Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

A delegation led by Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Krymbek Kusherbayev has arrived in Azerbaijan, the government told Trend news agency on Wednesday. The purpose of the visit is to discuss ways of expanding bilateral cooperation and other issues of mutual interest and to become familiar with the activity of Azerbaijani production and processing enterprises operating in the agriculture sector and industry.

The two-day visit by the delegation including Kazakh government and business entity representatives started on Wednesday. The Kazakh delegation plans to visit the agricultural product processing enterprise Zehmet-Ruzi in Khirdalan, 10 km from Baku, and an industrial park in Sumgayit, about 30 km north of the capital city.

Visits to see the work of a greenhouse complex in the Bina settlement, as well as enterprises operating in Gabala are planned for the second day.

The visit agenda includes a meeting of Kusherbayev with Azerbaijani Prime Minister Artur Rasizade as well as meetings with Economic Development Minister Shahin Mustafayev and Agriculture Minister Ismet Abbasov.

Trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan amounted to over $332.9 million in the first nine months of 2012.

Furthermore, Kazakhstan's state oil and gas company KazMunaiGas and Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR are in talks to create infrastructure for transportation of oil from Kazakhstan's Kashagan field during the second phase of its development.

Oil from Kashagan may go through Azerbaijan during the implementation of the second phase, which is scheduled for 2018-2019.

Kashagan is one of the largest oil fields in the world, which is located in the north of the Caspian Sea. It holds an estimated 30 billion barrels of oil-in-place, of which 8-12 billion are potentially recoverable. Kazakhstan plans to increase its oil output by 60 percent by 2020, thanks to Kashagan and the expansion of two other large projects.

The companies developing the project are planning to begin commercial production on Kashagan in the first quarter of 2013.

Azerbaijanis and Kazakhs are both Turkic-speaking people and share close historical, religious and cultural ties. Both are littoral states of the Caspian Sea and possess a common maritime border. About 130,000 ethnic Azerbaijanis live in Kazakhstan.

Both countries are members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), Turkic Council, Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).