics of bilateral strategic partnership in all areas.

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