OREANDA-NEWS. September 17, 2012. On an official working visit to Kazakhstan, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip met President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Prime Minister Karim Massimov, discussing bilateral cooperation with each of them.

“In a short space of time, the good relations between our countries have reached economic relations – growth in trade and closer business contacts,” said Ansip at the meetings. “Now the discussion between states in different fields is more broad-based, while at the same time more concrete projects such as cattle breeding or film are being pursued,” said Ansip.

President Nazarbayev confirmed his country’s interest in technologies, transit opportunities, ports and shipbuilding offered by Estonia.

“Kazakhstan has set green energy as a goal. Here are very good cooperation prospects between our BLRT and Kazakhstan for building ferryboats that run on liquefied natural gas,” said Ansip. Astana is a candidate to host EXPO 2017 with the topic “Future energy”.

Estonian-Kazakh relations have evolved past mere transit into much broader cooperation, and the intergovernmental committee, whose third sitting took place in Tallinn on 27-28 August, has played a part in this. Besides the transport and transit field, the countries discuss cooperation matters in e-services, trade of agricultural products, livestock breeding, the environment, cyber crime, education and science and research.

The Estonian Embassy opened in Astana this May has been a boon to Estonian-Kazakh cooperation.

Kazakhstan is Estonia’s closest partner in Central Asia, and the business ties between the nations have likewise experienced development over the years with the trade turnover rising severalfold. In 2009, the turnover was around 35 million euros but by 2010 it had risen to 146 million euros. Last year, trade dropped to 126 million euros but this year it has picked up and at the six-month mark it was 83.5 million euros. Export in the half-year period is equal to the monetary volume of export for all of 2011.

On Thursday, the Estonian and Kazakh prime ministers opened a bilateral business seminar in Astana, in which the 17-member business delegation accompanying the prime minister is taking part. Ansip will deliver welcome remarks at the Estonian-Kazakh business seminar in Almaty.