King Abdullah of Jordan met visiting Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev in Amman to discuss means to foster bilateral ties, developments in the region, and regional and international issues of mutual concern, Gazeta.kz reported. Nazarbayev was accompanied by a business delegation representing different sectors. The sides stressed the need to draw up specific programs to boost cooperation in various fields including energy, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, food industries and tourism. They also discussed specific plans and determine what steps need to be taken to increase bilateral economic cooperation and benefit from agreements the countries have signed in different fields. The two leaders discussed challenges and issues of concern to the Muslim world, and stressed the importance of enhancing and institutionalizing cooperation among Muslim countries to face the challenges at hand. Jordan’s Tourism Minister Maha Khatib and her Kazakh counterpart, Dosmukhambetov Temirkhan Mynaydarovich signed a program on cooperation in the field of tourism to be implemented between 2009 and 2011. The program seeks to boost tourism cooperation between the countries. They also inked a pact in the field of air transport, under which Royal Jordanian and Air Astana will be adopted as the official carriers between Amman and Astana. King Abdullah and Nazarbayev also discussed ways to tap the opportunities and further deepen cooperation between the two countries in the fields of services, medical care, pharmaceutical and defense industries, ICT and construction. The Monarch discussed investment opportunities in the Kingdom. The joint Jordanian-Kazakh Business Council met in Amman to discuss means to foster commercial cooperation and enhance investments. Jordan’s imports from Kazakhstan over the past five years reached €127 million, while its exports to the Central Asian nation stood at €3.5 million despite transportation obstacles.