Kingdom of Jordan, Kazakhstan poised to upgrade ties
"The visit is expected to take place on the 27th and the 28th of September, during which the president will be attending the signing of several agreements, including a free trade agreement, an agreement to avoid double taxation on goods and a visa-free agreement," Kazakhstan's Ambassador to Jordan Bulat Sarsenbayev told The Jordan Times in a recent interview.
The ambassador noted that during a meeting in February this year between Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Massimov and Prime Minister Nader Dahabi, the two sides agreed to concentrate on three areas of cooperation: the agricultural, pharmaceutical and energy sectors.
In 2008, the trade volume between the two countries amounted to $73 million, jumping from $13 million in 2007.
"The trade volume is still below the two countries' ambitions, but there is a tendency from both sides to keep it growing despite the negative impact of the global economic crisis," Sarsenbayev said.
He pointed out that a Jordanian delegation will visit Kazakhstan in August to discuss with Kazakh officials and business leaders prospects for joint agricultural ventures by the private sectors of both countries.
"The two sides agreed, during a meeting of a governmental committee on economic cooperation in January, to bring together representatives from the private sectors of both sides in order to meet and discuss each other's potentials and chances of establishing joint projects," the diplomat said, adding that a joint agricultural venture will be established and registered as a Kazakh company based in Kazakhstan.
According to the envoy, the company will be tasked with cultivating Kazakh land in order to supply the Kingdom with its needs of wheat at prices lower than those on the international market.
This project faced the challenge of transportation, due to the fact that Kazakhstan has no seaports and exports to Jordan have to go through Russia, which imposes higher taxes that make trade more costly.
But Sarsenbayev said this issue will be addressed starting next January, after a previously signed agreement between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan goes into effect, unifying customs and tariffs within these countries.
Moreover, the diplomat noted that his government has presented Jordan with two draft agreements, one to remove double taxation on traded goods and the other to allow Jordanian and Kazakh citizens to travel between the countries without visas.
If approved by the Jordanian side, the visa-free agreement will be the first between the former Soviet republic and an Arab country, Kazinform refers to Hani Hazaimeh, The Jordan Times.
See www.jordantimes.com for full version.