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The First China-Central Asia Meeting of the Ministers of Economy and Trade was held
【2023-05-04】

On April 18, the First China-Central Asia Meeting of the Ministers of Economy and Trade was held. Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao chaired and addressed the meeting, and the ministers of economy and trade of five Central Asian countries also addressed the meeting respectively. Vice Minister and Deputy China International Trade Representative Ling Ji, Ambassadors of China to the five countries, heads of economic and commercial offices of the Embassies of China in the five countries and diplomatic envoys of five countries attended the meeting.

Wang Wentao pointed out that in 2022, President Xi Jinping and the heads of state of Central Asia reached an important consensus on the establishment of the "China-Central Asia" mechanism. Under the strategic guidance of the Head of State diplomacy, China's practical cooperation with the five Central Asian countries has achieved fruitful results, with a full coverage of BRI cooperation documents and medium- and long-term economic cooperation and trade plans. In 2022, trade between China and five Central Asian countries reached USD70.2 billion, a record high. By the end of 2022, China's FDI in five Central Asian countries reached nearly USD15 billion. We have jointly implemented a number of cooperation projects on oil, gas and mining, processing and manufacturing, connectivity and digital technology, which have brought tangible benefits to people of the countries.

Wang Wentao said that this year is the first year for fully implementing the guiding principles set out at the 20th CPC National Congress, and the economic and trade cooperation between China and Central Asian countries will embrace more opportunities. China stands ready to promote the development of new types of business for trade and investment with the parties, share the vast market and dividends from open development, and launch a number of cooperation projects. China stands ready to achieve continuous empowerment driven by innovation, carry out cooperation on digital trade, and accelerate the development of green, low-carbon and circular economy. China stands ready to ensure the security and stability of regional industrial and supply chains, promote infrastructure construction in various ways, and jointly safeguard energy and food security. China stays firm in safeguarding the multilateral trading system, strengthen cooperation within the WTO framework, and support relevant countries in Central Asia to join the WTO. China stands ready to give full play to geographical advantages and turn economic cooperation and trade between border areas into a new growth area of pragmatic cooperation.

The Ministers of Economy and Trade of the five countries highly appreciated China for hosting the first meeting of Ministers of Economy and Trade, positively evaluated the fruitful results of pragmatic cooperation between the five Central Asian countries and China, and expressed their readiness to work with China to implement the important consensus reached by the heads of state, strengthen cooperation on trade and investment, digital economy, green development, transit transportation and other fields, and jointly promote regional economic cooperation.

During the meeting, the ministers of economy and trade of the six countries jointly agreed to sign relevant outcome documents during the China-Central Asia Summit, and unanimously agreed to hold an e-commerce event to gather Central Asian products on cloud to bring more famous and special products of Central Asia to Chinese consumers.