Kazakhstan to invest $500m in Herat-Torghondi railway

KABUL (Pajhwok): Kazakhstan will invest $500 million in the Herat-Torghondi railway project under an agreement signed in Kabul on Friday.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs in a statement said that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar met with Kazakhstan Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Murat Nurtuliev in Kabul.

The two sides discussed trade, transit, railway, banking and economic cooperation during the meeting, the statement said.

Baradar described Afghanistan-Kazakhstan relations as positive and improving and said that the Islamic Emirate was working with Kazakhstan to expand cooperation that would bring about prosperity and development to Afghanistan.

The Deputy Prime Minister assured the Kazakh side that Afghanistan could provide an effective transit corridor for Kazakhstan to transport its energy to South Asia through Afghanistan.

He said the two sides could work together in the fields of mining, transport, communications, energy production, oil and gas, and infrastructure projects.

The two sides also discussed signing of an agreement on protection and quarantine of agricultural products, the increase in exports and imports through railway, the signing of an agreement between the two countries on international transportation and transport, joint cooperation between Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan in the industrial, trade, and transport fields, the opening of large trade centers in both countries, and the reduction of transit fees, which, if implemented, will increase the trade volume between the two countries to three billion dollars.

For his part, Murat Nurlatov said that they continue to support Afghanistan on the international stage and that good conditions have been created for joint cooperation and close work between Afghanistan and Kazakhstan in various fields.

He said that Kazakhstan was ready to invest $500 million in the Herat-Torghondi railway project.

He expressed his country’s readiness to increase electricity imports to Afghanistan, transport Afghan agricultural products to Kazakhstani markets, and open Afghan bank accounts in Kazakhstan's banks.

At the end, , a memorandum of understanding was signed between the two sides to initiate an investment of $500 million by Kazakhstan in the Herat-Torghondi railway project.

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