AMMAN - Jordan and Kazakhstan are expected to sign several agreements to boost joint cooperation during Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev's scheduled two-day visit to Amman in September.
"The visit is expected to take place on the 27th and the 28th of September, during which the president will be attending the signing of several agreements, including a free trade agreement, an agreement to avoid double taxation on goods and a visa-free agreement," Kazakhstan's Ambassador to Jordan Bulat Sarsenbayev told The Jordan Times in a recent interview.
The ambassador noted that during a meeting in February this year between Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Massimov and Prime Minister Nader Dahabi, the two sides agreed to concentrate on three areas of cooperation: the agricultural, pharmaceutical and energy sectors.
In 2008, the trade volume between the two countries amounted to $73 million, jumping from $13 million in 2007.
"The trade volume is still below the two countries' ambitions, but there is a tendency from both sides to keep it growing despite the negative impact of the global economic crisis," Sarsenbayev said.
He pointed out that a Jordanian delegation will visit Kazakhstan in August to discuss with Kazakh officials and business leaders prospects for joint agricultural ventures by the private sectors of both countries.
"The two sides agreed, during a meeting of a governmental committee on economic cooperation in January, to bring together representatives from the private sectors of both sides in order to meet and discuss each other's potentials and chances of establishing joint projects," the diplomat said, adding that a joint agricultural venture will be established and registered as a Kazakh company based in Kazakhstan.
According to the envoy, the company will be tasked with cultivating Kazakh land in order to supply the Kingdom with its needs of wheat at prices lower than those on the international market.
This project faced the challenge of transportation, due to the fact that Kazakhstan has no seaports and exports to Jordan have to go through Russia, which imposes higher taxes that make trade more costly.
But Sarsenbayev said this issue will be addressed starting next January, after a previously signed agreement between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan goes into effect, unifying customs and tariffs within these countries.
Moreover, the diplomat noted that his government has presented Jordan with two draft agreements, one to remove double taxation on traded goods and the other to allow Jordanian and Kazakh citizens to travel between the countries without visas.
If approved by the Jordanian side, the visa-free agreement will be the first between the former Soviet republic and an Arab country.
"We are in the final stage... We have been working for the past two years to facilitate trade cooperation between the two friendly countries and I think that the two sides will finalise all pending issues during their meeting in August," the envoy noted.
Amman and Astana also agreed earlier this year to cooperate in establishing a pharmaceutical factory, Sarsenbayev said, adding that two Jordanian companies - Hikma Pharmaceuticals Plc. and the Middle East Pharmaceutical and Chemical Industries and Medical Appliances Co. - have shown interest in opening branches in Kazakhstan.
"We perceive Jordan as a pragmatic, reliable and very active partner. We want to create our own pharmaceutical industry and Jordan can help in that regard," he added, noting that the planned factories will be jointly established by the Kazakh government and the Jordanian private sector.
Regarding the energy sector, Sarsenbayev said that during the meeting earlier this year, the industry ministries of both countries signed a joint action plan to streamline cooperation in different types of energy including nuclear power.
In addition, the Jordan-Kazakh business council's third official round of discussions will convene in Kazakhstan in the beginning of August, according to Sarsenbayev, who added that the meeting will be followed by another event for buyers and providers, organised by the Jordan Enterprise Development Corporation (JEDCO) and the Kazakh state-run KAZNEX company.
The meeting will provide producers, importers and exporters from both sides with an opportunity to discuss their markets' potentials, he noted, underlining that JEDCO and KAZNEX will announce the opening of a commercial centre in Astana, which will have a representation office in Amman to provide businessmen with all the information they need on economic opportunities.
At the political level, Sarsenbayev said Kazakhstan and Jordan share very similar approaches to regional and international issues, adding that bilateral relations were given impetus by His Majesty King Abdullah's visits to Astana in 2007 and 2008, preceded by Nazarbayev's visit to Amman in November 2006.
Jordan and Kazakhstan marked 16 years of cooperation in February this year, but have only begun to cement ties over the past few years.
Although diplomatic relations were established in 1993, the two countries only opened embassies in 2007.
By Hani Hazaimeh
© Jordan Times 2009
