President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev took part in the summit of the heads of state “Central Asia – India”
January 27, 2022
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev took part in the first summit of the heads of state “Central Asia – India”, organized on the initiative of the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi in the format of videoconferencing. The virtual meeting was also attended by President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov, President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
– It is very symbolic that this Summit is taking place in the year of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the countries of Central Asia and India. Over the years, we have established a constructive political dialogue and are constantly expanding our multifaceted economic and humanitarian ties. Our vast Asian region has colossal resources and enormous intellectual potential. Important transport corridors and fast-growing markets are concentrated here. The role of Asia in the world economy has significantly increased, it is becoming a new global center of attraction for investments and capital, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said.
According to the President, this opens up great prospects for realizing favorable opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation, primarily in trade. In particular, the trade turnover between the countries of Central Asia and India in 2020 reached $3 billion. At the same time, the share of Kazakhstan amounted to 80%.
“However, current performance still falls short of our overall economic potential. In my opinion, the work of such dialogue platforms as the Central Asia-India summit is of great practical benefit for the progressive development of our countries, as well as the development of effective responses to new challenges and risks. I am sure that this unique format of a productive exchange of views will help bring cooperation between our states to a qualitatively new level, he believes. Along with this, the President called for increasing the volume of mutual investments. He assured that Kazakhstan would continue to strictly and fully fulfill all investment obligations, and stressed that improving the investment climate is one of the components of our economic policy, which underlies the concept of New Kazakhstan.
– We are interested in attracting investments in such promising areas as the mining and metallurgical complex, agriculture, green energy, healthcare and the pharmaceutical sector, – Kassym-Jomart Tokayev
He also considers it urgent to ensure the stability of food markets. In his opinion, within the framework of the dialogue, it is important to develop measures to strengthen agro-technological and scientific-innovative cooperation, as well as to hold regular consultations of the ministers of agriculture.
In addition, in his speech, the President touched upon the issue of digitalization of the economy. He spoke about the potential of our country in this area and noted a number of popular areas, such as the introduction of artificial intelligence, Big Data, the Internet of things, online commerce and cybersecurity, as well as the creation in our country of laboratories in the field of telecommunications and the electronics industry, assembly plants for electronic technology. Summing up his speech, the President expressed confidence that this format of high-level meetings would become an effective platform for solving the most important issues of the region.
As a result of the summit, the leaders adopted the Declaration of the first Central India Summit.