Nur-Sultan and Kyiv are looking for ways to increase cooperation

Nur-Sultan and Kyiv are looking for ways to increase cooperation

On June 18, Kyiv  hosted the 14th meeting of the Interstate Kazakh-Ukrainian Commission on Economic Cooperation. The co-chairman from the Kazakh side is Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan Bakhyt Sultanov. Co-chairman from the Ukrainian side is First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy of Ukraine Oleksii Lyubchenko.

Opening the meeting, the parties emphasized significant potential for cooperation and mutual interest in joint comprehensive efforts to unleash it. Ukraine remains one of the main trade partners of Kazakhstan. However, in the past few years, a decrease in the volume of mutual trade has been recorded.

In this regard, the co-chairs of the Commission exchanged specific initiatives to increase the trade volume. For example, Bakhyt Sultanov offered his Ukrainian colleagues at the first stage to jointly work out the issue of supplying 70 commodity items for which Kazakhstani enterprises can increase non-resource exports by $ 350 million. This alone will lead to an increase in Kazakhstani exports by 45.5% in the near future.

‘We have the opportunity to increase the supply of products of the petrochemical, metallurgical, food, chemical, engineering industries, construction goods’, - said B. Sultanov.

According to the head of the Kazakh delegation, the development of trade and economic relations would be facilitated by the opening of the Kazakhstan trading house in Kyiv  and the Ukrainian trading house in Nur-Sultan, in which the best products of Kazakhstani and Ukrainian production would be presented.

To intensify mutual trade, the Kazakh side proposed to Kyiv  to deepen cooperation through the opening of joint cooperation projects in various fields. Kazakhstan and Ukraine already have successful experience of such cooperation in the field of mechanical engineering, industry, agriculture and the IT industry. At the same time, there is a potential for joint ventures, including the promotion of finished products to third countries, the co-chairs of the Commission agreed.

Speaking about specific projects, the Ukrainian side expressed interest in the joint production of automotive equipment. For its part, Kazakhstan announced its readiness to supply Hyundai cars of Kazakhstan production to the Ukrainian market and to work out in detail the proposal of partners at the expert level.

In Kyiv, issues of cooperation in the field of standardization, conformity assessment and metrology were also discussed, including the possibility of applying and disseminating national standards of one side in the territory of the other side. According to Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan Bakhyt Sultanov, this would create conditions for the elimination of technical barriers to trade, contributing to the further strengthening of trade and economic cooperation between the countries.

The parties considered the issues of Kazakh-Ukrainian cooperation in the field of transport and transit traffic. Particular attention was paid to the development of transit freight traffic within the Trans-Caspian international transport route.

The Kazakhstani side also proposed to the Ukrainian colleagues to more actively use the capabilities of the International Center for Cross-Border Cooperation "Khorgos" to attract investments and as a platform for wholesale and retail export of Ukrainian products to the PRC.

A separate topic of the negotiations was ensuring the synergy of cooperation in the IT sphere. At the same time, the parties confirmed their intentions to begin pilot implementation of a number of technological solutions in the field of public administration and medicine.

Following the meeting, a number of documents were also signed:

  1. Minutes of the Fourteenth Meeting of the Joint Interstate Ukrainian-Kazakh Commission on Economic Cooperation;
  2. Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine and the Ministry of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan on interaction in bilateral trade;
  3. Memorandum of cooperation in the field of public-private partnership between the state organization "Agency for the support of public-private partnership" and the joint-stock company "Kazakhstan Center for Public-Private Partnership".

The parties agreed to hold the 15th meeting of the joint Commission in the Republic of Kazakhstan (Nur-Sultan).