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SA, Kazakhstan to boost relations - Newsroom - 08-10-2013
South Africa and Kazakhstan are set to strengthen bilateral relations when International Relations and Cooperation Deputy Minister Ebrahim Ebrahim hosts Kazakhstan's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kairat Sarybay, later this week.
Sarybay will be in South Africa on a one-day working visit on Thursday, where he will co-chair the 3rd Round of Inter-Governmental Consultations.
Prime on the agenda of the consultations, according to the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, will be the review of progress made in respect of outstanding draft agreements to be signed during the planned State Visit by the President of Kazakhstan in December 2013.
In their last meeting in May 2012, the two sides discussed in detail the question of multilateral cooperation in international organisations and held discussions on international issues of mutual interest and concern.
South Africa and Kazakhstan have substantial economic interests, which overlap in several important areas such as trade, production and collaborative marketing of strategic minerals, technology exchange, machine production, as well as oil procurement for South Africa.
Total trade between South Africa and Kazakhstan has been fluctuating but has remained in South Africa’s favour since 2009.
It increased from R44 million in 2009 to R137 million in 2010; it dropped to R88 million in 2011 and increased to R90 million in 2012.
Exports increased from R42 million in 2009 to R101 million in 2010 compared to imports of R2 million in 2009 and R36 million in 2010.
In September 2009, the R26-million SumbandilaSat was launched in Kazakhstan. The low-orbit satellite was commissioned by South Africa's Department of Science and Technology and implemented by Stellenbosch University's engineering faculty.
It formed part of an integrated national space programme, developed by government to provide the country with affordable access to space technology and data. The satellite was expected to orbit about 500 km to 600 km above the earth, carrying high resolution cameras to produce images of Earth. – SAnews.gov.za