(Yicai) Nov. 3 -- Chinese businesses are welcome to invest in Kazakhstan, where bilateral trade with China has been growing fast and still has vast potential to increase after exceeding USD43 billion last year, according to the chairwoman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Almaty.

Kazakhstan is Central Asia’s transport hub and a vital transit route for the China-Europe Railway Express, connecting goods from Europe and China and enabling win-win trade relations for merchants in both nations, Shara Akylbaeva told Yicai at the second of this year's bi-annual China Import and Export Fair, better known as the Canton Fair.

Akylbaeva is leading a delegation of buyers to China's oldest trade fair in the southern city of Guangzhou, where the autumn event’s third phase is shining the spotlight on industrial products such as clothing and food.

The delegation has seen many goods at the event, with a number catching its members’ interest, including smart medical products, special clothing, and snacks, Akylbaeva noted. The group has picked up many product catalogs, she added.

She said the delegation is deeply interested in, and impressed by, China’s high-tech development. Chinese manufacturers can also use Kazakhstan as a springboard for expanding into European markets and look beyond the energy sector to consider investing in processing and manufacturing, such as the garment and eco-friendly high-tech goods sectors, she pointed out.

Chinese manufacturing leads the world, noted a member of the delegation, adding that representatives from her personal care products firm often visit China to learn and buy large quantities of raw materials. It plans to buy more Chinese production equipment in the future, the person added.

China's economic and trade ties with Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries are deepening, an official from Shaanxi province’s commerce department told Yicai at the Canton Fair. Trade between Shaanxi and Kazakhstan doubled in the January to September period from a year ago after surging 145 percent last year, the official noted.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev