Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov held a meeting with German Federal Minister Annalena Baerbock, who arrived in Kazakhstan on a working visit.

The sides discussed expansion of mutual trade turnover, development of renewable energy sources and logistics infrastructure, investment cooperation, as well as exchanged views on topical issues of the international agenda.

The Prime Minister stressed that Germany is Kazakhstan's most important trade, economic and investment partner in the European Union. In this regard, Astana, despite continuing negative factors in the global economy, is determined to maintain and strengthen the high level of interaction with Berlin.

As Alikhan Smailov said, last year the amount of direct German investments in Kazakhstan's economy grew by 25% to exceed $320 million. Last year the trade turnover between the countries also grew by more than 6% to more than $2.2 billion, with a consistent growth in the current year as well.

"We see a significant potential for increasing investment cooperation and mutual trade," Alikhan Smailov said.

According to him, one of the successful examples of cooperation between the countries is the planned project on construction of energy complex for production of "green" hydrogen with installation of wind and solar power plants with total capacity of 45 GW.

"This is the biggest project of its kind in the world today, but it is by no means the limit for Kazakhstan in this sphere. I think that our country has all the potential to become one of the leading centres of green hydrogen production on a global scale," Alikhan Smailov said.

Prime Minister also noted the high importance of the initiative of the German side to open the Office of Hydrogen Diplomacy in Astana under the auspices of the German Society for International Cooperation.

"I am confident that it will make a great contribution to strengthening bilateral cooperation between government and expert circles of our countries in the field of renewable energy," said Alikhan Smailov.

The Prime Minister also told the German Federal Minister about a large-scale programme of deep political and socio-economic reforms undertaken in Kazakhstan at the initiative of the Head of State.

In turn, Annalena Baerbock noted the significant progress achieved by Kazakhstan in recent years in the economic and socio-political spheres.

She stressed that Kazakhstan and Germany have great potential for further development of economic cooperation in many areas, including energy and industry.

"We believe that it is important to develop economic relations on an equal footing so that it is mutually beneficial," Baerbock said.

The German Federal Minister also appealed for greater interaction in the field of professional training of personnel for various sectors of the economy.

The sides expressed their willingness to expand comprehensive cooperation in all priority areas as a result of the meeting.