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Belarus, Kazakhstan prioritize industrial cooperation in bilateral relations

NUR-SULTAN, 25 October (BelTA) – Belarus and Kazakhstan have decided upon industrial cooperation as a priority in economic relations, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko told the media after his meeting with Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on 25 October, BelTA has learned.

“Further development of industrial cooperation has been identified as a priority area. We are moving from traditional trade, which is widely represented and well-developed, to cooperative relations. There are successful joint ventures that assemble Belarusian machinery: harvesters, tractors, trucks, trailers and mounted agricultural equipment. We have agreed to increase the production of harvesters and decided on the further strategy for the production of Minsk Tractor Plant products in Kazakhstan,” said Aleksandr Lukashenko.

In his words, along with industrial cooperation, the countries have the necessary potential to improve effective collaboration in other sectors of the economy: agriculture, transport and logistics, road construction, high technology, and the peaceful exploration of space.

Belarus is interested in Kazakhstan’s metals, grain, cotton fiber and oil products. “As you know, Belarus pays special attention to the diversification of oil supplies. Therefore, we are interested in importing this raw material from your country,” the president said. 

Aleksandr Lukashenko added that Kazakhstan is one of Belarus’ major trade partners in the CIS. Over the past years mutual trade increased significantly to reach almost $900 million in 2018. Positive momentum continues this year. “It is evident, however, that this figure meets neither Kazakhstan’s scale nor Belarus’ opportunities. I am confident that it is possible to reach $1 billion in mutual trade. We have mapped out such prospects,” the head of state said.

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