China and Kazakhstan ink pacts worth $14 bn

Moscow, Dec 14 (IANS/EFE) China and Kazakhstan signed pacts worth $14 billion, during Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang's visit to Kazakhstan, media reported Sunday.

The pacts ranged from those on nuclear energy, exploitation of mineral resources and the use of national currencies in commercial operations.

The Chinese prime minister met the Kazakh president and prime minister during his visit to the central Asian country, Russian news agencies reported.

"This has been perhaps one of my most fruitful visits ... In recent years, China and Kazakhstan have launched a mutually beneficial cooperation," said Li.

The two heads of government agreed to come to an understanding about their macroeconomic policies and maintain ongoing consultations with an eye on fluctuations in the international price of hydrocarbons, particularly crude oil.

Li agreed to provide an initial line of bank transfers in the national currencies, valued at 7 billion yuan, or slightly more than $1 billion.

The national railroad companies of the two nations also signed a cooperation agreement to promote the transport of merchandise for creating a new "Silk Road", or a trade corridor from the China to Europe.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev expressed his support for the Chinese proposal to create a fund and a bank to finance infrastructure projects within that corridor.

Last September, during his visit to Kazakhstan, Chinese President Xi Jinping had promoted a "Silk Road" for the 21st century, a project that is designed to benefit the three billion people of Eurasia.

The state-run natural gas and oil consortiums of Kazakhstan and China -- KazMunaiGaz and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) respectively, agreed to deepen their cooperation in the exploitation of Kazakhstan's South Kumkol and Kalamkas oil reserves.

The two nations also agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the electric energy sector, a move that would include Kazakh power supplies to China and other countries, with China acting as the transit territory.

Furthermore, the leaders decided to create a mixed company for the production of nuclear fuel for supplying to the nuclear centres in China.

Also, several projects were decided to be launched to modernise the coal industry in the Kazakhstan.

Nazarbayev emphasised that the two nations have begun projects in the transportation and infrastructure sectors, and said: "A large part of Kazakh petroleum is being extracted with Chinese participation."

Li noted that the non-energy sectors with the greatest prospects for Chinese-Kazakh cooperation were mineral resources, machinery manufacturing and agriculture.

Central Asia is one of China's foreign policy priorities as Beijing looks at the region as its main source of energy, given the instability in the Middle East and the high cost of Russian hydrocarbon.

--IANS/EFE

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