Chinese President Hu Jintao met with Kazakh Prime Minister Akhmetov in Astana

On the afternoon of July 4, 2005, Chinese President Hu Jintao met with Kazakh Prime Minister Danial Akhmetov in the InterContinental Hotel, Astana where he stayed.

Hu said that in recent years the China-Kazakhstan relations show a sound momentum of development with the distinctive characteristics of increasing mutual trust and consolidating political foundation of bilateral ties. Both sides emphasize doing practical things and seeking effectiveness and the bilateral cooperation in such areas as economy and trade, energy, transportation, humanities and security has made a series of major achievements. The two countries have also conducted fruitful cooperation within the multilateral frameworks including the United Nations, Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures. This morning I and President Nazarbayev held productive talks and signed the joint statement on the establishment and development of strategic partnership between China and Kazakhstan, which has uplifted the bilateral relations to a new level and opened broader prospects for both sides to strengthen the pragmatic cooperation in all fields comprehensively.

Hu said that economic cooperation is an important material foundation for China- Kazakhstan relations. In recent years the bilateral trade shows a strong growth momentum and the crude oil pipeline construction between the two countries is well underway. The bilateral cooperation commission will hold the second working conference to develop new objectives for bilateral economic and trade cooperation, including raising the bilateral trade volume to US$10 billion before 2010 and expanding bilateral cooperation in the sectors of energy, communications and transportation. We expect to work with Kazakhstan to constantly expand the areas and channels of mutually beneficial cooperation and bring greater benefits to the two peoples.

Akhmetov noted that the Kazakh government is implementing economic diversification and to continuously strengthen the economic cooperation with China holds a major position in the development process of Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan will complete the crude oil pipeline project as scheduled and welcomes Chinese businesses to participate in the exploitation and development of Kazakhstan's oil and gas resources. Kazakhstan also hopes to further expand exchanges and cooperation with China in the area of new and high technologies. Akhmetov stressed that the two heads of state have drawn a grand blueprint for the friendly cooperation between the two countries and all the departments of the Kazakh government will fully cooperate with China to realize the various objectives of deepening the mutually beneficial cooperation set by the two sides.