Astana, Apr 23 (EFE).- Kazakhstan and Croatia are committed to expanding cooperation, Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić-Radman said Wednesday at the opening of a business forum with representatives of the two countries in Astana.
“Today we open a new chapter of our cooperation with Kazakhstan. Our visit takes place in the lead-up to the visit of the Prime Minister of Croatia (Andrej Plenković) to Kazakhstan, which will take place in a month’s time and will be aimed at expanding our interaction,” he said.
According to Kazakh Foreign Ministry, trade between the two countries last year amounted to $280 million thanks to Kazakh exports of hydrocarbons and imports of food and cosmetics from Croatia.
Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Murat Nurtleu used the occasion to describe this volume of trade as insufficient, as both countries have great potential to develop their business relations.
“Kazakhstan’s geographical position makes it a distribution center for the supply of goods from the East to the West, and Croatia is for us the gateway to the Balkan market,” he said.
According to Nurtleu, the main areas of future cooperation are energy, tourism and information technologies.
“You successfully operate a nuclear power plant, and Kazakhstan intends to build three nuclear power plants, so we find your experience in this sphere interesting,” he said.
In this context the head of Croatian diplomacy stated that his country’s government will offer five scholarships for Kazakh students at technical universities in the Balkan nation. EFE