OREANDA-NEWS. On September 03, 2008 In Akorda after the official ceremony of the meeting, N.Nazarbayev and H.Kohler conducted talks in narrow and enlarged sessions where the condition and prospects of the bilateral cooperation in political, trade and economic, cultural and humanitarian spheres were discussed, reported the Official website www.akorda.kz.

During the talks President N.Nazarbayev noted that Kazakhstan and Germany maintain bilateral contacts at all levels: parliamentary, government, interdepartmental and business.

- Kazakhstan is a leading economic partner of Germany in Central Asia, and Germany is one of the main trade partners of Kazakhstan in Europe, said the Head of State.

The bilateral trade turnover last year raised by 26% and made 3 bln. US dollars.

During the talks Presidents dedicated a special attention to the issues of investment cooperation. Germany is one of the leading investors working successfully on the Kazakhstani market for a long time. The German investments to the economy of Kazakhstan exceed 3,5 bln. US dollars. Around 700 companies with the German capital share are registered in Kazakhstan.

During the talks the issues of bilateral cooperation in the OSCE have also been discussed. It was noted that Kazakhstan attaches great importance to the development of cooperation with Germany taking into account the upcoming Kazakhstan’s chairmanship of the Organisation in 2010. Nursultan Nazarbayev informed Mr. Kohler about the successful conduct of the 17th Annual Session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in the summer this year with the participation of the delegations from 56 countries of the world. For the first time this authoritative forum took place on the Asian part of the OSCE.

During the discussion of the issues of humanitarian cooperation, President N. Nazarbayev noted that the connections of the thousands of members of the German community in Kazakhstan and more than million Kazakhstani Germans that moved to FRG became a live bridge of the “people’s diplomacy” and cultural exchange. Due to that, the leader of Kazakhstan proposed to conduct a Year of Kazakhstan in Germany in 2009 and a Year of Germany in Kazakhstan in 2010.

From his side, the Federal President of Germany Horst Kohler congratulated Kazakhstan with the upcoming chairmanship of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 2010.

- The chairmanship of Kazakhstan of the OSCE is going to be an important positive contribution to the regulation of conflict in Caucasus, - said Mr. Kohler.

Within the State visit of the Federal President of Germany after the talks the Joint Statement of the partnership for the future between the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Federative Republic of Germany was accepted, also the following documents were signed: Agreement between the Ministry of the Industry and Trade of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technologies of the FRG about the formation of the innovative and investment partnership for the period until 2011 and the Agreement between the government of Kazakhstan and Germany for the further cooperation on developing the Kazakhstani-German university in Almaty.

After the talks, the joint press-conference of the Heads of both states was held.