Afghan-Kazakh trade exhibition ends

KABUL (TOLO News): The Ministry of Industry and Commerce announced the end of the three-day Afghan-Kazakh exhibition and also official meetings with authorities and the private sector of Kazakhstan.

The acting Minister of Industry and Commerce, Nooruddin Azizi, said the exhibition achieved good results and contracts worth $190 million have been signed between the private sector of both countries in various areas.

“Kazakhstan agreed with us to facilitate our business … In the field of transportation, transit, trade facilities, and bilateral investment, we paid a lot of attention to banking issues…,” said the acting head of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.

“In the Afghan-Kazakh exhibition, 350 traders displayed 420 products to the country. Fortunately, it was welcomed by the host country, and participants,” said Akhoundzada Abdul Salam Jawad, spokesman of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.

The former ambassador of Kazakhstan in Kabul also said that the display of domestic products of Afghanistan in Kazakhstan can be effective in expanding the trade relations between the two countries.

“I saw that there is a lot of interest from both sides. Citizens of Kazakhstan visited (displays of) carpets, dry fruits, and other Afghan products,” said Omirtai Bitimov, the former ambassador of Kazakhstan to Afghanistan.

However, some businessmen who participated in the exhibition consider the establishment of an exhibition of Afghan products to Kazakhstan valuable to introduce goods to the region.

“In the carpet section, our participants sold 80% of their carpets in the three days of the exhibition. And in return, they got agreements and orders,” said Noor Ahmad Noori, head of the Carpet Union.

“We had good sales and the reception of Afghan products by the people of Kazakhstan was excellent, and we hope that such exhibitions will be held in other countries in the future as well,” said Naseer Ahmad Majidi, a trader.

In the exhibition, 350 representatives of Afghanistan’s private sector, which is in 14 sectors, displayed the products and productions of the country in 70 booths for three days in Astana, the capital city of Kazakhstan.