China and Kazakhstan will expand collaboration in the oil and gas sector, according to an agreement signed by President Hu Jintao and his visiting Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev in Beijing yesterday.

The document on "China-Kazakhstan Co-operation Strategy for the 21st Century" agrees to support cross-border construction of oil and gas pipelines and work closely on oil and gas processing, building new power facilities and providing electricity to third countries.

It encourages mutual investment and pledges to create favourable conditions for enterprises that invest in industries such as machinery manufacturing, foodstuffs and textiles. The two sides will try to expand trade volume to US$10 billion by 2010 and to US$15 billion by 2015.

The nations also pledged to strengthen collaboration to crack down on border crimes.

"The two sides will continue to have co-operation between law enforcement departments to fight against drug smuggling, weaponry and explosives trafficking, money-laundering and transnational organized crime," it says.

The crackdown on terrorism, separatism and extremism is also highlighted in the document.

It said both sides will boost the volume of rail freight and explore new railway routes between the two countries.

They will simplify formalities at Customs and address any problems in import-export inspections.

The two countries also signed 12 documents on the economy, energy, finance, education, and culture, including one on the launch of a Confucius Institute in Kazakhstan.

The 15th anniversary of diplomatic relations will be celebrated this year and the "Kazakh Culture Festival" will be held in China next year, Hu said.

China and Kazakhstan are members of the Shanghai Co-operation Organization, a regional body which also groups Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Nazarbayev is in Beijing for a five-day state visit, the first since he won a re-election last December. He is scheduled to meet top legislator Wu Bangguo and Premier Wen Jiabao; and the visit will also take him to Hong Kong and Macao.  -China Daily