Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 9
By Rashid Shirinov – Trend:
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are negotiating the possibility of launching an international center for border cooperation, the prototype of which will be the already existing Kazakh-Chinese Khorgos International Center of Boundary Cooperation (ICBC), Kazakh media reported.
"Last year, the transit of goods through Kazakhstan grew by 17 percent and amounted to almost 17 million tons, and starting from 2015, the share of the transport industry in GDP has been not less than 8 percent. Thanks to the successful launch of the Khorgos project, the creation of a similar center on the Kazakh-Uzbek border is currently being studied," Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov said within his visit to the ICBC.
President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev has earlier instructed the government to work out the issue of creating a new international trade zone and the Turkistan checkpoint jointly with Uzbekistan.
"The possibility of creating an international trade zone "Central Asia" should be considered. This will give impetus to the development of the economy of both the Turkistan region and the whole Kazakhstan. We have the potential to increase trade with Uzbekistan to $5 billion a year by 2020," the president said.
It is worth noting that 2018 was declared the year of Uzbekistan in Kazakhstan. Last year, the trade turnover between the two countries exceeded $2 billion, and in January-June this year, it increased by 52 percent. The countries intend to take further coordinated measures to ensure the growth of trade turnover up to $3 billion by year end.
The expansion of border cooperation at Khorgos ICBC is one of the most important investment projects in the Kazakh-Chinese relations. The trade zone provides free movement within the ICBC of citizens of Kazakhstan, China as well as third countries who are officially in the host country for business meetings, transactions and trade.