Astana hosted talks between the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov and the Minister for Foreign Affairs for the Commonwealth and Development of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland James Cleverley, Ukimet.kz reports.
At the meeting, it was announced that Kazakhstan will increase the export of its goods to the UK by $800 million.
The UK is one of the key trade and investment partners of Kazakhstan on the European continent. In 2022, trade between the countries grew by almost 60%, exceeding $1.8 billion.
The United Kingdom is among the top 10 investors in Kazakhstan: since 2005, about $16.5 billion of direct investment has been invested in the republic. The growth trend has continued in recent years.
"The government of Kazakhstan is determined to further deepen cooperation with the UK in all areas. In this context, an important step will be the adoption of the Kazakh-British Agreement on strategic partnership and cooperation, the development of which is at the final stage," Alikhan Smailov said.
He added that as part of the expansion of mutual trade, Kazakhstan is ready to increase exports of products to the UK in more than 100 commodity items worth about $800 million. Trans-Caspian international transport route.
In turn, James Cleverley stressed that Kazakhstan is one of the most important trading partners of Great Britain in Central Asia, and indicated the readiness of the United Kingdom to strengthen cooperation in all mutually beneficial areas.
"UK and Kazakhstan have an excellent relationship, they are quite strong and, in my opinion, have great potential for growth. This gives us the opportunity to discuss what else we can do, what prospects open up for us for the future," said James Cleverley.
As a result of the meeting, in the presence of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, memorandums on strategic partnership between Kazakhstan and Great Britain in the field of development of environmentally friendly hydrogen and the most important mineral raw materials were signed.
CentralasianLIGHT.org
March 19, 2023