Contracts worth $190 million were signed at the Kazakh-Afghan Business Forum
At the Kazakh-Afghan Business Forum in Astana on August 3, export contracts totaling $190.8 million were signed. Following the meeting, 15 contracts were signed for the supply of agricultural products, flour and vegetable oil, as well as a memorandum of cooperation between the National Association of Oilseed Processors (Kazakhstan) and the Balkh Union of Oil Dealers (Afghanistan). The largest number of documents (9 contracts) falls on the supply of oil.
The Afghan side proposed to open representative offices of banks on the territory of both countries, create visa issuing points for entrepreneurs, hold business meetings, exhibitions and conferences, reduce the time of cargo transportation to Kazakhstan and eliminate existing barriers to trade and transit from Kazakhstan.
"Today Turkmenistan is interested in the development of transportation on its territory and is ready to provide a discount - a preferential transit tariff on its territory. This direction can become an alternative route of shipment, primarily for flour milling products. For these purposes, a single operator promoting the export of non-primary goods, QazTrade, will ensure cheaper delivery of domestic goods to the Bolashak station. At the same time, we have strengthened agreements with Uzbekistan to provide preferential conditions for transit railway transportation through the territories of our countries so that we supply flour and grain to Afghanistan on a parity basis," Deputy Prime Minister — Minister of Trade and Integration of Kazakhstan Serik Zhumangarin said in his speech.
On the eve of August 2, during a meeting with the Minister of Trade and Industry of Afghanistan, Alhaj Nuriddin Azizi, Zhumangarin said that the Kazakh railway company had worked out the issue of providing additional discounts of 10% to the already existing 30% on the transit tariff on the territory of Turkmenistan through the Turkmen-Afghan Turgundi crossing, reports primeminister.kz .
According to the Deputy Prime Minister, of all the Central Asian countries, Afghanistan trades with Kazakhstan the most. The mutual trade turnover between the two countries has reached almost $ 1 billion, in the future it is planned to increase the volume of trade to $ 3 billion. This year, the Trading House of Kazakhstan was opened in Herat, which will allow increasing and diversifying export-import supplies between our countries.
Kazakhstan also offered Afghanistan to open its trade representative office in the republic.
According to the Kazakh side, there are good prospects for cooperation with Afghanistan in the energy sector. In particular, the implementation of projects for the extraction and transportation of oil and gas will allow countries to strengthen their economics.
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