Lisbon hosted Kazakh-Portuguese political consultations
Portugal views Kazakhstan as an important and reliable partner in a strategically promising region and is ready to enter into an intergovernmental agreement on economic, trade and technical cooperation in the nearest future. That was a keynote of the meeting of the Kazakh Deputy Foreign Minister Roman Vassilenko with Director General for Foreign Policy of the Portuguese MFA Pedro Costa Pereira.
The parties discussed the state and prospects of expansion of the Kazakhstan-Portugal cooperation in political, trade-economic and cultural-humanitarian sectors and emphasized a positive dynamics of interaction observed in recent years.
The diplomats praised the quality of the dialogue within the international and regional organizations reflected in mutual support of foreign policy initiatives between the two countries. The sides shared views on the most important international problems and pointed out commonality of the two countries' positions on them. The point at issue was coordination of efforts on promotion of stabilization of Afghanistan and regulation of conflicts.
In this context, the diplomats emphasized a special role of the First President of Kazakhstan- the Leader of the Nation Nursultan Nazarbayev in strengthening security and stability in the Central Asian region and across the globe.
Special attention was given to the efficient implementation of the Kazakhstan-EU Extended Partnership Agreement as well as to the interaction of the countries in CA-EU format.
The representative of the Portuguese MFA expressed readiness to provide further support to Kazakhstan's initiatives in the international arena.
The talks also focused on interaction within economic diplomacy. The heads of delegations stressed the importance of coordination of efforts in transport and transit sector in light of One Belt, One Road initiative, in development of alternative energy, IT, innovations and engineering, light industry and tourism. It was underlined that the joint work in this area requires expanding the regulatory-legal framework and boosting negotiation process on development of new agreement in priority sectors. Thus, the sides agreed to facilitate the intrastate procedures of approving the Draft Agreement on Economic, Trade and Technical Cooperation aimed at establishment of an intergovernmental commission.
The parties expressed mutual interest in organization of an investment forum which would contribute to deepening the cooperation between the two countries' business communities and search for new mutually beneficial and competitive projects. 
During the visit, the Kazakh delegation offered a presentation of the country's investment climate. The event brought together as many as 50 participants from the Portuguese side. The delegation also met with AICEP Executive Director Antonio Silva and top management of a number of large, medium and small enterprises, such as AIP, Partex Oil and Gaz Group, EFACEC, Novobase, ISQ Global, TCPI, Micotec, NOV, SMP, MPG.
In B2B format the sides discussed the participation of Portuguese companies in promising investment projects of Kazakhstan.
The meetings discussed the ties in the fields of education and culture, including organization of the Portuguese language courses at Kazakhstani universities.
Upon completion of the visit, Roman Vassilenko gave an interview to Diario de Noticias Agency regarding the state and prospects of development of the Kazakh-Portuguese cooperation.
From 2005 to Q3 2018, the inflow of investments from Portugal to Kazakhstan reached 251mn U.S. dollars. Commodity turnover in 2018 comprised 398.4mn U.S. dollars. Several Portuguese companies are successfully working in Kazakhstan's IT, construction, architectural design, exhibition activities and furniture production spheres.