Serik Zhumangarin: Cooperation between Kazakhstan and Pakistan is developing in a friendly and mutually beneficial direction

Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Trade and Integration of Kazakhstan Serik Zhumangarin met with Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Shahbaz Sharif.

The meeting took place as part of the Kazakh delegation's trip to Pakistan to participate in the work of the 11th Joint Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technical and Cultural Cooperation between the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, held on December 23-24 in Islamabad.

Serik Zhumangarin thanked the Prime Minister of Pakistan for the warm welcome and conveyed greetings on behalf of the country's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

In turn, Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Shahbaz Sharif expressed gratitude to the Head of our state for the condolences and assistance provided to the people of Pakistan affected by the flood. He noted that friendly relations between the two countries are strengthening day by day, have reached a qualitatively new level, as evidenced by the holding of the current intergovernmental commission. Shahbaz Sharif highly appreciated the decisions taken following the meeting of the commission, including the signing of three memorandums of understanding on aviation, investment and banking cooperation.

The sides discussed issues of cooperation in the mutual supply of agro-food, pharmaceutical products, industrial cooperation in the textile industry, the transit potential of both countries, including the construction of the trans-Afghan railway.

Serik Zhumangarin said that Kazakhstan supports this project and is ready to consider various options for participation in it, including the supply of materials. The Deputy Prime Minister also invited Pakistani manufacturers engaged in the textile, pharmaceutical industry, mineral fertilizers production (Engro Corporation) to participate in the development of joint cooperation projects in Kazakhstan. He stressed that fruitful cooperation between the two countries will undoubtedly continue in a friendly and mutually beneficial way.

On the Pakistani side, it was proposed to consider the potential of seaports for the transit of Kazakh goods to the markets of Southeast Asia.