PM Sagintayev meets with Japanese Ambassador

ASTANA. KAZINFORM - Bakytzhan Sagintayev, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, discussed current state of Kazakh-Japanese relations with Ambassador Ichiro Kawabata in Astana on Wednesday.

According to primeminsiter.kz, the meeting was held at Ukimet Uyi (House of Government).

At the meeting, the Kazakh Premier and Ambassador Kawabata looked into the possibility of expanding the most promising directions of economic, cultural, military and technical cooperation between Astana and Tokyo.

The volume of bilateral trade between Kazakhstan and Japan totaled $1.1 billion in 2016 (export - $558.6 million, import - $552.9 million). It exceeded $769 million (export - $565 million, import - $203.8) in January-July 2017.

As to the volume of direct investment from Japan, it has exceeded $6.3 billion over the past 10 years. Direct investment from Japan to Kazakhstan amounted to $470 million in 2016.

Kazakhstan numbers over 70 enterprises with Japanese capital in such spheres as oil and gas, metallurgy, finance, ore mining, logistics and more.