In October this year, during the Kazakh-Afghan forum, Kazakhstan's Deputy Prime Minister Serik Zhumangarin reported on Kabul's request to set up deliveries of cars manufactured in Kostanai and Almaty to Afghanistan. According to the Deputy Prime Minister's assessment, the first Kazakhstani cars may appear on the Afghan market as early as next year; automobile industry experts agree with him but note that the realism of this term will become apparent after at least several months of research. “I understand that Afghanistan already has money; its middle class is developing, so they asked to organize meetings with our car industry businesses to create car centers to sell old and new Kazakhstani cars. I have already contacted several people about this issue, and we are working on it now. I think it is realistic to start selling the first cars next year,” Zhumangarin said. At the same time, he emphasized that the most crucial issue in establishing such a project has already been resolved. In October, Kazakhstan's Zaman Bank opened a corresponding account at one of the largest banks in Afghanistan, Ghazanafar Bank. This means that Kazakhstani businesses can receive direct payments from Afghan buyers without the participation of financial institutions of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Gulf countries, which charge additional fees for intermediation. Thus, the issue of financial logistics - how the money for sold cars from Afghanistan will arrive in Kazakhstan - has been fundamentally solved, according to Artur Miskaryan, general director of the Agency for Monitoring and Analysis of the Automobile Market of Kazakhstan (AMAAR), and there are no problems with direct logistics - cars manufactured in Kostanai and Almaty can be transported to this country by rail. Kazakh grain companies have already established this route. In addition, this summer, at the first transport trade and export forum held in Aktau, representatives of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan discussed the possibility of building a new railway line Turgundi - Herat - Kandahar - Spin-Buldak, which will run from the western border of Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan and further to India. Kazakhstan is offered to join the construction of this logistic path, including withdrawing its vehicles to Afghanistan and the countries bordering it. So, logistic paths to Kabul, existing and potential, are acceptable for Kazakhstan's automobile industry. “From a purely technical point of view, companies of the Kazakhstani automobile industry are ready to supply equipment to all neighboring and nearby countries,” explained Miskaryan. "The issue of supplying products to one or another country largely depends on the terms of economic agreements of the Republic of Kazakhstan with other countries, as well as the policy of the head offices of brands whose models are assembled at our car plants: in the case of Russia, for example, Western head brands adhere to the sanctions restrictions on supplies. There is also the problem of customs and tariff policy of neighboring [sic] countries: in particular, Russia and Uzbekistan have recently directed their efforts to increase support for local producers.” Since Afghanistan has no automotive industry,...
