Business
Senior Afghan, Pakistani officials to meet at Torkham
Senior officials from Afghanistan and Pakistan will meet at Torkham border crossing on Monday to discuss issues related to trade and movement of people.
Afghanistan’s delegation in the meeting will be led by Acting Minister of Industry and Commerce Nooruddin Azizi, while Pakistan’s will be headed by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood. The Pakistani delegation will also include National Security Advisor Moeed Yousuf.
The officials will discuss various important matters related to smooth movement of people and patients across the border, issuance of temporary admission documents, increase in timings of border crossing points, establishment of joint border infrastructure, training of Afghan nominees for trade related capacity building courses and smooth crossing of humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, Pakistani media reported.
Officials will also discuss the time frame for reinitiating the stalled Torkham-Jalalabad road project and the start of a luxury bus service between Peshawar-Jalalabad and Quetta-Kandahar, according to Dawn news.
The Peshawar-Jalalabad motorway concept was given the go-ahead in 2016. However, there has been no progress on the 281-km road project.
Meanwhile, Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PAJCCI) in a report on Saturday expressed concerns over the “shrinking” trade volume from $2.5 billion to $1 billion between the two countries.
“Lack of business-friendly policies, absence of proper barter trade mechanisms, ineffective investment and joint venture policies apart from unnecessary pressure and action by the FIA (Federal Investigation Agency) and FBR (Federal Board of Revenue) are the main factors that reduced the trade volume,” the report said.
It stated that in the absence of an operational banking structure in Afghanistan, banks refused to process third-party payments which hindered international transactions.
Moreover, imposition of duties, fiscal reforms, double taxation, and unilateral imposition of duties and taxes by either government also affected the trade, according to the report.
“The trade volume decreased due to the unregulated movement of goods, the need for unnecessary documents, difficult security checks, and poor transit facilities in both countries,” the report stated.
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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