The 13th meeting of the Kazakh-Belarusian Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation (IGC) took place today in Karaganda.

First Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan A. Mamin headed the Kazakhstani side and the Belarusian side was headed by the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Belarus V. Matyushevsky.

During the IGC meeting, the issues of development of bilateral cooperation in the spheres of trade, investment, industrial cooperation, agriculture, science and technology, transport and logistics were discussed.

Askar Mamin noted the success of relations between Kazakhstan and Belarus at all levels of interstate relations, participation in integration associations in the post-Soviet space, primarily in the Eurasian Economic Union.

The sides noted with satisfaction the growing dynamics of trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Belarus for the first seven months. The trade turnover for January-July of 2017 amounted to $313.7 million, increasing by 75.6% compared to the same period of the last year.

"The trade turnover between our countries by 2020 should be brought to 1 billion US dollars," A. Mamin said.

As the co-chairman of the Kazakhstan part of the IGC A. Mamin noted, Kazakhstan and Belarus have great opportunities for successful implementation of joint projects in industrial cooperation, transport and logistics sector, space industry, agro-industrial complex, cultural, humanitarian and scientific-technical sphere.

The parties expressed mutual interest in further development of partnership relations to enhance the integration of the transport and logistics infrastructure of Kazakhstan and Belarus, localization and expansion of the product line.

"In recent years, there has been a steady dynamics of interregional cooperation," said V. Matyushevsky and noted that "today more than 100 enterprises with Kazakhstan investments operate in Belarus. The Belarusian side is ready to continue to provide comprehensive support in the implementation of investment projects, encourage mutually beneficial investments."

The parties considered the possibility of creating a joint working group for the development of promising areas of cooperation, the implementation of joint projects in the field of livestock and crop development, land reclamation and irrigation.

In addition, the issues of deliveries of agricultural products of Kazakhstan companies to Belarus, and Belarusian ones to Kazakhstan were discussed.

It is planned to sign an agreement on the creation of the Kazakhstan-Belarus Business Council between the Foreign Trade Chamber of Kazakhstan and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Belarus in November this year.

Following the results of the 13th meeting of the Intergovernmental Kazakhstan-Belarus Commission for Trade and Economic Cooperation (IGC), a relevant Protocol has been signed.

During his stay in the Karaganda region, the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan A. Mamin inspected the progress of the reconstruction and held an offsite meeting on the road segment Karaganda-Temirtau of the Central-South road corridor. This project is realized within the framework of the Nurly Zhol program. On the highway with a length of 14 kilometres, work is underway on the arrangement of pavement and transport interchanges. Commissioning is scheduled for 2018.

"Now the main task of road workers is to provide timely and high-quality delivery of reconstruction sites for the convenience of the population," A. Mamin said.

During his visit to the region, A. Mamin got acquainted with the activities of the joint venture KazBelAZ, enterprises for the production of mining and processing equipment, a complex for the utilization of motor vehicles, pharmaceutical production with a design capacity of 4 million packs of injections a year.