Business
Iranian trade delegation visits Balkh for talks with Afghan businessmen
An Iranian business delegation has traveled to Balkh province for discussions with Afghan businessmen, including farmers.
The meeting was organized by the Iranian Trade Center in order to support farmers and standardize Afghanistan's agriculture sector in Balkh province.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Iran Trade Center said at the meeting that his country is helping Afghan farmers to mechanize agriculture and solve infrastructure problems in the sector.
Hossein Azari, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Iran Business Center, said: "I am honored to meet with the businessmen of Mazar-e-Sharif, the head of agriculture, livestock and irrigation of Balkh province, and the high-level officials of the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Investment, and I believe that success is more in teamwork.”
He added: "We hope that the infrastructure of agriculture, the infrastructure of production and industrial units, and the transfer of technical knowledge will become more prosperous with the help of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Afghanistan, and in today's meeting, there was a discussion on investment in different agricultural sectors in the axis of extra-territorial cultivation and creation of farm process of agricultural products.."
The Chamber of Commerce and Investment of the country also expressed hope that memorandums of understanding will be signed between Afghanistan and Iran.
Khairuddin Mayel, the deputy head of the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Investment, said: "Based on the memorandums signed in the center, we had a meeting with our Iranian friends, and they offered a proposal to standardize Afghanistan's agriculture, and I think this meeting was very good and useful."
He added: "I hope that a memorandum of understanding will be signed between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Afghanistan so that we can see progress in agriculture in our beloved country."
At the same time, officials from the Balkh Department of Agriculture say that they need the support of neighboring countries, especially Iran, to standardize agriculture.
Shamsuddin Khalid, head of agriculture and livestock of Balkh, said: "We are ready to have a memorandum of understanding with the Islamic Republic of Iran and other countries to standardize Afghanistan's agriculture."
Efforts are being made to deal with the problems of farmers while the lack of water, the high price of chemical fertilizers, the high price of agricultural spices, the lack of cold storage facilities, and the lack of access to advanced agricultural tools are considered to be the basic problems of the farmers in the country.
Business
Private sectors of Afghanistan, Kazakhstan sign contracts worth $100 million
Private sectors of Afghanistan and Kazakhstan have signed contracts worth $100 million during the visit of an Afghan delegation to Almaty recently, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) announced on Thursday.
The agreements include the export of more than 2,000 tons of dried fruit, the export of fresh fruit, including pomegranates, and the export of cotton, Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Islamic Emirate, said on X.
Mujahid said that the Islamic Emirate delegation during its recent visit to Kazakhstan signed a "road map of cooperation between Afghanistan and Kazakhstan in the fields of trade, industry, mining, energy, logistics, agriculture, telecommunications, health, higher education and humanitarian aid.”
He said Kazakhstan also assured that it would provide more facilities for the transit of Afghan goods to China and other countries through Kazakhstan.
The allocation of an area "as a logistics center for Afghan goods" in the port of Khargos was also part of the agreement between the two sides to facilitate the unloading and loading of Afghan traders' goods.
The spokesman of the Islamic Emirate also said that Kazakhstan will participate in the construction of the Torghundi-Herat, Kandahar-Spin Boldak and Mazar-e-Sharif-Kharlachi railway projects.
Mujahid added that Kazakhstan will also participate in the establishment of a trade and transit center in Herat province, which will be used to store and finance trade and transit goods. Meanwhile, Kazakhstan has agreed to establish permanent expo centers for the sale of Afghan goods in various cities of Kazakhstan.
It is worth mentioning that the delegation of the Islamic Emirate led by Nooruddin Azizi, Acting Minister of Industry and Commerce, participated in the three-day exhibition of Afghanistan's domestic products, which was launched on October 21 in Almaty.
The Ministry of Industry and Commerce recently announced that 23 tons of pomegranates from Kandahar province were exported to Almaty through the port of Torghundi.
Business
China resumes direct rail trade with Afghanistan
China resumed its direct freight rail services to Afghanistan on Thursday when a train loaded with goods left Nantong city in Jiangsu province.
The train, carrying commercial goods in 55 wagons, is heading for the northern Hairatan border in Balkh province, Yue Xiaoyong, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Special Representative for Afghanistan, said in a post on X.
Nantong is a central hub of the Belt and Road Initiative and is located north of Shanghai.
The resumption of the rail line was marked at a formal ceremony on Thursday with Yue and Bilal Karimi, the Afghan Ambassador to China, in attendance.
This comes after China recently announced plans to lift customs tariffs on Afghan exports to China by the end of this year, further strengthening trade ties between the two nations.
Business
IEA signs contract for construction of cement factory in Jawzjan Province
Turkish 77 Company will invest $163 million in the factory, which will have a daily output of 3,000 tons of cement once completed
The Islamic Emirate on Tuesday signed a multi-million dollar contract with Turkish 77 Company for a new cement factory in the Yatim Taq area of Jawzjan Province in northern Afghanistan.
The contract was signed in the presence of Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar Akhund.
Turkish 77 Company will invest $163 million in the factory, which will have a daily output of 3,000 tons of cement once completed.
Also in attendance on Tuesday were officials from the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum who stated that the contract, which allows the Turkish company to explore, extract, produce cement, and deliver social services, is valid for 30 years.
The establishment of this cement production plant will directly create around 1,200 jobs for local citizens.
In addition to the signing of this contract, the ministry also inked contracts worth $476 million with several domestic and foreign companies for cement projects in Jabal al-Saraj, Kandahar, and Herat.
The IEA has said this is in line with their aim of propelling the country towards self-sufficiency in the cement sector.
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