Kazakhstan-CA trade turnover should be ramped up to $15bln – President

NUR-SULTAN. KAZINFORM – Kazakhstan and Central Asian countries should ramp up their trade turnover to $15 billion in the foreseeable future, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said Thursday, Kazinform correspondent reports.

While speaking at the 4^th Consultative Meeting of the Central Asian leaders in the Kyrgyz city of Cholpon-Ata, the Kazakh President revealed that in the past five years Kazakhstan’s trade turnover with the Central Asian partners increased by 42% totaling $6,3 billion. Given the vast untapped potential, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev believes this figure may hit the mark of $15 billion in the foreseeable future.

The threat of imminent global recession triggered mainly by the sanctions and mounting protectionism brings the issue of accelerated development of the regional economic cooperation to the forefront, said President Tokayev, stressing that the Central Asian economic cooperation can become one of the key sources of growth for CA national economies.

The Head of State proposed to take effective steps to introduce a network of near-border trade and economic hubs which will serve as the pillars of a unified commodity distribution system of the Central Asian countries.

Kazakhstan, in his words, has already launched such projects with its Uzbek and Kyrgyz colleagues by launching the Central Asia international industrial cooperation center on the Kazakh-Uzbek border and the Industrial trade and logistic complex on the Kazakh-Kyrgyz border. Analogous projects are in the works together with Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

Recall that Cholpon-Ata hosted the 4^th Consultative Meeting of Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Turkmen, and Uzbek leaders on July 20.