The President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, participated in the Fifth Consultative Meeting of Heads of State of Central Asia. Photo: akorda.kz
The President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, participated in the V Consultative Meeting of Heads of State of Central Asia, held in the capital of Tajikistan, as well as in the meeting of the Council of Founding Heads of State of the International Fund to Save the Aral Sea. In addition to the leaders of the five Central Asian countries, the president of Azerbaijan was present at the meeting as the guest of honor.
In his speech, Tokayev highlighted the expansion of trade and economic cooperation between neighboring countries. “Contacts between companies have intensified and the number of joint ventures is growing. Large regional projects not only bring tangible mutual benefits, but also change the entire configuration of the Central Asian economy. In the last five years the volume of intraregional trade has grown more than 80%,” said the President of Kazakhstan.
“Create stable business conditions”
According to Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, modern Central Asia is becoming a territory of new economic opportunities in trade, investment, business, science and innovation. In the current situation, the next decade will be decisive for the region, and “how effectively we take advantage of this historic opportunity” depends on its states.
According to the Kazakh leader, the urgent task is to increase trade flows between Central Asian countries. “Our countries have the possibility in the near future to increase the volume of mutual trade up to 15 billion dollars (on the eve of the meeting, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Murat Nutrleu said that in the current period it has exceeded 10 billion dollars. – Ed.). To achieve this, it is important to remove existing barriers, move away from excessive protectionism and create transparent and stable trading conditions,” says Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. In particular, in the field of trade in goods from the agricultural and construction, chemical and textile industries. Kazakhstan is ready to increase exports to the countries of the region in 175 commodities other than natural resources.
The business community is expected to become the main driver of trade expansion. The President of Kazakhstan proposes to create a unified electronic database of commodity producers in Central Asia and develop a plan for the development of industrial cooperation between states to form a closed production cycle with the perspective of exporting to third country markets .
“The export volume of the Kazakh computer industry has multiplied by five”
The development of trade requires the expansion and modernization of the transport and logistics sector. Kassym-Jomart Tokayev spoke about this in his recent speech to the people of Kazakhstan, and this topic could not help but come up at the Dushanbe meeting. According to Tokayev, a special role is played today by the Trans-Caspian international transport route, whose transport can be multiplied by five. “We intend to systematically increase its capacity by introducing digital solutions and modernizing infrastructure,” the President of Kazakhstan promised.
He briefed his colleagues on his country’s key projects in the transport and logistics sector. In particular, he plans to create a container center on the basis of the port of Aktau with the participation of the world’s leading operators.
“For us it is extremely important to continue working together with brother states in the development of transport and logistics infrastructure to eliminate the so-called bottlenecks that hinder intraregional trade. Kazakhstan aims to accelerate the implementation of a number of large projects that will contribute to the expansion of economic ties with its closest partners. These are the Dostyk-Moyynty, Bakhty-Ayagoz, Darbaza-Maktaaral railway projects, as well as the Zhanaozen-Turkmenistan border highway. In general, Kazakhstan intends to strengthen its position as a transit hub in Eurasia,” Kassym-Jomart Tokayev stressed.
Equally important is expanding the scope of application of digital solutions. In Kazakhstan, these solutions are actively being applied in all spheres of the economy. Thus, the proportion of non-monetary transactions reached 82%; More than 90% of government services are delivered electronically.
Tokayev noted that last year alone the volume of exports of Kazakhstan’s computer industry multiplied by five and in 2026 its figure will increase to 1 billion dollars. At the same time, Kazakhstan constantly advocates strengthening cooperation with its closest neighbors in this strategically important industry.
“Show the entire world the original culture of our countries”
The President of Kazakhstan expressed his support for Tajikistan’s initiative to create a Council of National Coordinators as a first step towards the institutionalization of the format. “In the future we could start discussing the issue of creating the Secretariat of Consultative Meetings, as well as the appointment of our special representatives,” said Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
Taking into account that in the context of a rapidly changing world order, interaction between the countries of the region in the field of security is acquiring great importance, Tokayev proposed holding a dialogue on security and cooperation in Asia next year in Kazakhstan Central. at the level of secretaries of the Security Councils.
President Tokayev’s speech paid special attention to cultural and humanitarian cooperation in the region, including the development of contacts between universities. These contacts are expanding. In 2022, branches of Kazakh universities were opened in Kyrgyzstan, the creation of joint faculties on the basis of higher educational institutions of Tajikistan and the “cross opening” of branches of leading universities of two countries in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are being discussed. . It was symbolic that the II Forum of Rectors and the I Forum of Scientists of the Countries of the Region were held on the sidelines of the meeting in Dushanbe.
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev also proposed holding a forum of historians of Central Asian states for joint research and publication of scientific works. “We have a great opportunity to show the whole world the unique nature and original culture of our countries, jointly promoting the tourism brand “Central Asia,” said the President of Kazakhstan.
Following the results of the Fifth Consultative Meeting of Heads of State of Central Asia in Dushanbe, interstate documents were signed, including an agreement on the general orientations of youth policy, as well as an agreement on strengthening the interconnection of land transport in the region. . The next Consultative Meeting of Central Asian Heads of State will be held in Kazakhstan.
