China's Ministry of Commerce and the Kazakh government jointly hosted the first China-Kazakhstan Sub-National Cooperation Forum, an important sideline meeting of the 14th China-ASEAN EXPO presented by the visiting state leaders of both countries.

Starting from this year, Special Partner mechanism will be established, which is open to the countries along the route of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Kazakhstan is the first Special Partner to collaborate the Silk Road Economic Belt invited to attend the China-ASEAN Expo. It is also the first time for the expo to host a high-end forum with a non-ASEAN country. 

Many believe the China-Kazakhstan Sub-national Cooperation Forum will set a good example to facilitate cooperation between China and ASEAN as a group with other countries along the Belt and Road route.

"China attaches great importance to the bilateral ties with Kazakhstan. President Xi Jinping put forward the initiative of building the Silk Road Economic Belt during his visit to Kazakhstan. When meeting with President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan, Xi stressed that China is willing to cooperate with Kazakhstan in infrastructure construction, economy, trade, energy, investment. And China is working together with Kazakhstan to strengthen closer ties as good neighbors, good friends and good partners," China's Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli said at the forum. 

China and ASEAN countries are working together for closer cooperation and building the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. For Kazakhstan, it's also a good opportunity to further promote cooperation in agriculture, energy, trade and people-to-people exchanges. 

“Kazakstan will maintain close exchanges with China to jointly promote bilateral cooperation and make Kazakhstan-China relations a model in relations between regional countries. Kazakhstan is currently cooperating with 17 provinces from China to take jointly building the Silk Road Economic Belt as an opportunity to elevate the level of economic and trade cooperation between the two countries," said H.E. Askar Mamin, First Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan at the forum.