Prime ministers of Kazakhstan and Pakistan eye increasing trade-economic cooperation
Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov has arrived in Islamabad to participate in a meeting of the Head of Government Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Kazinform News Agency reports citing the Telegram channel of the Kazakh Government.
Upon arrival, Olzhas Bektenov met his Pakistani colleague Shehbaz Sharif to discuss the current state and prospects for further development of the bilateral trade-economic cooperation and interaction in the field of digitalization.
Bektenov said that the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev gave special attention to the potential of the Kazakhstan-Pakistan economic cooperation.
The sides noted that in eight months of 2024, bilateral trade surged by 16% having reached about $40 million. To unlock the existing potential, the sides intend to continue diversifying the commodity turnover.
Kazakhstan is ready to ramp up the delivery of up to 85 commodity items worth more than $490 million to the Pakistani market and also to broaden the range of products of petrochemical, metallurgical, chemical, pharmaceutical, food industries and machine-building sector.
Agricultural cooperation was also on the meeting agenda. In January-August 2024, the volume of Kazakhstan’s agricultural products delivered to Pakistan increased almost 2 times, amounting to $7.7 million. Home-grown vegetables and grain crops are in demand in the Pakistani market. The Kazakh side expressed its readiness to raise grain crops delivery to Pakistan up to 2 million tons.
The heads of government also debated the prospects for further development of the Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan multi-modal route and Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan new transport corridor.
The sides agreed to continue expanding the interaction in the entire range of trade-economic and cultural-humanitarian relations.
On July 3, 2024, Prime Minister of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif visited Kazakhstan to attend the SCO Summit.