The trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Pakistan increased by 17.9% and reached $57.0 million.

As part of the visit of the delegation of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to the Republic of Kazakhstan, the 2nd meeting of the Joint Working Group in the field of trade and investment was held. Vice-Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kairat Torebayev, Minister of Trade of the Islamic Republic Muhammad Suale Ahmad Faruhi, as well as interested state bodies of both countries took part.

"Today's meeting is one of the important stages in preparation for the upcoming joint Intergovernmental Commission. Pakistan is an important trading partner of Kazakhstan in South Asia and we are interested in further development of economic ties in both bilateral and multilateral formats," Kairat Torebayev said.

Recall that in September of this year, Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Trade and Integration Serik Zhumangarin and Minister of Commerce of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Said Navid Qamar held bilateral online talks, where they discussed a wide range of issues of bilateral cooperation in agriculture, gas and coal supplies from Kazakhstan to Pakistan, cooperation in the banking sector.

Thus, we are seeing an increase in trade turnover by the end of 2021, so bilateral trade increased by 2.1 p. and amounted to $95.1 million (in 2020 - $45.6). At the same time, exports increased by 4.1 p. and amounted to $65.9 million, while imports decreased by 0.7% and amounted to $29.2 million.

The trade turnover between our countries also increased by 17.9% in the first nine months of 2022 and reached $57.0 million compared to the results of 2021 ($48.3 million).Exports increased by 19.8% and amounted to $31.8 million, imports also increased by 15.7% and amounted to $25.2 million.

According to Torebayev Kairat, priority areas for Kazakhstan are: cooperation in the field of agro-industrial complex, mining, non-ferrous metallurgy, mechanical engineering, energy, light industry, transport and communications. At the same time, the potential of trade and economic cooperation between the countries is not fully realized.

The Kazakh side noted that the narrow commodity nomenclature of mutual trade remains a "weak point" and we need to make efforts to expand it.

To this end, the Ministry of Trade of Kazakhstan proposed to work out the issue of supplies of processed goods for which Kazakh enterprises can increase exports. According to calculations, in the future, Kazakhstani companies are ready to supply 80 processed goods of various industries worth $411.9 million to the Pakistani market.

In particular, the total inflow of foreign direct investment from Pakistan to Kazakhstan for the period from 2011 to the 1st quarter of 2022 amounted to $16.7 million. Despite the global crisis and pandemic, the trade turnover between the countries has grown 3.7 times over the past five years (from $25.6 to $95.1 million).

Kazakhstan began to import more from Pakistan by almost a third, and the most significant is that exports from Kazakhstan to Pakistan increased 24.8 times over a five-year period: from $2.7 million in 2016 to $65.9 million in 2021.

Following the results of the 2nd meeting of the Joint Working Group on Trade and Investment between the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Vice Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kairat Torebayev announced his readiness to establish mutually beneficial and fruitful cooperation on the widest possible range of issues and to make efforts to strengthen and further expand the Kazakh-Pakistani dialogue.