General

"Under the guidance of the joint construction of the 'Belt and Road' initiative, Chinese and Kazakh enterprises have deepened mutually beneficial cooperation, and a number of major projects have been implemented successively with fruitful results." At the recently held 2022 China (Xinjiang)-Kazakhstan Entrepreneurs Forum, China Zhang Xiao, Ambassador to Kazakhstan, said in his speech that currently, facing the severe situation of repeated epidemic risks and difficult recovery of the world economy, China-Kazakhstan economic and trade cooperation has bucked the trend, and its scale has continued to expand.

Statistical import and export data show that in 1992, the trade volume between China and Kazakhstan was only 368 million US dollars, and in 2021 it will reach 25.25 billion US dollars. From January to July 2022, China-Kazakhstan trade volume reached US$17.67 billion, a year-on-year increase of 18.9%, and is expected to hit a record high throughout the year.

"We started with a foreign trade business of 3,000 yuan, starting from carrying baskets and selling." Kang Heping, chairman of Xinjiang Sanbao Industrial Group Co., Ltd., said that after 30 years of development and growth, Sanbao has developed into a company integrating import and export trade, investment It has more than 20 wholly-owned or holding companies at home and abroad, and has many branches in Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries. It used to be a Chinese foreign trade company One of the top 500 enterprises, with an annual import and export volume of 1.498 billion US dollars, ranking first in the export of foreign trade enterprises in Xinjiang for 9 consecutive years, Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

At this forum, Sanbao Group and Kazakhstan signed a contract for the production line of autoclaved aerated blocks with a project value of more than 8 million US dollars, helping Kazakhstan to promote infrastructure construction.

"China-Kazakhstan bilateral cooperation in production capacity has been solidly advanced. China's investment stock in Kazakhstan is 21.6 billion US dollars. Chinese-funded enterprises in Kazakhstan have overcome the adverse impact of the epidemic and promoted a number of key cooperation projects to make significant progress. The polypropylene project in Atyrau and the The glass factory project in Zylorda is about to come to an end." Zhang Xiao said that emerging business formats are booming, and bilateral cooperation is steadily advancing in new fields such as digital economy, financial technology, medical care, and green energy. Looking ahead, China-Kazakhstan economic and trade cooperation has huge potential and broad prospects.

Taking the digital economy as an example, Zhao Ping, vice president of the Research Institute of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said that with the application and popularization of the new generation of information technology, China and Kazakhstan continue to innovate cooperation models in the field of digital economy and expand cooperation space. Exhibition”, “Cloud Negotiation” and “Cloud Signing”, the two countries are actively developing cross-border e-commerce. More than 100 Kazakh companies have settled in China’s Alibaba international e-commerce platform, and the cumulative export contracts signed exceeded 72.5 million US dollars. Data observation reports.

"China and Kazakhstan have complementary advantages in digital economy cooperation." Zhao Ping said that China's digital economy has strong innovation momentum. By the end of 2021, there are 977,000 valid invention patents in the core industries of the digital economy, accounting for 35.2% of China's valid invention patents . During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, China has further clarified the roadmap for digital development, promoting the deep integration of digital technology and the real economy, enabling the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, and giving birth to new industries, new formats and new models. The digitalization process in Kazakhstan is also developing rapidly. In 2019, the total number of smartphones in Kazakhstan has increased to 19.2 million, e-commerce and mobile commerce in Kazakhstan are growing rapidly, and payment methods are also transitioning from cash payment to digital payment. The vigorous development of new business forms in the field of digital economy has created new highlights for the cooperation between China and Kazakhstan in the field of digital economy.

Jinjakulov, Commercial Counselor of the Embassy of Kazakhstan in China, said in his speech that Kazakhstan is willing to actively develop multi-level and multi-faceted ties with China's Xinjiang. The two sides should take practical measures to further strengthen cooperation in the fields of production and processing, green technology, smart agriculture, logistics and transportation, and continue to expand bilateral trade, Watson & Band data observation reports.