KABUL: Afghan economic relations with other Central Asian countries discussed in ESCAP meeting that was hosted by Kazakhstan, as well as issues of economic cooperation for the implementation of regional and bilateral trade and economic projects.
The workshop is being organized by the United Nation’s Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and will be titled “Strengthening Trade and Economic Ties between Afghanistan and Its Neighboring Countries”
The first conference entitled “Strengthening trade and economic relations between Afghanistan and Central Asia” was held in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan and lasted from November 14th to 15th in 2012. The main issues discussed in the workshop were decreasing main barriers of trade between Afghanistan and Central Asian countries; participation of Afghanistan’s business community in playing a role in the country’s economic development and employment sphere; investing in regional and bilateral economic projects, and the issue of economic cooperation and bilateral trade in Central Asia and Russia.
With special attention given to attracting women participants, around 50 senior parliament members, government officials, experts and private business representatives from Afghanistan’s capital and various provinces as well as delegates from Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and the Russian Federation participated in that workshop.
The ESCAP Regional Dialogue is held to support the economic development of Afghanistan by continuing to reduce trade barriers, increasing interest and joint activities between entrepreneurs in Afghanistan, Central Asia and Russia in order to strengthen trade and lead to a rise in local production and job creation for a more sustainable economic future. The meeting will focus on identifying possible regional economic projects which could be implemented by joint efforts of entrepreneurs from Afghanistan and neighboring countries.