TEHRAN (TCA) — A delegation of 260 Kazakh traders and industrialists headed by the country’s Investment and Development Minister Asset Issekeshev is currently visiting Iran to forge new business relations between the two nations, Iran’s PressTV news agency reported on February 8.
Kazakh and Iranian officials discussed opening the Eurasian market to both nations.
Vice President of Kazakhstan’s Agency for Foreign Direct Investment Almas Aidarov said the lifting of sanctions on Iran has created “a new scenario” for cooperation.
Iran’s Minister of Mine, Trade and Industry Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh said Iran’s position as a bridge between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman is crucial to facilitating regional connectivity.
Iran and Central Asian nations have stepped up work on establishing an integrated freight railway network to link Asia to the Persian Gulf, Europe and Africa. It is part of an ambitious Chinese plan to revive the Silk Road which would require building of a network of roads, railways, ports and airports.
Central Asian countries plan to carry their bulk and container cargoes from the Incha-Burun border crossing in Iran’s northern Golestan province to southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas.
Last June, head of Kazakhstan’s national railway company Askar Mamin visited Iran’s Shahid Rajaee and Bandar Abbas ports. The Kazakh side then said it was interested in investing in construction of silos in order to store its wheat crop in the port and facilitate shipments.
