Kazakhstan and Afghanistan intend to expand trade and economic cooperation

The Kazakh-Afghan Business Forum in Astana brought together more than 300 representatives of business and government circles.

Both sides are interested in holding a business forum. Kazakhstan is the largest supplier of food to the Afghan market. The largest share of Kazakhstan's exports is the supply of flour and wheat. Last year, Afghanistan imported 1.28 million tons of Kazakh flour, leading the top three main consumer countries of this product along with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

«Afghanistan is a priority market for flour for Kazakhstan, 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, machine—building industries», — Deputy Prime Minister-Minister of Trade and Integration of Kazakhstan Serik Zhumangarin said at the forum.

According to the Deputy Prime Minister, of all the Central Asian countries, Afghanistan trades with Kazakhstan the most. The mutual trade turnover between our countries has reached almost $1 billion, and 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.

The population of Afghanistan is about 40 million people. At the same time, the country has access to the nearest capacious 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 economies of our countries. So, in the first half of the year, Kazakhstan imported Pakistani potatoes by the shortest road that passes through the territory of Afghanistan and connects Pakistan with the countries of Central Asia, including ours.

Today, Kazakhstan's business interacts with all countries of the region. To ensure the security and attractiveness of trade, the parties agree to create optimal mutual conditions.

«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», — Serik Zhumangarin said in his speech.

In order to expand the transit and transport system in 2021, the authorities of Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan have agreed to extend the trans-Afghan railway Termez–Mazar–I–Sharif – Kabul-Peshawar. The construction of this route will be beneficial not only for Tashkent, Kabul and Islamabad, but will also open trade routes for other countries of the Asian region, as well as 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», — Deputy Prime Minister-Minister of Trade and Integration of Kazakhstan Serik Zhumangarin said.

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 economies.

Within the framework of the Kazakh-Afghan business forum, B2B negotiations were held, in which 250 representatives of the business circles of the two countries took part.