Rustam Minnikhanov meets Akim of Abay region Nurlan Urankhaev

On 11 December, speaking at his meeting with the Akim of Abay region of Kazankhstan  Nurlan Urankhaev in the Kazan Kremlin, held with participation of the Chairman of the State Council of the republic Farid Mukhametshin, the Mayor of Kazan Ilsur Metshin and representatives of a number of regional Ministries and departments, the Rais (Head) of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov emphasized that Kazakhstan is one of the leading foreign partners of the republic. “We highly appreciate the opportunity of broadening contacts with your country within the framework of friendly Russia-Kazakhstan relations,“ he said.

The Rais of the republic stressed that the cooperation agenda is rather extensive today and the exchange of delegations of various level is regular, with Tatarstan companies working actively in Kazakhstan. He attracted attention to the fact that last year the trade turnover between countries made 758m dollars, having shown more than 20 per cent growth. “This year the growth dynamics has preserved and even though there are no final numbers yet, the amount of mutual trade will be much more than last year,” Rustam Minnikhanov stated.

He said that direct flights from Kazan to Astana and Almaty facilitate development of cooperation and that on the top of that there is the General Consulate of Kazakhstan working in Kazan and a representative office of Tatarstan in Astana.

The Rais of Tatarstan said today there are many promising cooperation spheres between Tatarstan and Abay region such as energetics, industry, automotive industry, gas fuel, petrochemicals, agriculture and informatization and stressed the importance of expanding interaction in the spheres of culture, science, education, tourism and sports. He informed that in the City of Semey there is a Tatar art school and monuments to Gabdulla Tukay and Musa Djalil.  In its turn it is planned to erect a bust of the Kazakh public leader and a poet and writer Abay Kunanbaev in Kazan next year, he concluded.

In his turn Nurlan Urankhaev thanked for the high level of organization of the Abay region delegation visit and said: “Due to the wise policy of Heads of our states we have a unique possibility to strengthen bilateral relations. History of our city and the region is inseparably connected with brotherly Tatar people who were involved in enlightenment and took an active part in charity. Today Tatars are also making a huge contribution into strengthening the public concord and social-economic development.”

He emphasized that the region is interested in close cooperation with Tatarstan. “In our delegation we have representatives practically of all interested state bodies, educational institutions and the business community,” he added.

During its visit to Tatarstan the delegation from the Abay region went to the Investments Development Agency of the republic, the National library and Kazan Federal University and is planning to go to Innopolis on 12 December.