By Eurasianet – Jan 12, 2024, 3:00 PM CST
- Afghanistan’s trade with Uzbekistan in 2023 reached $266 million, with imports generally including electrical energy, flour, and oil, while exports consisted of dried fruits, carpets, and sesame.
- Strategies are underway for a trans-Afghan railway linking Uzbekistan and Pakistan, expected to decrease transportation expenses by 40% and increase freight capability to 15 million loads by 2030.
- Efforts are being made to update existing rail facilities and simplify customizeds treatments to even more boost local trade and connection in between Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan.
Trade in between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan in 2023 increased sixfold year-on-year, striking $266 million, a particular indication that engagement in between the war-stricken country and its northern next-door neighbors is thriving regardless of the Taliban’s ascendancy.
Afghan news firm Tolonews pointed out an Industry and Trade Ministry agent in Kabul as stating that imports from Uzbekistan over that duration reached $239 million, while $27 countless products entered the other instructions.
“Most of our exported products to Uzbekistan are dried fruit, fruit juice, apricots, sesame, carpets, and the majority of our imported products are electrical power, flour, beans, chemical fertilizers, oil and gas,” Akhundzada Abdul Salam Jawad, a spokesperson for the ministry, was mentioned as stating in a January 9 report.
This pattern supplies strong vindication for continuous strategies to build a trans-Afghan railway that would connect Uzbekistan with Pakistan. Authorities from the 3 nations fulfilled in Islamabad in July to sign a procedure laying out a roadmap for the taskwhich ought to culminate in a path ranging from Termez in Uzbekistan, through Mazar-i-Sharif and Logar in Afghanistan and lastly reaching the Kharlachi border crossing in Pakistan. The roadmap pictures arranging technical expediency research studies and checking out financing choices.
Uzbek authorities approximate that structure this railway will decrease transportation expenses of items pertaining to and from Pakistan by 40 percent. The expense of finishing the work has actually been approximated at $6 billion and it is hoped that as much as 15 million lots of freight will have the ability to take a trip along the path by 2030.
In the more instant future, there are strategies to update an already-existing 75-kilometer section of train ranging from Khairaton in south Uzbekistan to Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan. This railway was taken into operation in 2011 and has actually considering that been preserved by the Uzbek state train business. Railway authorities from the nations fulfilled in November and concurred that the work needs to begin “as quickly as possible.”
Discussion on hardware is now being accompanied by routine contacts on alleviating the governmental issues of operating throughout borders.
In November, trade authorities from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan collected in Islamabad for a first session of the Trilateral Meeting on Trade and Transit format, which has actually been set up to check out methods to lower trade barriers and enhance customizeds treatments. Pakistani Commerce Minister Gohar Ejaz explained the conference as a “considerable action towards improving local connection, promoting trade, and cultivating cooperation.”
“Exciting times ahead!” he composed on Twitter.
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