Jordan and Kazakhstan Sign Agreements on Tourism and Transportation

    Jordan and Kazakhstan yesterday signed a programme on cooperation in the field of tourism to be implemented between 2009 and 2011. The programme, signed by Jordan’s Tourism Minister Maha Khatib and her Kazakh counterpart, Temirkhan Dosmukhambetov, seeks to boost tourism cooperation between the two countries.
    As part of President Nazarbayev’s visit to Jordan, the two countries also initialled an agreement in the field of air transport, under which Royal Jordanian Airlines and Air Astana will be adopted as the official carriers between Amman and Astana.
    King Abdullah and Nazarbayev also discussed ways to benefit from the opportunities at hand to strengthen cooperation between the two countries in the fields of services, medical care, pharmaceutical and defence industries, ICT and construction.
    Jordan's imports from Kazakhstan over the past five years stood at about $127 million, while its exports to the Central Asian nation stood at $3.5 million in spite of transportation obstacles, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.
    In 2008, the trade volume between the two countries amounted to $73 million, jumping from $13 million in 2007, Jordan Times reports.