ASTANA, Kazakhstan, September 13. Bilateral trade turnover between Kazakhstan and China's Hong Kong special economic region grew by 91 percent to $51.8 million over the past year, said Minister of Trade and Integration of Kazakhstan Arman Shakkaliyev, Trend reports.
"China is Kazakhstan's second-largest partner, with a trade turnover of $24.2 billion in 2022. We are ready to increase non-commodity exports to China in the amount of $1 billion for 135 product items, to Hong Kong - for 100 product items worth over $600 million," said Arman Shakkaliyev speaking at the VIII "One Belt, One Road" Summit in Hong Kong.
According to him, the main component of the development of international trade is the mutual opening of markets and the development of supply chains.
He noted that Kazakhstan wants to become a major transport hub connecting Europe and Asia.
"Many prerequisites have already been created for this. The volume of container rail transportation in the China-Europe-China direction through the territory of Kazakhstan is growing every year. On the border with China, the formation of the Khorgos - Eastern Gate free economic zone has been fully completed. In 2014, a logistics terminal was created in the port of Lianyungang with Chinese partners, which today is the main point of consolidation of cargo flows from and to Kazakhstan. In May of this year, the construction of the Kazakhstan Railways terminal on the territory of the dry port of Xi'an was launched," he said.
As the minister noted, projects of high-quality highways are also being implemented in the directions Center-South, Center-East, Center-West, which will provide through passage from south to north, from west to east.
Barrier-free trade, investment and trade-economic cooperation are the main goals of the "One Belt, One Road" initiative. To date, 150 countries along the Belt and Road route and more than 32 international organizations have joined the initiative.
