Kazakhstan, Vietnam round off talks on establishment of free-trade zone

"Over 16 countries expressed their willingness to establish free-trade zones. This is a very important direction of the integration process because it simply expands the markets for our entrepreneurs," T. Zhaksylykov said. He also noted that thanks to free-trade zones Kazakhstan could have a privileged access to the markets of the countries that are going to have free-trade zones with Kazakhstan. "The free-trade market means that we allow other countries to our market and receive a privileged access to their markets instead. Presently, we negotiate the possibility of having a free-trade market with Vietnam. I think we will round off the talks by midyear," T. Zhaksylykov said. According to him, Vietnam is not the only country intending to have access to the market of Kazakhstan. "We discuss the issues of free trade with many European countries. We also have talks with New Zealand, Turkey, India, Israel, Egypt and other countries. Besides, 10 countries of Latin America expressed their interest in initiating the talks on the issue," the speaker added.