In January-July 2011 Belarus-Kazakhstan trade amounted to $438.9 million, 23% up on January-July 2010, said Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to Kazakhstan Valery Brylev at the opening of a business matchmaking session in Astana on 27 September.

The Ambassador said that Kazakhstan is a strategic partner of Belarus in Central Asia. “We closely and productively cooperate in virtually all international organizations and such integration institutions as EurAsEC and the Customs Union. The creation of the Customs Union and the formation of the Single Economic Space reflect a quality new step in the advancement of Belarusian-Kazakh trade and economic relations,” said Valery Brylev.

Simple trade in commodities is replaced by advanced manufacturing cooperation and joint R&D efforts. It is the mutually beneficial approach that makes a real contribution to the technological and financial stability of the two economies, contributes to the innovation-driven development of the production sector and creation of new jobs, meets development priorities of the regions, enables satisfying the Customs Union market with domestic products and creates prospects for delivering joint products to third-country markets.

In the last three years a lot has been achieved. As many as 11 joint ventures have been set up in Kazakhstan to assemble Belarusian machines, including three enterprises set up in 2011. The enterprises assemble mining machines, tractors, harvesters, engines, balers, elevators, and trailed agricultural machines. Projects have been launched to manufacture cardan shafts, sowing and potato-harvesting machines. There are plans to start assembling powerful tractors by the end of the year along with new models of forage and grain harvesters.

In the last five-years Belarus-Kazakhstan mutual trade has increased from $215 million to $870 million in 2010. Positive trends continue this year, too.

“We believe the expansion of direct ties between businessmen at the regional level and the individual one is the priority area of efforts in mutually beneficial cooperation for the sake of expanding contacts, diversifying business interaction, boosting the bilateral trade and investment efforts in the two countries,” said the Ambassador.


Belta