Pakistan and Kazakhstan on Thursday agreed to diversify bilateral trade and explore the  possibilities of expanding investment cooperation. The bilateral relations were discussed in a meeting between Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif and President of Kazakhstan Kassym Jomart Tokayev on the sidelines of Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) Summit heing held here. The two leaders reviewed the bilateral relations including trade, connectivity and energy. They agreed on enhancing technical level engagement to accelerate progress on agreed items.

The prime minister recalled his meeting with the Kazakh president on the sidelines of SCO Summit at Samarkand in September 2022 which set the pace for reinvigorating multifaceted engagement.  He underlined the need for promoting joint ventures in energy, agriculture, technology, logistics, communication and construction. Prime Minister Shehbaz also emphasized the importance of direct air connectivity for boosting business linkages, people-to-people contacts, and tourism. He underlined that Pakistan Special Economic Zones (SEZs) were open for investors from Kazakhstan. He also invited Kazakhstan to benefit from Gwadar and Karachi ports for expanding their trade.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP