BEIJING — Vice-Premier Han Zheng met with Kazakhstan's First Deputy Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov on Nov 4 in Beijing, who also co-chaired the 9th meeting of the China-Kazakhstan Cooperation Committee.

Han, also a Standing Committee member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said the development of bilateral ties had been healthy and steady to become a model of relations between neighboring countries.

Earlier this year, China and Kazakhstan upgraded their relations to a permanent comprehensive strategic partnership, which Han said marked a new phase of bilateral relations.

The China-Kazakhstan Cooperation Committee, as an intergovernmental mechanism, makes overall planing for, coordinates and guides bilateral cooperation.

Han said since the last meeting of the committee, the two countries had deepened the synergy of their development strategies, accelerated trade, investment and industrial cooperation, strengthened financial cooperation, and continuously enhanced cooperation in security, environmental protection, energy, technology and mining.

Noting the solid foundation, huge potential and broad prospects of bilateral cooperation, Han said the two countries should promote cooperation in industrial capacity, transportation, agriculture and energy.

He called on the two sides to jointly implement the synergy between the Silk Road Economic Belt and Kazakhstan's "Bright Road" new economic policy, strengthen innovation-driven cooperation and carry out digital industry, blockchain and biotechnology cooperation to create new growth points.

He said the two sides should carry out more facilitation measures to constantly optimize the business environment and guarantee the rights and interests of enterprises from both countries.

Smailov said Kazakhstan is ready to work with China to promote cooperation in trade, finance, energy, agriculture, transportation, logistics and infrastructure to benefit the two peoples.