Chinese, Kazakh entrepreneurs urged to boost cooperation

Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) and his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev attend the establishment ceremony of the China-Kazakhstan Entrepreneurs Committee in Astana, Kazakhstan, Sept. 7, 2013. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday urged entrepreneurs from his country and Kazakhstan to boost cooperation.

China and Kazakhstan are important cooperation partner of each other and have achieved fruitful results in pragmatic cooperation, Xi said in an address at the founding ceremony of the China-Kazakhstan Entrepreneurs Committee.

China is the largest trade partner of Kazakhstan, while the Central Asian country is China's largest investment destination within the Commonwealth of Independence States (CIS), he noted.

Xi listed that China and Kazakhstan jointly built China's first cross-country crude oil pipeline and first international border cooperation center, and that China helped Kazakhstan construct its first major hydropower station since independence.

These cooperation achievements have not only brought tangible benefits to the two peoples, but also provided unremitting drive force for the development of China-Kazakhstan relations, he said.

The China-Kazakhstan Entrepreneurs Committee is the first bilateral business cooperation mechanism China set up with a Central Asian country, which testifies to the high level of pragmatic cooperation between the two countries as well as their business sectors' eagerness to deepen cooperation, Xi said.

He called on the committee to devise new cooperation concepts and modes to meet the new circumstances and characteristics of China-Kazakhstan cooperation, encourage more companies of both sides to participate in the bilateral cooperation and facilitate the implementation of agreed major projects.

He also encouraged the committee to come up with a package of new projects in such fields as interconnection, agriculture, high-tech and clean and new energy, so as to further the development of China-Kazakhstan cooperation both in scale and on level.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, also present at the founding ceremony, said Kazakhstan and China are good partners and have made outstanding achievements in cooperation in economy and trade.

Xi's visit to Kazakhstan has prompted the two sides to reach a series of important agreements, and thereby effectively boosted bilateral cooperation, Nazarbayev said.

He said Kazakhstan is willing to expand cooperation with China in areas like energy and interconnection, and to revive the Silk Road.

Nazarbayev called on the newly founded committee to actively boost exchanges between the two countries' companies and open up a new prospect for bilateral cooperation in economy, trade and investment.

The two presidents also witnessed the signing of a series of cooperation documents between Chinese and Kazakh enterprises.