Kazakhstan President and Italian Prime Minister discussed bilateral cooperation

    By Shinar Ospanova
    The telephone talk was initiated by the Italian side, the Kazakhstanskaya Pravda reports referring to Nursultan Nazarbayev’s press office.
    Kazakhstan President held a telephone talk with Prime Minister of the Republic of Italy Matteo Renzi, Kazpravda.kz says quoting the Akorda website.
    “In the telephone talk, initiated by the Italian side, key aspects of the further strengthening of bilateral cooperation were discussed, as well as topical issues of the international agenda,” –the statement says.
    Diplomatic relations between Kazakhstan and Italy were established June 12, 1992. In October 1992, the Italian Embassy was opened in the Republic of Kazakhstan, which is in Astana since April 2005. In1996 a diplomatic mission of Kazakhstan was opened in Italy. Since June 2012 the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Kazakhstan to Italy is Andrian Elemesov. From June 2011, Ambassador of the ItalianRepublic in our country is Alberto Pieri.
    Bilateral cooperation is based on partnership and mutual interests, both in the political and economic areas. With the formation in February 2014 of the new government of Italy led by Matteo Renzi, main vectors of the country’s foreign policy, including in relation to Kazakhstan, remain unchanged.
    According to the Statistics Agency, the 2012 sales between the countries are record high – $ 16,425 billion. Italy is third biggest trade partner of Kazakhstan. From Kazakhstan Italy exports mainly crude oil and gas condensate, petrochemicals from bituminous minerals, liquid fuel (fuel oil), wheat, zinc, gold, copper and ferrous alloys. Kazakhstan imports from Italy chiefly the consumer goods, also machinery and equipment.
    Italy is one of the largest foreign investors in Kazakhstan. According to the National Bank of Kazakhstan, the volume of direct Italian investments in Kazakhstan in 1994 amounted to approximately $ 5.7 billion, according to Kazpravda.kz.