As part of an official visit to
China, Yerlan Koshanov, Chairperson of the Mazhilis, a Lower House of the
Kazakh Parliament, visited Urumqi - the center of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous
Region (XUAR). Notably, XUAR accounts for more than half of Kazakhstan’s trade
with China. Positive growth dynamics of trade turnover have been observed, with
the introduction of a mutual visa-free regime in November 2023 playing a
crucial role in this. A QazTrade trade representative office will be opened in
Urumqi, and the construction of the third railway border crossing
Ayagoz-Tacheng is set to commence soon. These projects are aimed at further
expanding business ties between the two countries. Koshanov discussed this with
Secretary of the XUAR Communist Party Ma Xingrui. The parties touched on the
current state and prospects of bilateral cooperation, including in the interregional
format, as well as on the idea of establishing a joint regional warehouse
infrastructure for e-commerce in Kazakhstan. Special attention was paid to partnerships
in agriculture, transboundary water resources, tourism, transport and logistics.
