Kazakhstan's transit opportunities presented at EU-Eurasia-China Business summit

ASTANA. KAZINFORM On October 9-10, Athens hosted the EU-Eurasia-China Business summit, discussing the most important issues of developing trade and transport corridors between Europe and Asia, Kazinform reports with reference to the press service of the Foreign Ministry.

The first of its kind, Business Summit, organized by The Economist in cooperation with the Greek Eurasian Business Council and themed "Building Bridges from East to West", gathered more than 500 representatives of key states, transnational and logistics companies responsible for the development of transport commercial flows of goods and services between Europe and China.

Speaking at the opening panel session, Deputy Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan Roman Vassilenko noted that, due to its geographical location, Kazakhstan is crucial to the success of the new Silk Road and, thus, was named by experts The Buckle In One Belt, One Road for a reason.

Having mentioned the similarity of the Nurly Zhol and Belt and Road infrastructure projects, the diplomat noted that since its independence Kazakhstan has built over 2,500 kilometers of railways and about 4,000 kilometers of highways, a modern Khorgos dry port on the Chinese border and modernized the Aktau Sea port, which allowed for opening of new "logistics gates" on the territory of Kazakhstan and increasing the transit container traffic through the country 100 times by 2016. Mr. Vassilenko also stressed that the development of transcontinental transport arteries carries an important added value in the form of strengthening the economic potential of the countries involved and, more importantly, strengthening security in the center of Eurasia, noting the great importance of involving Afghanistan in these processes.

Also, during his visit to Greece, Roman Vassilenko met with the country's Tourism Minister, Elena Kountoura, First Deputy Foreign Minister Georgios Katrougalos, co-chair of the Kazakhstan-Greece Intergovernmental Commission for Economic and Technological Cooperation, Deputy Foreign Minister responsible for Greeks abroad, Terence Quick, co-chairman of the interparliamentary friendship group, MP Leonidas Grigorakos, as well as the President of the Greek Eurasian Business Council Spyros Kouvelis.

The sides discussed specific steps to further expand trade and economic cooperation between the countries, stressing mutual interest in maximizing the potential for such cooperation. In particular, Roman Vassilenko invited Georgios Katrougalos and Terence Quick to head the trade and political mission in Astana.