China-Central Asia Summit to carry historic significance, says Kazakh media leader

ASTANA, May 12 (Xinhua) -- The upcoming China-Central Asia Summit is "very important" as it will open up broad prospects for and inject impetus into long-term cooperation and development between China and the Central Asian countries in various fields, a Kazakh media outlet leader has said.

It is historic to hold the summit in the Chinese city of Xi'an, where the ancient Silk Road began, ahead of the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that was put forward in Kazakhstan, Serik Korzhumbayev, editor-in-chief of the Delovoy Kazakhstan newspaper, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

According to Korzhumbayev, the summit will bring together the heads of the five Central Asian states and experts to discuss measures to strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation in various areas.

Within the framework of the BRI, said Korzhumbayev, a lot has been done in recent years.

"A number of joint ventures have been opened between Kazakhstan and China on the territory of our country. A number of projects are also planned to be implemented in the near future," he said.

Korzhumbayev praised the China-Kazakhstan Horgos International Border Cooperation Center as an excellent example of cooperation, saying the center allows the Kazakh people to conduct business and purchase duty-free goods in a convenient way.

He also commended the cooperation between Kazakhstan and China in the auto industry, which has led to a boom in the vehicle production and sales in Kazakhstan.

"We all see a very large number of new high-quality cars on the streets of Kazakh cities that come as part of our joint projects," said the media leader.

He said the Belt and Road cooperation between Kazakhstan and China has yielded fruitful results, with a large number of mutually beneficial investment and production capacity projects successfully launched and bilateral trade volume growing steadily.

He said that Kazakhstan would like to take the 10th anniversary of the BRI as an opportunity to speed up the synergy between the China-proposed initiative and Kazakhstan's "Bright Road" new economic policy, and promote bilateral cooperation in industry, agriculture, infrastructure construction, tourism, people-to-people and cultural exchanges.

"Guided by the notion of building a community with a shared future for mankind, our countries are getting closer and closer to each other in all spheres of interaction," Korzhumbayev stressed.

"The summit will have a positive effect on the long-term cooperation and development of our countries. A new format of cooperation will make it possible to involve the Central Asian region with China's large market in close economic ties," he concluded.