Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov held a meeting with the Minister of Foreign Trade and International Development Assistance of Finland Ville Skinnari, who arrived in Astana on a working visit.

The parties discussed a wide range of issues in the areas of trade, investment attraction, transport and logistics, agriculture, digitalization, education, low-carbon development and others.

The Prime Minister said that Kazakhstan sees Finland as one of the key partners in the region of Northern Europe and international organizations. In this regard, the Government is set to deepen and strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation in all directions.

"We see great opportunities to increase investment cooperation and mutual trade. An important role in this is assigned to our Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation, which is also an effective platform for dialogue between the business communities of the two countries," Alikhan Smailov said.

In this regard, the Prime Minister welcomed the opening of a new visa center at the Embassy of Finland in Astana as well as plans to hold a round table with participation of Kazakh and Finnish companies.

In his turn, Ville Skinnari pointed out Finland's interest in promotion of climate initiatives, development of renewable energy and promising logistics corridors from Asia to Europe, in the first place the Trans-Caspian international transport route.

In addition, the Minister noted the increased interest of Finnish business in the Kazakh market, as well as the high potential to strengthen sectoral cooperation, in particular in the areas of digitalization and education.

At the end of the meeting the parties confirmed their readiness to continue active joint work to expand the Kazakhstan-Finland partnership.