Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 20
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Afghanistan will open new customs at the Iran border over the next three months to facilitate trade, Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani said.
He voiced his country's willingness to expand trade and investment ties with Iran, Iran's Fars news agency quoted Ashraf Ghani as saying on April 20.
He invited the Iranian private sector to boost their presence in Afghanistan.
Although official data on bilateral trade between Iran and Afghanistan have not been published, but the value of Afghanistan's imports from Iran is about 30 fold of its exports to Iran, he noted.
He also welcomed the idea of establishing a joint chamber of commerce in a bid to facilitate the bilateral trade.
Afghanistan was the fifth leading importer of Iranian non-oil goods in the previous Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20, 2014, according to the Iran Customs Administration.
Iran exported $2.38 billion of non-oil goods to Afghanistan and imported $14.49 million of non-oil goods from the country.
edited by CN