50 top priority Kazakhstan-China projects are estimated at tens of billions of U.S. dollars

Almaty. September 14. Silkroadnews –The total investment in top priority China-Kazakhstan industrial projects in Kazakhstan will exceed $26 billion, China’s Consul General in Almaty Zhang Wei said, the Kazakh Telegraph Agency (KazTAG) reports.
According to him, for the recent years the political mutual trust between China and Kazakhstan has been “continuously deepening”, while the two nations’ strategic partnership content is getting “more fulfilled day by day”.
“Both sides boost cooperation in large-scale projects in energy, infrastructure, engineering, manufacturing and chemical industries. A list of 50 top priority projects in the field of industrialization for a total amount of more than $26 billion has been developed,” Zhang Wei said speaking in the course of the international conference devoted to issues of use, status, trends and prospects of two states’ national currencies.
In his opinion, the finance issue is becoming more urgent amid growing need for raising capital.
“China and Kazakhstan need to urgently develop new ideas and new ways in the areas of currency exchange, cross-border settlements, as well as in investment and financing sectors,” Zhang Wei believes.
He also pointed out that over the recent years, the need for using the Chinese currency has been increasing in neighboring countries, with the PRC authorities actively facilitating pilot projects for settlements to be carried out in RMB as a part of direct investment program.
“At the moment, the Chinese currency is in free circulation across many countries of South-East Asia. In Malaysia, South Korea, Cambodia and other countries, the yuan is part of the foreign exchange reserves. At the same time, many countries have expressed their readiness to expand their capital markets and hold more funds in Chinese currency,” Consul General assured.
He suggests, the IMF move to add the Chinese currency to the basket of major international reserve currencies in October 2016 served as an indicator of renminbi growing importance for the world.
“This shows rapid race of the renminbi internationalization moving from a simple currency toward one used for settlement and reserves objectives”, Zhang Wei believes.