国内英语新闻:China, Kazakhstan agree to jointly speed up silk road construction

BEIJING, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- China and Kazakhstan agreed on Friday to establish a joint working group to promote the construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt.

The agreement was reached in talks between Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli and Bakytzhan Sagintayev, visiting first deputy prime minister of Kazakhstan, an important country along the Silk Road Economic Belt.

According to a Foreign Ministry press release, the two sides agreed on production capacity cooperation and to speed up related financing, strengthen communication, promote infrastructure construction including roads and railways, and to make better use of the Horgos border crossing in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and the international logistics cooperation base in Lianyungang port of Jiangsu Province.

The two countries should further expand reciprocal cooperation in all areas, Zhang said.

Sagintayev said Kazakhstan was firm on cooperation with China, a friendly neighbor and strategic partner of his country, and that Kazakhstan was ready to work with China to strengthen bilateral cooperation and maintain a smooth development of the bilateral relations.