Kazakhstan, 3rd Aug 2023, King NewsWire – The Kazakh-Afghan Business Forum in Astana brought together more than 300 representatives of business and government circles.
Kazakhstan is the largest supplier of food to the Afghan market, including flour and wheat. Last year, Afghanistan imported 1.28 million tons of Kazakh flour.
“Afghanistan is a priority market for Kazakhstan’s flour, which accounts for 70% of the total volume of flour exports. Currently, we see a trend towards diversification of the export basket. According to our calculations, Kazakhstan has an export potential of supplies to Afghanistan worth $500 million in food, petrochemical, chemical, metallurgical, light, and machine-building industries,” Serik Zhumangarin, Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Trade and Integration of Kazakhstan, said at the forum.
According to Zhumangarin, of all the Central Asian countries, Afghanistan trades with Kazakhstan the most. The mutual trade turnover between the countries has reached almost $1 billion, and it is planned to increase the volume of trade to $3 billion. The Trading House of Kazakhstan was opened in Herat this year, which will increase and diversify export-import supplies between the countries.
Afghanistan has access to the markets of Pakistan and India, as well as the Middle East, which are of high trade interest for Kazakhstan. In this context, the diversification of Kazakhstan’s trade routes through Afghanistan will contribute to the development of trade relations and the strengthening of the countries’ economies.
Kazakhstan’s businesses interact with all the countries of the region. To ensure the security and attractiveness of trade, the parties agree to create optimal mutual conditions.
“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,” Serik Zhumangarin said in his speech.
In order to expand the transit and transport system in 2021, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed to extend the trans-Afghan railway Termez–Mazar–I–Sharif – Kabul-Peshawar. The construction of this route will be beneficial not only for these countries but will also open trade routes for other countries of the Asian region and the Middle East.
“Kazakhstan highly appreciates the initiative to build the Mazar-I–Sharif–Kabul-Peshawar trans-Afghan railway transport corridor, which will ensure uninterrupted interregional cooperation of the Central Asian states with the countries of South Asia and the Middle East. This route will give a new impetus to the dynamics of trade and economic relations,” Zhumangarin noted.
There are also good prospects for cooperation between Kazakhstan and Afghanistan in the energy sector. In particular, the implementation of projects to extract and transport oil and gas will allow the countries to strengthen their economies.
B2B negotiations were held at the Kazakh-Afghan Business Forum with the participation of 250 representatives of the business circles of the two countries.
Media Contact
Organization: Ministry of Trade and Integration of Kazakhstan
Contact Person: Aliya
Website: https://www.gov.kz/memleket/entities/mti?lang=en
Email: mti@mti.gov.kz
Country: Kazakhstan
Release Id: 0308235274
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