Kazakhstan Today (kt.kz) - Kazakh president proposes to set up joint agrarian innovation centres with Russia

President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed to set up joint agrarian innovation centres with Russia.

Kazakhstan Today reports that, according to the press service of the head of state, Nursultan Nazarbayev, in his speech at the plenary session of the XII Forum for Inter-regional Cooperation between Kazakhstan and Russia, named as a priority the development of new standards and technical regulations to clearly determine the composition of products.

According to the press service, the president of Kazakhstan also emphasised the importance of innovations in agriculture. "

The agrarian sector needs modernisation and advanced technology. I would refer to Israel as an example. This country lacks fertile land but supplies fruit and vegetables to global markets. So, the agricultural ministries of our countries should consider the possibility of establishing joint agrarian innovation centres," he said.

In addition, Nursultan Nazarbayev emphasised the importance of cooperation in mutual investment, the establishment of trans-boundary joint ventures, the building of industrial chains, and the ensuring of quality transport and logistics infrastructure.

"Kazakhstan is finishing the construction of the Western Europe - Western China corridor, which crosses Russia. This is where we could create centres to expand food supplies. The resources of Eurasian Development Bank could be used for this purpose. Out of twelve projects financed by the Bank this year, ten were in agriculture," he said.

To conclude, the head of state said that the member countries needed to take advantage of the Eurasian Economic Union and to jointly protect their economic interests.

"The EEU is in a difficult situation now: its trade turnover has shrunk by 20-25%. However, this was caused not by integration, but external factors, which include instability in global markets. We should survive difficult times. Any crisis is followed by growth, and for this reason we should prepare ourselves for a new breakthrough," Nursultan Nazarbayev said.