A gantry crane loads cargo onto a freight train bound for Central Asia at the Jiaozhou Bay International Logistics Harbor in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, May 7, 2018. (Xinhua/Guo Xulei)

The trade volume between China and the five Central Asian countries increased by more than 100 times in the past 30 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, with the stock of China's direct investment in the five countries exceeding $14 billion, an official from the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said on Monday.

In 1992, China's trade with the five Central Asian countries only totaled $460 million; 30 years later, that figure is expected to exceed $40 billion, an increase of nearly 100 times, a report released by Economic Daily said.

Wang Wentao, a senior official from MOFCOM, made the remarks during an economic forum held by China and the five Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan via video, noting that over the past 30 years, China has continued to deepen pragmatic economic and trade cooperation with Central Asia, and that the scale of trade and investment cooperation has been growing, contributing to the industrial upgrading, connectivity and livelihood improvement of Central Asian countries.

During the forum, the MOFCOM and the economic and trade departments of the five countries announced a joint initiative on the sustainable development of economic and trade cooperation between China and Central Asia, in order to expand cooperation in fields including trade, investment, digital and green economy.

The participants from the five countries highly appreciated the meaningful results achieved in economic and trade cooperation with China over the past 30 years, and all parties should continue to strengthen cooperation to jointly address challenges, combat the epidemic and accelerate economic recovery, making more contributions to multilateral and bilateral economic and trade cooperation as well as the peaceful and stable development of the region. 

The five countries will further enhance cooperation with China under the Belt and Road Initiative, helping implement more cooperation projects to promote the economic and social development of all countries.

Wang said that China is willing to work with the five countries to expand cooperation in a bid to take economic and trade cooperation between China and Central Asia to a new level.

Global Times