Business
ACCI welcomes Pakistan’s move to establish a legal barter system
The Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Investment (ACCI) on Saturday welcomed Pakistan’s move to establish a legal mechanism to provide for barter trade with two sanctions-hit neighbors — Afghanistan and Iran.
The decision was taken at a meeting of Pakistan’s Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) on Thursday.
The ACCI said the adoption of the mechanism would be effective in preventing the smuggling of goods between the two countries.
“We are in favor of legal trade and good trade relations and mutual respect both with the countries of the region and with the whole world,” said ACCI deputy chief Mohammad Younus Mohmand.
Economists believe that improving trade and economic relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan are key to increasing imports and exports between the two countries.
“If the Pakistanis use honesty in these matters, it is a big step, which is in fact a regional move, and it can be a good help in strengthening the Afghan economy and building trust in the Afghan economy, and it is not an easy step,” said Sayed Massoud, an Afghan university lecturer.
According to an official statement issued by Pakistan, the meeting, presided over by Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, focused on a commerce ministry’s summary for “grant of regulatory support for establishing barter trade arrangements with Afghanistan and Iran”.
After discussions, the consensus “allowed regulatory cover to barter trade arrangements by amending relevant provisions” of the export and import policy orders.
Trade between Pakistan and Iran has stagnated for more than a decade mainly due to US sanctions on Tehran, while Pak-Afghan formal trade has suffered in the absence of a banking system in Afghanistan and Washington’s decision to freeze Afghanistan’s foreign reserves.
As a way out, the Quetta Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Iran’s Zahidan Chamber of Commerce and Industry signed an agreement in November last year for a barter trade mechanism. Subsequently, other chambers of the two countries were also brought into the same system.
The same mechanism would also be replicated with Afghanistan given its heavy reliance on Pakistan for essential commodities, Dawn News reported.
Nooruddin Azizi, Acting Minister of Commerce and Industry, met with representatives from the ministries of foreign affairs, defense and interior of Malaysia, along with other senior officials, on Wednesday and called on Malaysians to invest in Afghanistan.
The visiting delegation is being led by senior diplomat Dr. Shazelina Zainul Abidin.
According to the IEA’s foreign ministry, the two sides discussed bilateral trade, holding a business communication conference to strengthen trade relations between the two countries, the trade balance between Afghanistan and Malaysia, and creating a market for Afghan products, including carpets, cotton, and minerals.
According to the ministry, at the end of the meeting, the Acting Minister emphasized the increase of investment from regional countries in Afghanistan and called on Malaysian investors to also invest in Afghanistan.
The Ministry of Interior says that Afghanistan has started exporting goods to Turkey via the Herat-Khaf railway line.
In a post on X, the ministry said: “Afghanistan’s exports to Turkey started in a calm atmosphere through the Herat-Khaf railway line.”
The ministry added that one train will run daily for a month and then two trains will run daily.
According to the ministry, the security of Khaf-Herat railway line is provided by the guards of the National Public Protection Agency.
Khaf-Herat railway project not only connects Iran and Afghanistan by rail, but also completes a 2,000-kilometer route along the east-west rail corridor from China, through Uzbekistan, to Afghanistan, to Iran, and on to Turkey and Europe.
As a landlocked country, this railway network will provide a safe route to connect with Europe via Iran’s railway network and Iran’s southern ports.
This railway line is strategic for trade between Iran and Afghanistan and will allow six million tons of goods to be sent between the two countries.
A joint expo between Afghanistan and Kazakhstan will be held in Kabul in the next four days, officials said on Sunday.
Officials of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce said that the two-day expo will be held for the purpose of expanding and strengthening trade relations between the two countries.
“This expo will be held as a follow-up of the Kazakh-Afghan international expo, which was held in the city of Astana, Kazakhstan, with the participation of a large delegation of the government and the private sector of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” Abdulsalam Javad Akhundzadeh, the spokesman of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, said.
“At this expo, domestic products from different sectors of Afghanistan and the Republic of Kazakhstan will be put on display for two days.”
According to officials, 40 large Kazakh companies, and 40 large Afghan companies will exhibit their products.
Mohammad Saber Latifi, head of the Afghanistan International Expo Center, said that fruits, minerals and commercial services will be displayed at the expo.
During the expo, various memorandums of understanding for the trade of goods are also expected to be signed by companies.
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