ASTANA (TCA) — More than 1.2 million people visited the Khorgos International Center of Boundary Cooperation (ICBC) in 2018, an 8-percent increase compared to 2017, the press service of national railways company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy said.

The Khorgos ICBC is located on the Kazakh-Chinese border in Kazakhstan’s Almaty province, and is a major international transport, transit and trading hub between Kazakhstan and China.

The growth of visits was facilitated by measures to create conditions for conducting transparent business of investors and visiting tourists. Thus, the luggage terminal was reconstructed and enlarged from 900 to 3,500 square meters. The fleet of 15 low-tonnage cargo vehicles has been updated. This allowed reducing the time of delivery of visitors’ goods from the baggage collection points to the point of delivery in the baggage terminal. There is a single operator for comfortable movement of visitors.

Currently, the issues of exemption of Kazakhstan and foreign participants of FEZ ICBC Khorgos from payment of basic taxes, except the social tax, are being resolved.

The assignment to ICBC Khorgos — a unique project of Kazakhstan and China for trade, economic, tourism and investment cooperation — of the status of Free Economic Zone (FEZ) created favorable conditions for the development of business and investment in the territory of Kazakhstan.

In 2018, 12 investment companies were attracted with a total construction area of 32.7 hectares and a building area of 193,000 square meters. Over the years of operation of ICBC Khorgos, 21 contracts for the construction of investment facilities were signed. The area of land plots at Khorgos was 113.5 hectares with the exception of infrastructure facilities, and the area of premises was 805.4 thousand square meters.

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TASHKENT (TCA) — The Embassy of Uzbekistan in the Netherlands held negotiations with Erika den Daas, the CEO of Meijer, one of the world’s leading companies and supplier of seed potatoes, the Jahon information agency reported with reference to the Uzbek Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan (TCA) — Afghanistan’s Acting Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani said at the India-Central Asia Dialogue in Uzbekistan on January 13 that Afghanistan can provide the most cost-effective transit routes as he highlighted the country’s importance for connecting the region, Afghan broadcaster TOLOnews reported.

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