Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Askar Mamin met with Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Mishustin, who arrived in Almaty to attend the meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council and the Digital Almaty forum.

“We aim to continue working with Russian partners in order to implement the strategic course of relations between the two countries, laid down by the First President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev and Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. Our President Kassym-Jomart Kemelevich Tokayev confirmed succession as a fundamental principle of his work,” said Mamin.

Russia is the main trading partner of Kazakhstan. For 11 months of 2019, bilateral trade amounted to $17.2 billion. In the Republic of Kazakhstan there are more than 10 thousand enterprises with Russian capital, which is 37.4% of the total number of enterprises with foreign capital.

“In order to maintain high positive dynamics in trade and economic cooperation, it is necessary to continue joint work to expand the range of goods and services supplied, establish direct contacts between our business circles, as well as promote goods to third-country markets. This important work is also being conducted on the site of the Eurasian Economic Commission,” Mamin said.

The joint projects of Kazakhstani business with large Russian companies KAMAZ and Peterburgsky Tractorny Zavod are actively developing. In particular, it is planned to build factories for the production of main gearboxes for driving axles of trucks (to be commissioned in the 4th quarter of 2021), special equipment based on the chassis of KAMAZ vehicles, a foundry for the production of parts. At the same time, it is planned to create an engineering and research center in Kazakhstan with a testing ground for testing the latest car models. In July 2019, the first test batch of Kirovets tractors was assembled together with the Petersburgsky Tractorny Zavod.

“It is symbolic that we are making our first visit as head of government to Kazakhstan. We have long-standing friendships and partnerships. Trade, economic and investment cooperation is developing dynamically, regional ties are strengthening,” Mishustin said.

During the meeting, issues of further development of bilateral cooperation in the industrial, energy, military-technical, space, water and environmental spheres, as well as interaction within the EAEU and other integration associations were discussed.

Mamin and Mishustin focused on the importance of quality preparation for the XVII Forum of Interregional Environmental Cooperation to be held in November 2020 in Kokshetau.

The necessity of intensifying work on the implementation of the Program of joint actions on the functioning of checkpoints on the Kazakh-Russian border, signed at the last year's forum in Omsk, was noted.