Kazakhstan and Slovakia strengthen interparliamentary ties
Recently, Kazakhstan and Slovakia have celebrated the 20th anniversary of diplomatic relations. As K.Mami stressed "a lot has been done during this period in terms of the development of friendly ties, based on mutual trust and respect of interests."
Speaking of the bilateral interparliamentary dialogue, the Kazakh Senate Speaker noted it is an important component of interstate interaction. The upper chamber of the Kazakh Parliament is keen to establish closer contacts with the National Council of the Slovak Republic.
"The Friendship Group with Kazakhstan formed within the Slovak Parliament includes influential Slovak politicians. We plan to create the Friendship Group with Slovakia under the Kazakh Senate in the nearest future as well," stated Mr. Mami.
During the meeting the sides expressed readiness to develop contacts at a multilateral level, for instance, within the parliamentary assemblies of the OSCE, the Council of Europe and NATO.
"Slovakia is quite promising as an economic partner for Kazakhstan," the Kazakh Senate Speaker said. He also pointed out the positive dynamics in sales turnover between the two countries, despite the global financial crisis.
The volume of bilateral trade amounted to $137 million in 2012. According to K. Mami, Kazakhstan is interested in the implementation of joint projects in the sphere of agriculture, transport infrastructure, construction, metallurgy, chemical and engineering industry.
Speaker of the National Council of the Slovak Republic Pavol Paška said he is impressed with the scale of construction in Astana, which, in his words, reflects development of Kazakhstan in general. Mr. Paška admitted he is surprised to see the results that Kazakhstan has achieved over such short period of time.
The Slovak MP noted Kazakhstan and Slovakia have a lot in common: both countries attained independence 20 years ago and developed rapidly. "The global crisis is encouraging to look for new opportunities for growth, and extension of international economic contacts is one of them. The aim of my visit to Kazakhstan is to activate the Kazakh-Slovak partnership dramatically," Mr. Paška noted.
The sides also exchanged views on the activity of the Intergovernmental Commission for Economic and Scientific-Technical Cooperation, development of business contacts and prospects for interaction between Kazakhstan and the EU.