Xi to meet Egyptian president in Kazan

Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in Russia's Kazan on Wednesday evening local time.

Xi arrived in the Russian city on Tuesday to attend the 16th BRICS Summit at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The summit, which is taking place from Tuesday to Thursday, is the first to be held after the expansion of the BRICS organization earlier this year.

BRICS is the acronym for an emerging market cooperative mechanism that initially comprised Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, but saw its membership expand with several new member states, including Egypt, joining in January.

The 2024 Kazakhstan Tourism Year in China officially closed on Wednesday in Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan, with fruitful results achieved in promoting travel between the two countries. An international tourism forum was held within the framework of the closing ceremony. About 300 people, including Kazakhstan's Vice Minister of Tourism and Sports Yerkinbayev Yerzhan Malikovich, Chinese Consul General in Almaty Jiang Wei, and representatives from tourism and media of both countries, attended the event.

Yerkinbayev said that Kazakhstan plans to expand passenger capacity at land ports connecting the countries and increase investment in tourism infrastructure construction to attract more Chinese tourists.

"We are seeing more and more Chinese tourists coming to Kazakhstan, so we should improve tourism infrastructure and not let these visitors down. Today at the forum we announced that we will open new border crossings and improve the facilities at existing ones. Some improvement work has already started this year, making these crossings convenient not only for the clearance of goods but also for people," he said.

"The leaders of the two countries have announced that 2025 will be the Chinese Tourism Year in Kazakhstan. We are looking forward to the series of activities planned by our Chinese colleagues, and will fully support every event to be held in Kazakhstan next year," he added.

Jiang, the Chinese Consul General in Almaty, said that all-round and high-level China-Kazakhstan tourism cooperation has been launched, which will inject new impetus into promoting mutual understanding between the two peoples and building a more meaningful and dynamic China-Kazakhstan community with a shared future.

"Since the launch of the Kazakhstan Tourism Year event, departments at all levels of the two countries, especially the tourism departments, have held promotion meetings, forums, and tourism exhibitions in both countries, providing tourists with a variety of colorful activities. Such events have opened up windows for promoting mutual understanding and friendship between the peoples of the two countries and enhancing mutual learning between civilizations," Jiang said.

At the closing ceremony, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of Kazakhstan presented the "Most Influential International Media Cooperation Award" to CCTV-4 Channel of China Media Group (CMG), commending the three-part documentary "Bond with China—For the Common Dream" produced in cooperation with the Khabar Media Group of Kazakhstan.

The program was launched in July this year at a China-Kazakhstan cultural exchange event organized by CMG, and was aired simultaneously on China's CCTV-4, the TV channels under the Khabar Media Group, and Atameken TV.

Daniyel Serzhanuly, deputy chairman of the board for the Kazakh Tourism National Company, said that the documentary showcases the culture and beautiful scenery of Kazakhstan to Chinese audiences. He expressed hope for deepened cooperation in media between the two countries.

"Among the more than 30 cooperation projects implemented under the tourism year program, there are media cooperation projects. The most successful one is the three-part documentary about Kazakhstan produced in cooperation with CCTV-4. The program was launched before the SCO Summit, which showed the tourism potential of Kazakhstan to Chinese audiences and improved Chinese people's understanding of Kazakhstan," he said.

Two sub-forums and a B2B tourism business negotiation meeting were also held within the framework of the closing ceremony.