Ma Xingrui, Party chief of Northwest China's Xinjiang region, meets with Yerbol Karashukeyev, Minister of Agriculture of Kazakhstan, in Urumqi on Tuesday. Photo:ts.cn

Ma Xingrui, Party chief of Northwest China's Xinjiang region, met with Yerbol Karashukeyev, Minister of Agriculture of Kazakhstan, in Urumqi on Tuesday, with the two sides holding deep exchanges and further promoting bilateral economic and trade cooperation, especially cooperation in the field of agriculture and animal husbandry.

The recent exchanges between China's Xinjiang region and Central Asian countries have attracted attention. In March, Ma led a delegation visiting Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, which was viewed by analysts as an important preparation for the China-Central Asia Summit.

The China-Central Asia Summit will be held on May 18 and 19 in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province. Chinese President Xi Jinping will chair the summit.

During the meeting with Karashukeyev, Ma welcomed Karashukyev and his delegation to the Xinjiang region. Ma said that under the strategic guidance of the two heads of state, China-Kazakhstan relations have continued to operate at a high level, and cooperation in various fields has continued to deepen, local news outlet ts.cn reported. 

The Xinjiang region is the frontier of for China to develop relations with Kazakhstan and it has always maintained close economic and trade cooperation with Kazakhstan. Cooperation in various fields has continued to deepen with more achievements, Ma said.

Ma noted that agricultural cooperation between the two sides is highly complementary and has a solid foundation. Since the beginning of this year, the trade volume has increased significantly with broad prospects. 

We are willing to further implement the important consensus of the two heads of state of China and Kazakhstan, establish and improve the normalized exchange and cooperation mechanism and continue to deepen economic and trade cooperation in agriculture and animal husbandry, including increasing the import of agricultural products, expanding trade in livestock products, and strengthening cooperation in agricultural science and technology,  Ma added.

Ma also noted that the region will expand mutual investment in agricultural field to achieve complementary advantages and promote mutually beneficial cooperation to a higher level, injecting new impetus to the building of China-Kazakhstan community of shared future.

Karashukyev said that the heads of state of Kazakhstan and China have led the continuous deepening of bilateral relations and expansion of economic and trade cooperation. China's Xinjiang is the most important area for Kazakhstan to develop relations with China. 

The scale of economic and trade cooperation between Kazakhstan and China's Xinjiang has been expanding over recent years, accounting for an important share in Kazakhstan-China cooperation, and there is more space for future cooperation, said Karashukyev.  

We hope to continue to expand cooperation with China's Xinjiang in the agricultural field, improve trade in meat, grain and organic agricultural products, oil and meal products and strengthen cooperation in agricultural science and technology to promote bilateral cooperation to achieve more practical results, Karashukyev said.