Belarus considers Kazakhstan as a platform for expanding its presence in Central Asia and is ready to become Kazakhstan's gateway to Europe. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko made the statement as he met with President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev on 14 May, BelTA has learned.
Alexander Lukashenko remarked Belarus is interested in starting major joint projects with Kazakhstan soon. Apart from manufacturing cooperation projects Belarus is interested in projects in power engineering, transportation, logistics, new technologies, telecommunications, and agribusiness.
Belarus also expects that new conditions would allow considerably invigorating investment cooperation. "We hope that Kazakh capital will participate in privatization processes in our country," said the President of Belarus. In turn, Belarusian enterprises may be interested in more active participation in Kazakh government programs, including those meant to modernize the Kazakh economy.
"I think our present meeting will be the starting point for new avenues of cooperation between our countries," said Alexander Lukashenko. The Belarusian head of state said he believes the timing of the Kazakhstan President visit to Belarus on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the countries was symbolical. He was satisfied the two countries had approached the date with a large number of achievements in virtually all areas of Belarusian-Kazakh cooperation.
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