Tehran, Astana to raise annual bilateral trade to $3b
Kazakh and Iranian officials signed a memorandum of understanding to bring mutual trade to $3 billion.
The document was signed by Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Serik Zhumangarin and Iranian Minister of Agriculture Mohammad Ali Nikbakht at the 19th meeting of the intergovernmental commission on trade, economic, scientific, technical and cultural cooperation between the two countries, held in Tehran on December 2-3.
During the meeting, officials and business persons from Iran and Kazakhstan discussed various issues of common interest between the two countries.
Nikbakht, the Iranian co-chair of the intergovernmental commission, said, “This is the second meeting of the two countries’ Joint Economic Committee in the current Iranian year (started March 21), which shows the two countries’ determination to expand economic ties.”
Currently, the economic exchange between the two countries is not at a good level, so we have targeted the trade exchange between the two countries to hit $3 billion, Nikbakht noted.
According to the minister, Iranian enterprises can arrange supplies of fish and dairy products, honey, fruits and vegetables, herbs, dried fruits and other food products to Kazakhstan.
The Iranian side also showed interest in Kazakh investments and expressed its readiness to provide special conditions for doing business in free economic zones of Iran.
Zhumangarin for his part pointed to a meeting with Iranian businessmen and said the two countries of Iran and Kazakhstan have vast capacities to cooperate.
“In the 19th Joint Economic Committee meeting, two issues of transportation logistics and bank settlement were agreed upon,” he added.
At the end of the meeting, Iran and Kazakhstan signed four MOUs to boost cooperation.