Kazakhstan, China work on over 50 joint industrial projects- minister

ASTANA. KAZINFORM - Minister of Investment and Development Zhenis Kassymbek revealed Thursday that Kazakhstan and China jointly cooperate on 51 industrial projects, Kazinform reports. 

"51 projects worth $27-28 million are being implemented within the framework of Kazakh-Chinese cooperation in industrial sector. The list of projects is amended every year. Of 51, five projects have been implemented since 2015-2016, including Saryarka and Avtoprom. We met with our Chinese colleagues a week ago and removed seven projects from the list replacing them with the new ones," Minister Kassymbek said at the party hearings on the progress in implementation of the Industrial and Innovative Development State Program for 2015-2019 in Astana.

According to him, Kazakhstan and China shifted their focus to joint work on the rare-earth metals projects. Initially investors were not interested in those projects, but new, bigger companies from China are keen to work on those, Minister Kassymbek said.

"The list of projects and companies will be changed every year. I would like to add that we've already implemented five projects. 13 more projects are underway," Kassymbek noted.