Contracts signed between Afghanistan, Uzbekistan

KABUL (TOLOnews): Some Uzbek media has announced the signing of trade contracts worth 1.2 billion US dollars in the export and import sector between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.
These agreements were made during the visit of the Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan and a government delegation to Kabul and their meeting with the officials of the Islamic Emirate and businessmen.
“The Ministry of Investment, Industry, and Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan has prepared a road map to increase the volume of bilateral trade between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan up to three billion US dollars in the near future,” said Jamshid Khodjaev, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
Meanwhile, some analysts said that the expansion of trade activities with Uzbekistan is beneficial to the country’s economy, and they emphasize that the balance between the two countries in the import and export sector should also be carefully considered by the officials of the Islamic Emirate.
“One of the achievements is that if we do contracts with Uzbekistan, the Uzbeks will mainly try to do the same in Afghanistan. They are interested in transit and want to connect with South Asia,” said Sayed Masoud, an economist.
“Uzbekistan has an absolute comparative advantage in a number of goods, it can produce them and export them to Afghanistan, and Afghanistan has an absolute and relative advantage in a number of goods, Afghanistan can produce them and export them to Uzbekistan,” said Abdul Zahur Mudabir, an economist.
The Ministry of Industry and Commerce of the Islamic Emirate has not said anything about the signed contract between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan, but based on the information of the Chamber of Commerce and Investment, the amount of trade between Afghanistan and Central Asian countries, including Uzbekistan, reaches more than 800 million US dollars in one year, of which more than 600 million includes the import of food items, oil, and gas.