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SINGAPORE \u2013 Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong will visit Kazakhstan from Aug 24 to 27 and Uzbekistan from Aug 27 to 31.<\/p>\n
Announcing the official visits on Aug 23, the Prime Minister\u2019s Office (PMO) said this will be his first visit to Central Asia.<\/p>\n
In Kazakhstan, Lee will visit Astana and Almaty. In Astana, he will call on President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Digital Development Zhaslan Madiyev and Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbayev.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During the trip, Lee will be conferred the Order of Dostyk (Friendship) of the First Class Award by Tokayev. Previous Singapore leaders who have received the award include founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew in 2012 and then President Halimah Yacob in 2023.<\/p>\n
Lee will also deliver a lecture at Nazarbayev University, where he will be conferred an honorary professorship. Established in 2010, Nazarbayev University is an autonomous research university in Astana that was set up as part of Kazakhstan\u2019s efforts to develop its higher education and research sector.<\/p>\n
In Almaty, Lee will be hosted to lunch by the Akim, or mayor, of Almaty, Darkhan Satybaldy, and meet Singapore and Kazakh business leaders.<\/p>\n
Singapore and Kazakhstan established diplomatic relations in March 1993, and bilateral ties have grown in recent years, including through state visits by Halimah in May 2023 and Tokayev in May 2024.<\/p>\n
Kazakhstan is Singapore\u2019s largest trading partner in Central Asia. Bilateral trade in goods amounted to $326.6 million, while trade in services was $159 million. Singapore\u2019s stock of direct investment in Kazakhstan stood at $2.1 billion, with 158 Singapore overseas affiliates operating there.<\/p>\n
A bilateral Services and Investment Agreement entered into force in March 2025, giving Singapore companies greater market access to Kazakhstan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In Uzbekistan, Lee will visit Tashkent and Samarkand. He will call on President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov in Tashkent, and deliver a speech at the Senate of the Oliy Majlis, the Uzbek Parliament.<\/p>\n
He will then travel to Samarkand, where he will be hosted to lunch by the governor of Samarkand Region, Adiz Boboev.<\/p>\n
Singapore and Uzbekistan established diplomatic relations in April 1997. High-level exchanges have picked up in recent years, including state visits by Mirziyoyev to Singapore in January 2023 and Halimah to Uzbekistan in May that year.<\/p>\n
Uzbekistan was Singapore\u2019s second-largest services trading partner in Central Asia in 2024 and its third-largest goods trading partner in the region in 2025.<\/p>\n
Bilateral trade in goods amounted to $69 million in 2025, while trade in services stood at $109.6 million in 2024. Singapore\u2019s stock of direct investment in Uzbekistan was $390 million in 2024.<\/p>\n
The PMO said that Lee will be accompanied by Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Home Affairs Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim, MP Foo Cexiang, and officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Trade and Industry and the PMO.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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SINGAPORE \u2013 Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong will visit Kazakhstan from Aug 24 to 27 and Uzbekistan from Aug 27 to 31. Announcing the official…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":78992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=78991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/78992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=78991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=78991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=78991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}