Kazakhstan is set to develop cooperation in the agricultural sector with China’s Shandong Province, which accounts for over six percent of the total trade turnover between the two countries. The parties plan to sign a number of agreements on the implementation of joint trade and economic projects within the special forum in Astana. This was announced during the meeting of Kazakh Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov with Secretary of the Party Committee of Shandong Province Lin Wu. According to Smailov, the country is interested not only in promoting its goods to the Chinese market, but also in new areas of cooperation. For example, the first shipment of Kazakh barley was recently sent from Almaty to China as part of the Belt and Road Initiative. There are plans to expand the volume and variety of goods and services exported along the same China-Europe route. On his part, Lin Wu highlighted the great potential for expanding cooperation in areas such as deep processing of agricultural products, trade, and the development of logistics infrastructure. According to him, representatives of over 100 Chinese enterprises have arrived in the Kazakh capital for this purpose.
