Kazakhstan the 1st commercial partner of China in CA: Chinese Minister of Commerce

Kazakhstan has become the first commercial and economic partner of China in Central Asia," Chinese Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng said in Beijing during the meeting with Minister of Economy and Budget Planning of Kazakhstan Erbolat Dossayev.

The sides held the meeting to discuss the prospects for further development of the bilateral commercial and investment cooperation and other issues related to the upcoming state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Kazakhstan.

The signing of the Mid-Term and Long-Term Development Program of the Kazakh-Chinese Commercial and Economic Cooperation for 2020 was also debated at the Beijing meeting.

As reported earlier, during Nursultan Nazarbayev's visit to Beijing this April, Kazakhstan and China agreed to conduct special consultations on further strengthening of the bilateral trade.

In 2012, the sales turnover between the countries amounted to 24 billion US dollars. It is highly expected to hit the mark of 40 billion US dollars in 2015.