Kazakhstan-UK two-way trade up - Minister Kassymbek

ASTANA. KAZINFORM - Minister for Investment and Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan Zhenis Kassymbek met in Astana with Greg Hands, Minister of State for Trade and Investment of the UK, Kazinform has learnt from the ministry's press service.

At the meeting, Minister Kassymbek praised great dynamics of development of bilateral relations between Astana and London. He also stressed that Great Britain is one of the key strategic partners of Kazakhstan in Europe.

The sides paid utmost attention to cooperation in trilateral format between China, Kazakhstan and Great Britain as part of implementation of the concept of the Silk Road Economic Belt.

Over 15 transit routes of container trains between China and Europe cross the territory of Kazakhstan. Last year, over 104,000 containers were transported via China-Europe-China route, compared to almost 50,000 containers in 2015.



The first freight train en route Zhejiang-London was launched in 2017 and cleared the distance in 18 days. That is 30 days less that it takes a cargo ship to cover that distance.

Great Britain is among Kazakhstan's top 10 trade partners in terms of trade turnover. It also happens to be one of six largest investors of Kazakhstan. Over the past 12 years inflow of direct investment from Great Britain to Kazakhstan has exceeded $12 billion, accounting for 5% of total volume of attracted FDI.

Two-way trade between Kazakhstan and Great Britain has totaled $422.6 million in January-April 2017, compared to $333.7 million in the analogous period of 2016.