қаз/рус

At the meeting, issues of cooperation between the two countries in various sectors of the economy, agriculture, energy, subsoil use and industry, transport and logistics, engineering, as well as implementation of joint investment projects under the industrial and innovative development were discussed.

Anticipating the conversation, the Prime Minister noted the importance of the recently signed Interim Agreement on the formation of a free trade zone between the EAEU countries and Iran.

The agreement is aimed at establishing a preferential trade regime and is based on the WTO norms and international law, which will create stable conditions and rules for mutual trade between countries.

Also, the prospects for cooperation in agriculture, in particular, on the supply of oilseeds and products of its processing, legumes and fodder crops, were discussed.

According to the results of 2017, 979.9 thousand tons of agricultural products were exported from Kazakhstan to Iran for the total amount of $169.9 million.

In addition, work is being carried out with the largest Iranian holding, Jahad-e-Sabz, for the creation of apple orchards and joint ventures for agro-industrial complex. Currently, construction of a meat processing complex with the participation of an Iranian investor is underway in the Almaty region.

There are good prerequisites for the development of cooperation in subsoil use. At the moment, Kavand Nahan Zamin has successfully invested in a copper development project at the Borly field, which has already been invested more than $1 million.

In addition, active cooperation goes on between Asia Copper LLP and the Iranian company Gadir. The joint venture "Persian Gadir Kazakhstan Company" has been established.

Today there is an increase in the transport of goods by transit by rail. So in 2017 the volume of transportation amounted to 228.56 thousand tons. Positive dynamics was also fixed following the results of 2 months of 2018. The volume of cargo transportation by railroad transit in Kazakhstan amounted to 75.77 thousand tons. Growth is also observed in the sphere of export-import cargo between Kazakhstan and Iran.

The work is in progress on the project for the construction of cargo terminals in the Iranian seaport of Bander Abbas. The successful implementation of this project will give an additional impetus to the development of bilateral relations.

It should also be noted that within the visit of the Head of our State to Iran, an agreement was reached on the joint development of the Silk Road route. Kazakhstan considers it necessary to accelerate work in this direction and the formation of a joint working group to search for new directions for cooperation.

During the conversation, other topical issues of bilateral cooperation in various spheres were also discussed.

For reference: The trade turnover for January-February 2018 amounted to $127.0 million, which is 75% higher than the previous year’s same indicator ($72.7 million). Exports from Kazakhstan to Iran in January-February 2018 increased by 67% and amounted to $110.1 million. Imports to Kazakhstan from Iran in January-February 2018 increased by 138% and amounted to $16.9 million. For the period from 2005 to 2017 the gross inflow of direct investments from Iran to Kazakhstan amounted to $118.7 million, the outflow for the same period was $10.2 million. 231 joint ventures successfully operate In Kazakhstan.

Source: primeminister.kz