DUSHANBE, October 3, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- Kazakhstan’s Prime Minister Karim Masimov will pay an official visit to Tajikistan on October 23-24, according to the MFA.  

During his stay in Dushanbe, the Kazakh prime minister will hold talks with President Emomali Rahmon, Prime Minister Oqil Oqilov and other high-ranking Tajik state officials.

Masimov will also attend a session of the Tajik-Kazakh commission for trade and economic cooperation that is expected to end with signing of a number of cooperation documents.    

Over the past five years, a two-way trade between Tajikistan and Kazakhstan has tripled and exceeded 300 million US dollars in 2007.  

The source at the Kazakh Embassy in Dushanbe said that Kazakh premier’s visit to Tajikistan will give a new impulse to further expansion of bilateral cooperation between Kazakhstan and Tajikistan.

According to him, a joint investment fund of $100 million set up following President Nazarabayev’s visit to Tajikistan in September 2007 is dedicated to promote expansion of economic cooperation between the two countries and it will be used to invest in projects in Tajikistan.  The fund will give priority to the economic areas that are of interest to both countries: electric power generation, agriculture, the mining industry, and other important spheres of the economy.

We will recall that Days of Kazakhstan’s Culture will be held in Tajikistan n late October and Prime Minister Masimov will attend an inaugurating ceremony.