BISHKEK (TCA) — A Kyrgyz lawmaker says Kyrgyzstan needs to build its own center of trans-boundary cooperation with China, similar to Kazakhstan’s Khorgos International Center of Trans-boundary Cooperation located on the Kazakh-Chinese border, KyrTAG information agency reported.
“Kazakhstan’s trade with China is growing while Kyrgyzstan’s [trade with China] has sharply reduced. We need to solve the issue. We need to make the Government address it. Trade with China should be higher,” MP Ekmat Baibakpayev said at the Parliament meeting on February 8.
Chairman of Kyrgyzstan’s Customs Service, Azamat Sulaimanov, said that was due to Khorgos. “The Khorgos international trade center is located on the Kazakh-Chinese border and has the status of a duty-free trade zone. Hence the rising trade volumes,” he explained.
The MP replied that Kyrgyzstan also has a border with China and should learn Kazakhstan’s successful experience.
Sulaimanov said to the lawmaker that Kyrgyzstan would have to build such center in a difficult mountain terrain of the Kyrgyz-Chinese border, which would require huge financial investments.
“Khorgos is a large-scale project of Kazakhstan and China. It was developed not by entrepreneurs but through state budgets of the two countries,” the Kyrgyz customs chief explained.
The Khorgos International Center of Trans-boundary Cooperation was established under an agreement between the Governments of Kazakhstan and China. The Khorgos border cooperation center consists of Kazakh and Chinese parts, located on the border between the two countries in the Panfilov district of Almaty province, with a total area of 560 hectares and connected by a “special passage” across the state border. Within the territory of the Centre, goods (cargoes) and vehicles move freely, without the need for a visa.
