Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

China is interested in cooperation with Kazakhstan in the energy field.

This was announced by Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei at a bilateral meeting with Kazakh Economy and Budget Planning Minister Erbolat Dossayev held as part of the 47th Annual Meeting of the ADB Board of Governors in Astana.

During the meeting the two sides also talked about bilateral cooperation and the establishment of the Asian Development Bank Infrastructure (ADBI).

Jiwei noted China put forward the initiative to promote economic integration in the region.

"I think the ADBI can play a great role in strengthening cooperation between the countries of the region," he said.

Jiwei also said China is intensively developing transport infrastructure to develop production and processing industry.

"We can expand the economic activities with the development of infrastructure and transport integration," he stressed.

Dossayev, in turn, said Kazakhstan has a surplus of electricity in the north-east of the country.

"We can consider the issues of electricity flow to China through the east of the country," he said. "Today Kazakhstan is exporting the surplus electricity to Russia, but the capacity of our country allows exporting large quantities of electricity," he said.

The 47th Annual Meeting of the ADB Board of Governors was held in Kazakhstan's Astana city on May 2-5.

The Chinese - Kazakh relations have enjoyed rapid development since the establishment of diplomatic relations. China is the largest trading partner of Kazakhstan and Kazakhstan is China's second largest trading partner in the CIS region after Russia.