He made the statement while co-chairing the 8th meeting of the Vietnam-Kazakhstan Inter-Governmental Committee on Economic Issues and Technical Cooperation with Kazakhstan Deputy Minister of Foreign Affair Akylbek Kamaldinov in Hanoi on December 5.

Assessing bilateral economic-trade ties during 2015-2017, the two sides agreed that the two countries have enjoyed robust trade growth in the past time, however, it still lags behind the potential and traditional relations between the two countries.

Vietnam’s statistics showed that two-way trade in the first nine months of the year surged 42.7% year on year to US$184.9 million. Vietnam exported US$145.3 million worth of products to Kazakhstan in the period while spending US$39.6 million purchasing goods from the central Asian country, up 45.86% and 32.3% from the same time last year, respectively.

Vietnamese key exports include telephones, computers, electronic products and spare parts, farm produce and steel products. It imports from Kazakhstan chemicals, ores and wheat.

The two sides mapped out new directions for cooperation in agriculture, culture and transport. They reached consensus on the establishment of a sub-committee on agriculture to bolster the exchange of agricultural products between the two nations. 

Regarding culture and tourism, Vietnam lauded the organisation of the Vietnam Day in the framework of the EXPO 2017 Astana in Kazakhstan and other cultural events held on the 25th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations.

Meanwhile, Kazakhstan welcomed cooperation between Vietnam Railway Corporation and National Company Kazakhstan Temir Zhoy in logistics, especially railway transport with the initiative to set up a railway connecting the two countries.

Source: vov.vn