ISLAMABAD: Ehsan ur Rehman Mazari, the Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC), thinks Pakistan and Kazakhstan should cooperate to promote intercultural exchanges while also boosting trade and investment between the two nations.
On Wednesday, the Minister received a visit from Yerzhan Kistafin, the ambassador of Kazakhstan to Pakistan. According to a press release, federal secretary Ahmed Hanif Orakzai also attended the event. The Minister greeted the Ambassador and expressed appreciation for the government of Kazakhstan’s efforts to improve bilateral ties with both nations. The two dignitaries spoke about ways that Pakistan and Kazakhstan could cooperate, with a focus on sports, tourism, flight accessibility, visa liberalization, and business community facilitation on both sides.
In the meeting, the Minister also stressed the need for further enhancing cooperation in the field of sports, tourism, flight connectivity, and facilitation of business community. He said both countries should work together to promote people-to-people contacts and enhance trade and investment between the two countries.The Ambassador expressed his gratitude to the Minister for his warm hospitality and expressed his commitment to further strengthening bilateral relations between the two countries.He also highlighted the importance of the flight connectivity between the two countries and told that a direct flight from Lahore to Almaty was likely to be started in April this year followed by the one from Karachi to Almaty in May, 2023. “This will be a huge step towards achieving other bilateral goals of cooperation.” The ambassador also expressed his commitment to work in liaison with both sides for strong and durable connectivity at all level especially in trade and tourism for both the countries have breathtaking sights. He said for the business community a significant stride had been taken in terms of ease in visa regime which would be processed within no more than three days. “A memorandum of understanding (MOU) has been signed between BoK Pakistan and Bank of Kazakhstan to establish correspondent accounts for business people. Yerzhan said Kazakhstan was working on prospective MOU on tourism, which would likely to be signed between the two countries in coming months covering various aspects of tourism cooperation by bringing it to a revolutionary level.The Minister appreciated the efforts and assured that a lot was yet to be explored in sports especially Taekwondo and Judo between both countries. “We are hoping to start a massive exchange program of coaches and players for mutual benefit in various sports.” The two dignitaries agreed to work together to promote people-to-people contacts, enhance trade and investment, and strengthen the bilateral relations between the two countries. They also agreed to explore ways to facilitate the business at all possible level.
