OREANDA-NEWS. May 05, 2014. 11th session of the Kazakh - Indian Intergovernmental Commission (IGC) on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation was held in Astana.

The Kazakh delegation was headed by Vice Minister of Oil and Gas Magzum Mirzagaliyev, Indian delegation - First Deputy Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Saurabh Chandra.

The parties informed each other on the implementation of decisions taken at the 10th meeting of the IPC held in January 2013 in New Delhi, and agreed to further strengthen bilateral cooperation between the two countries within the framework of the Declaration on Strategic Partnership between India and Kazakhstan, which was signed during the state visit of President Nursultan Nazarbayev to India in January 2009.

The parties noted mismatch of the present level of bilateral trade between the two countries’ existing potential, and stated that more than half of India's trade turnover with the countries of Central Asia comes from Kazakhstan up today. Bilateral trade between India and Kazakhstan increased from USD 120 million in 2005 to almost half a billion dollars in 2012. In 2013 the figure was 676.9 million.

Proposal of Indian side to establish a joint working group to explore the possibility of a gas pipeline from Shymkent to the border of India has received a positive response in Kazakhstan.

Moreover, Indian experts have proposed to consider the possibility of cooperation in the field of renewable energy, as well as in the field of peaceful uses of atomic energy.

There was marked a mutual interest in increasing tourist flows and the further development of cooperation in science and technology.

Today in Kazakhstan more than 500 joint ventures are registered, of those 190 are fully funded by the Indian capital.