Bayan News – Kazakhstan and the Taliban government signed an agreement on Tuesday (October 22) to develop economic and trade cooperation.
According to the press release from the Taliban’s Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the agreement was signed on the sidelines of the Afghan-Kazakh exhibition in Almaty, the capital of Kazakhstan.
Nooruddin Azizi, the Taliban’s Minister of Industry and Commerce, stated that they plan to increase the value of trade with Kazakhstan to three billion dollars annually.
Azizi told BBC reporter Babrak Ehsas in Almaty that both sides are working on a roadmap for the export of Afghan goods, transit, transportation, mining, and the development of trade with Kazakhstan.
He acknowledged that there are still some challenges, but he hopes they will be resolved.
The three-day exhibition, which opened on Sunday, showcases Afghan products such as carpets, jewelry, construction materials, household and industrial chemicals, vegetables, fruits, and other goods.
Around 250 private investors and industrialists from Afghanistan participated in the exhibition, with dozens of female entrepreneurs also displaying their products.
Currently, the annual trade between Afghanistan and Kazakhstan is valued at approximately one billion dollars, with the majority consisting of imports of flour, wheat, oil, electronic equipment, agricultural machinery, and construction equipment from Kazakhstan to Afghanistan.
The Taliban government hopes Kazakhstan will invest in the extraction of iron, copper, and gold in Afghanistan and facilitate the export of Afghan fruits and cotton.
Kazakhstan announced last December that, in order to foster economic cooperation, it had removed the Taliban from its list of “terrorist” groups.
Iran requests the UN to provide more funding for hosting Afghan refugees
