Kazakhstan, Belarus should boost trade turnover - Nazarbayev
MINSK. November 26. KAZINFORM. /Yernur Akanbai/ President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev considers that Kazakhstan and Belarus should exert joint efforts to increase trade turnover that declined because of the crisis. He said it during the negotiations with President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk on Thursday.
According to N. Nazarbayev, economic cooperation is the basis of bilateral relations. Over the previous decade commodity circulation between Kazakhstan and Belarus increased 13 times. But in terms of the world crisis the index fell.
As is known, Kazakhstan is the third large trade partner of Belarus after Russia and Ukraine. Before the beginning of the global financial crisis the volume of commodity turnover between the two states amounted to nearly 50%. In 2008 it was USD 567 million that is by 7.9% more than in 2007. Over the period of January-September 2009 the trade turnover made USD 316.8 million.