ALMATY - Construction of an export pipeline from oilfields in western Kazakhstan to China is expected to start in September, a Kazakh government spokesman told Interfax Thursday. Kazakh Prime Minister Nurlan Balgimbayev and Chinese counterpart Zhu Rongji agreed in Beijing to sign a final contract on the pipeline by the end of the year, spokesman Viktor Kiyanitsa said. The 3,000-kilometer (1,864-mile) pipeline will carry Kazakh crude to China and Southeast Asia. Balgimbayev, former head of Kazakhstan's state oil company Kazakhoil, told the Chinese officials that his country would like a natural gas pipeline to be built parallel to the planned oil pipeline.

The pipeline agreements came during Balgimbayev's official visit to China May 7 to 12. Kazakhstan's Ekibastuz fuel and energy complex in the Pavlodar region will begin exporting two billion kilowatts of electricity to the Xinjiang autonomous region in western China as early as this year, the two sides agreed. Ekibastuz previously exported electricity to Russia, but recently had to search for new markets when Russia refused to import the energy.

Under another agreement, Kazakhstan's two largest banks Kazkommertsbank and Narodny Bank will open representative offices in China, Interfax reported. China also agreed to build a new hotel in Kazakhstan's new capital Astana, formerly Akmola, which has had a shortage of hotel space since the government relocated there last year. During the visit, Balgimbayev expressed an interest in having Beijing invest in the former Soviet republic's chemical and engineering sectors and in selling Kazakh grain to China. (AFP)