Kazakhstan ready to increase its exports to Tajikistan by $190mln

Upon arrival, Olzhas Bektenov was received by President of the Republic of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon. Kazakhstan is Tajikistan's fourth largest trading partner. Today, thanks to the intensive political dialogue and agreements reached between Presidents of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon, the bilateral trade and economic cooperation is progressively developing. In view of the existing wide potential, the governments set a task to increase the trade turnover by 2 times - up to $2 billion.

The intergovernmental talks were held in an extended format and were devoted to measures to strengthen cooperation and diversify trade flows. The readiness of Kazakhstan to increase exports of 85 commodity items worth about $190 million was noted.

The government delegations noted the importance of developing industrial cooperation and outlined the relevance of creating new export-oriented joint ventures.

Given the extensive experience of Kazakhstan, the possibility of joint development of deposits and implementation of projects in Tajikistan was considered. Along with this Kazakhstan has large production capacities of railway equipment for Tajik railways. The Aktobe plant is ready to co-operate in terms of supply of rail products. There is also a possibility of increasing export volumes of locomotives, diesel locomotives, switches, transformers, agricultural machinery, batteries and motor vehicles produced in Kazakhstan.

An important item on the bilateral agenda is cooperation in the water sector, which is strengthening every year and characterized by a high level of mutual understanding. Joint actions taken by the countries allow ensuring the necessary operation regime of the Bakhri Tojik reservoir during the growing season. Here were also discussed the efforts to organize the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea, the chairmanship of which Kazakhstan assumed from Tajikistan at the beginning of this year.

In the agricultural sphere, after last year's reduction in trade volumes, positive growth dynamics is noted. For two months of the current year, trade turnover of agricultural products totaled $84.9 million with an increase of 8.9 per cent compared to the same period of 2023. At the same time, there is a diversification of the structure of agricultural exports to Tajikistan. Among the current tasks in the industry is to increase the volume of flour supplies. The creation of joint projects on flour milling, processing of livestock products, etc. is seen as promising.

Among the new areas of cooperation is the sphere of digitalization, where within the framework of implementation of agreements at the highest level Kazakhstan has started work to assist Tajikistan in deployment of its own national eGOV systems, such as Smart Bridge, UPIR (Unified Platform of Internet Resources), Smart Data Ukimet. Fruitful co-operation in the IT sphere will contribute to the development of the economies and improvement of the lives of the citizens of the two countries.

The sides also discussed cultural and humanitarian co-operation. An important event this year will be the holding of the Days of Culture of Kazakhstan in Tajikistan. Bektenov noted the importance of the upcoming opening of the monument to the great Kazakh thinker and writer Abai Kunanbaev in Dushanbe.

Following the talks, the Heads of Government reaffirmed their readiness to maintain the high dynamics of bilateral strategic partnership in all areas.

Notably, the Central Asian countries agreed to establish a mechanism for cooperation in the water and energy sector.

Tajikistan sent 3,500 tons of humanitarian assistance to Kazakhstan during floods.