China to promote all-around cooperation with Kazakhstan

ASTANA — China is willing to further coordinate with Kazakhstan and promote their all-around cooperation to achieve win-win results, Premier Li Keqiang said on Dec 14.

Li is on an official visit to Kazakhstan and has held the second regular meeting between the China-Kazakhstan heads of government with his Kazakh counterpart Karim Masimov.

The Chinese government is determined to safeguard peace, stability and development in the region and the world, and pursue policies accordingly, Li told the press after holding talks with Masimov.

As comprehensive strategic partners, China and Kazakhstan should naturally maintain the good-neighborly friendship, respect each other, depend on each other and seek common development, the Premier said.

The two sides, he said, should look for new highlights of practical cooperation, whose scope needs to be expanded from the energy sector to non-energy ones, from big-enterprise investors to small and medium-sized ones, and from central or key cities to other regions.

Li hoped that the two sides would enhance and facilitate cultural and people-to-people exchanges, which would lay a solid basis for further friendship.

Amid difficult and tortuous global economic recovery, China and Kazakhstan, both faced with downward pressure this year, have to take up the arduous tasks of stabilizing growth and adjusting economic structure, he said.

The two sides should explore cooperation opportunities in new energy, intensive processing of natural resources, equipment manufacturing and agriculture, which will not only extend industry and value chain to create more values, but also provide new impetus to bilateral cooperation, Li added.

For his part, Masimov said his meeting with Li would greatly push forward bilateral cooperation to achieve mutual benefit.

The Kazakh side is willing to strengthen policy coordination with China to further enhance bilateral ties, he said.

Li arrived in Astana earlier on Dec 14 to pay an official visit to Kazakhstan and attend the 13th prime ministers' meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).