DUSHANBE, February 19, 2016, Asia-Plus – On Friday February 19, Tajik Deputy Prime Minister Azim Ibrohim received visiting Akim (Governor) of Kazakhstan’s East-Kazakhstan Region, Danial Akhmedov, according to the Tajik Prime Minister’s Secretariat.

The two reportedly discussed issues related to cooperation between the regions of the two countries and intensification of activities of the Tajik-Kazakh intergovernmental commission for trade and economic cooperation.

The next meeting of the Tajik-Kazakh intergovernmental commission for trade and economic cooperation that will take place in the first half of this year will focus on expansion of bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and Kazakhstan in the fields of transportation, energy, and science.

Ibrohim and Akhmedov also exchanged views on establishment of direct cooperation between Tajikistan’s provinces and the East-Kazakhstan Region, the source said.

East Kazakhstan Region is a region of Kazakhstan.  It occupies the easternmost part of Kazakhstan, along both sides of the Irtysh River and Lake Zaysan. Its administrative center is Oskemen (also known as Ust-Kamenogorsk).  The region borders Russia in the north and northeast and the People''s Republic of China (Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region) in the south and southeast.  It also borders the Kazakh regions of Pavlodar (to the north west), Karaganda (to the west), and Almaty (to the south).

The region was created by the merger of two Soviet-era Kazakhstan oblasts: the old Vostochno-Kazakhstanskaya (East Kazakhstan) Oblast and Semipalatinsk Oblast.