Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov held a meeting with German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock, who arrived in Astana on a working visit, QazMonitor reports citing the press service of the prime minister.
The parties discussed issues of expanding mutual trade turnover, the development of renewable energy sources and logistics infrastructure, and investment cooperation.
According to Smailov, Germany is Kazakhstan's most important trade, economic, and investment partner in the European Union–which is why Astana, despite the global recession, is determined to maintain and strengthen the high level of interaction with Berlin.
Last year, the amount of direct German investments in the Kazakh economy grew by 25% and exceeded $320 million. Turnover between the countries also grew by more than 6% to more than $2.2 billion, with consistent growth in the current year as well.
"We see a significant potential to increase investment cooperation and increase the volume of mutual trade," Alikhan Smailov said.
One of the examples of successful cooperation between the countries is the planned construction of a green hydrogen production complex with wind and solar power plants with a total capacity of 45 GW.
Annalena Berbok, in her turn, praised the significant progress achieved by Kazakhstan in recent years and highlighted the potential to further develop economic cooperation in many areas, including energy and industry.
"We believe that it is important to develop economic relations on an equal footing so that it is mutually beneficial," Berbock said.
The German Foreign Minister also called for greater interaction in terms of professional training for various sectors of the economy.
At the end of the talks, both sides expressed their willingness to expand comprehensive cooperation in all priority areas.
