December 10, 2003	Wednesday	Shawwal 15, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 9: President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev has said that his country and Pakistan have big unexploited reserves to significantly increase mutually beneficial trade and industrial cooperation.

Speaking at the Pakistan-Kazakhstan Business Forum here on Tuesday, the Kazakh president said during the last few years a growth in trade volume between the two countries had been observed, but it was still extremely low.

Mr Nazarbayev said the government of Pakistan and the private sector had shown keen interest in the construction of food processing units in Kazakhstan.

He said he was looking forward to the forthcoming meeting of the ministers of transport of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China and Pakistan in Almaty which would formally open traffic through the Karakoram Highway. All the four countries are signatories to the Agreement on Traffic-in-Transit.

He expressed the confidence that the meeting would give an impetus to the development of the bilateral trade and strengthening of mutually advantages cooperation among the signatory states.

The Kazakh president welcomed the interaction of the businessmen of the two countries, particularly in the private sector. He identified three zones of technological parks as the centre for development of new information and bio-technologies where the Pakistani companies could invest for mutually advantages cooperation.

The government of Kazakhstan would encourage and support establishment of joint ventures, consulting and information services, and opening of branches of Pakistani companies, he said.

Mr Nazarbayev said Pakistan was of interest to Kazakhstan as it had advanced processing and food industries and an agricultural complex.

VISA RELAXATION: Speaking on the occasion, Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri said that Pakistan and Kazakhstan had agreed to bring about relaxation in visa regime to facilitate businessmen from the two countries.

Mr Kasuri said that Kashmir was not a territorial dispute between Pakistan and India, rather it had been festering for more than half a century because of the denial of the right of self-determination to the Kashmiri people in accordance with UN resolutions.

The occasion was also used to launch the Urdu edition of the Kazakh president’s book “Epicentre of Peace”.

Mr Kasuri said the Kashmir issue was central to Pakistan-India relations. We would continue our endeavours for resumption of dialogue to resolve the Kashmir issue.