Central Asian countries ready to expand trading horizons

The trade turnover of Central Asian countries has already reached US$6.5 billion, wherein the share of mutual trade between the states of the region is only 9 percent. In this regard, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov called on the countries to strengthen and expand trade relations. The head of the Cabinet of Ministers said that regional cooperation has always been one of the top priorities for Kazakhstan. Joint projects in industry, energy, machine engineering, agriculture and other sectors are currently well underway. The need arose to adapt the national economic development policy for the medium term amidst profound structural changes in the global economy, Kazakh Prime Minister noted.

“We started to elaborate the economic policy of the New Kazakhstan with the active participation of the business community and experts from international financial organizations. This document provides for the planning of new measures to improve the investment climate, the business environment, to reduce the country’s involvement in the economy, stimulate technological upgrading, introduce innovations, scale standards, expand green financing and alternative energy,” Smailov said.