TBILISI – Georgia and Kazakhstan intend to combine their efforts to enter such important markets as the European Union and China, Georgian Economy and Sustainable Development Minister Giorgi Gakharia said.
“We discussed how our free regimes could help each other improve the quality of our cooperation to enter such third markets as the European Union and China, which is strategically important for our countries,” Gakharia told journalists following a meeting of the Georgian-Kazakh intergovernmental economic commission on Friday.
The matter was on the agenda of the meeting that addressed a broad range of trade and economic cooperation between Georgia and Kazakhstan, he said.
“Kazakhstan is a very important partner of ours in such sectors as transport and logistics, and also as regards energy resources. We determined concrete subjects and objectives that we should accomplish in the near future. In particular, the matter concerns the imposition of value-added tax on Georgian companies and Georgian exports in Kazakh territory, which makes our exports more expensive,” Gakharia said.
Kazakhstan promised to consider the matter soon, Gakharia said. “We also talked about imports of Kazakh grain to Georgia, tourist traffic, and opportunities for increasing Kazakh companies’ investments in the Georgian transport and logistic sectors,” he said.
Kazakh Investment and Development Minister Zhenis Kassymbek said Georgia is an important economic partner in the region, and cooperation with it has good prospects.
“Trade and economic relations between our countries are developing dynamically. Over the past half a year, we have had nearly 50% growth in trade both in terms of exports and imports, and we see bilateral interest in developing cooperation in the agriculture, industry, transport, and tourism sectors,” Kasymbek said.
There is every precondition for stepping up the transportation of cargo from Kazakhstan via Georgian territory, where Kazakhstan has its assets at the Batumi port, Kasymbek said. “We are interested in successful development of the Georgian economy, as well as Georgia is interested in our successes,” he said.
