RUSSIA, November 9 - Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk addressed the plenary session of the 19th Russia-Kazakhstan Interregional Cooperation Forum held in Kostanay, Republic of Kazakhstan.
Alexei Overchuk attends 19th Russia-Kazakhstan Interregional Cooperation Forum
The annual Russia-Kazakhstan Interregional Cooperation Forum is held to maintain and boost bilateral economic, cultural and humanitarian ties. This year, it focused on agriculture as the foundation of a strong economy. The two countries’ delegations were led by Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Alexei Overchuk and Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Serik Zhumangarin.
President Vladimir Putin and President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev opened the forum’s plenary session via videoconference. Alexei Overchuk and Serik Zhumangarin gave reports. The forum was attended by representatives of the two countries’ business and scientific communities, public figures, ministry officials and the heads of Russian and Kazakh regions.
Excerpts from the transcript:
Alexei Overchuk: President Putin, President Tokayev, forum participants,
I would like to welcome the forum’s participants and organisers and to express gratitude to our Kazakh partners and the city of Kostanay for the warm welcome.
The forum’s theme this year is agriculture as the foundation of a strong economy, which is logical amid the complicated situation on the global food market where our countries have a major role to play.
Russia is a key trade and economic partner of Kazakhstan. In January-August 2023, mutual trade amounted to 1.5 trillion roubles, an increase of 7.6 percent compared to the same period last year. In this period, Russia mainly exported food and agricultural products, metals and metal products, machinery, equipment, vehicles, chemicals, and mineral products to Kazakhstan.
In mutual trade, we are relying more on our national currencies, which accounted for over 75 percent of all transactions in the first half of 2023, with the Russian rouble accounting for 65.7 percent.
In view of the theme of today's forum, I will speak in more detail about food security. As in 2022, our country has seen a record grain harvest. This year’s crop harvest totals 147 million tonnes, which is important, given that Russia is a key supplier of wheat and barley to Kazakhstan. In addition, our country is one of the main suppliers of sunflower seed, rapeseed, poultry meat, and sugar and the biggest importer of pork and fermented milk products.
In the context of a changing climate, water availability is of particular importance for growth in agriculture. During bilateral meetings, Russia and Kazakhstan consider such issues as monitoring transboundary water bodies, implementing water management and water protection measures, and the joint operation and maintenance of hydraulic structures, and we approve programmes and plans for long-term cooperation.
Russia and Kazakhstan have established a permanent commission on the joint use and protection of transboundary water bodies. At its regular meetings, the members have reviewed the performance results of the working groups that focus on the Ural, Bolshoy and Maly Uzen, Irtysh, and Tobol river basins, and the Kigach channel. They also discuss ways to monitor the state of water resources in transboundary rivers and water protection practices to improve them.
More to be posted soon.
