On March 29, President Xi Jinping and President Tokayev of Kazakhstan sent congratulatory letters to the opening ceremony of the 2024 China “Kazakhstan Tourism Year” respectively.
Xi Jinping pointed out that China and Kazakhstan are good neighbors, good friends, and good partners. The two peoples have thousands of years of friendly exchanges and have jointly written a beautiful poem of exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations along the ancient Silk Road. In 2013, I first proposed the initiative of jointly building the "Silk Road Economic Belt" in Kazakhstan. For more than 10 years, the two countries have promoted the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" as the main line. Cooperation in various fields has achieved fruitful results, benefiting the people of the two countries and reinvigorating the thousand-year-old Silk Road friendship between China and Kazakhstan.
Xi Jinping emphasized that cultural exchanges and tourism cooperation are important bridges and links that connect the people of China and Kazakhstan. In recent years, people-to-people and cultural cooperation between the two countries has been booming. The mutual visa exemption agreement has come into effect, the agreement to establish cultural centers in each other's country has been signed, the Luban Workshop has been established, stories of youth exchanges have been spread frequently, personnel exchanges have become increasingly closer, and the foundation of people-to-people friendship has become increasingly solid. Last year, President Tokayev and I jointly announced 2024 as China’s Kazakhstan Tourism Year. It is hoped that the two countries will take the Year of Tourism as an opportunity to deepen tourism cooperation, enhance personnel exchanges, continue the millennium friendship, work together to build a new "golden thirty years" of China-Kazakhstan relations, and make new contributions to building a China-Kazakhstan community with a shared future.
Tokayev said in his congratulatory letter that Kazakhstan and China are friendly neighbors, with political mutual trust continuing to deepen and cooperation in various fields fruitful. They are committed to creating a new "golden thirty years" for bilateral relations. Kazakhstan has a long history and culture, numerous historical sites, magnificent natural scenery, and hospitable people. It can definitely become the most popular tourist destination for Chinese tourists. Kazakhstan will hold a series of Tourism Year activities to comprehensively enhance Chinese tourists’ understanding of Kazakhstan, further consolidate the ever-lasting friendship between Kazakhstan and China, and inject new and strong impetus into the permanent comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.
The 2024 China "Kazakhstan Tourism Year" opened in Beijing on the same day. The event was jointly hosted by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China and the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of Kazakhstan.