ASTANA, Kazakhstan, March 13. Kazakhstan and China are taking steps to expand the potential of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR, or Middle Corridor), Trend reports.
These steps were discussed by Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Oljas Bektenov and Ambassador of China to Kazakhstan Zhang Xiao.
"The parties discussed ongoing steps in the transit and transport sectors to build a new Bakhty-Tachen railway checkpoint, expand the potential of the Middle Corridor, and develop regional integration. In addition, issues of increasing the number of passenger flights were considered," said the press service of the government of Kazakhstan.
In addition to this, during the negotiations, measures were considered to eliminate restrictions on mutual trade, remove administrative barriers, and simplify customs procedures. In particular, the readiness to increase the supply of highly processed Kazakh agricultural products to the Chinese market was indicated.
It was noted that bilateral trade turnover between Kazakhstan and China at the end of last year increased by 30 percent, reaching $31.5 billion. The volume of Chinese investments in the economy of Kazakhstan for the nine months of 2023 amounted to about $1.4 billion. Currently, 45 joint Kazakh-Chinese projects with an investment volume of over $14.5 billion are in the implementation stage. Over the first two months of this year, the volume of container traffic increased by 2.6 times.
Moreover, Oljas Bektenov noted that the trade and economic partnership between Kazakhstan and China are on the rise.
"Kazakh-Chinese joint projects allow the creation of high-tech enterprises for the production of high-quality products that are in demand on the market. Today, more than 3,000 joint companies are successfully operating in our country. This indicates the sustainability and productivity of the partnership between the business communities of the two countries," the PM said