TEHRAN-- The 18th meeting of Iran-Kazakhstan Joint Economic Committee meeting was held on Thursday in Kazakhstans capital Astana, at the end of which the 2 sides signed a detailed document to broaden cooperation in numerous locations including trade, farming, environment, tourist, science, and innovation, education and sports.As IRIB reported, the 2 nations Joint Economic Committee conference was co-chaired by Iranian Agriculture Minister Javad Sadati-Nejad and Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov.Sadati-Nejad and Smailov held talks before the two countries joint meeting to discuss significant areas that ought to be concurred upon in the events concluding document.Speaking to journalism after the joint committee meeting, Sadati-Nejad stated that according to the signed memorandum of understanding (MOU), 30 percent of the trade between the 2 nations will remain in the field of agricultural products.According to the agriculture minister, the two nations are also going to develop a commercial-agricultural joint venture in order to develop sell the Persian Gulf nations, Central Asia, and West Asia.In this meeting, Amir Yousefi, the vice-chairman of the Agriculture Committee of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) likewise stated that Kazakhstan is a good choice for extraterritorial growing due to the excellent water conditions and the quality of soil, which ought to be considered by Iranian investors.Reaching $3b of annual trade on agendaSpeaking on the sidelines of the conference, Sadati-Nejad announced that the 2 nations have put an annual trade of 3 billion dollars on the program, revealing hope that signing the detailed MOU would lead the way for attaining this target.

The presidents of the two nations have actually aimed to increase the level of trade to three billion dollars; currently this number is around 500 million dollars, the minister said.Mentioning the developments in the two countries banking relations, the authorities said that the growth of relations in the farming sector is of unique value for both sides.He further kept in mind that a joint committee will be formed in the next month to pursue this objective, saying: Kazakhstan has actually requested Irans engineering services in modern-day irrigation and desalination areas, and we have revealed our readiness to provide them with the discussed services.

Iranian trade center to be opened in AlmatyDuring the conference of the 2 countries expert committees which was held prior to the main event on Wednesday, Amir Abedi, the head of the Iran-Kazakhstan Joint Chamber of Commerce, announced that the business workplace of Iran-Kazakhstan joint chamber will quickly be opened in Almaty.Pointing to the capacities of Iran and Kazakhstan for the advancement of economic relations, Abedi thought about Kazakhstans market as a strategic location for Iranian businessmen.The 17th Iran-Kazakhstan joint economic committee conference was held about a year ago in Tehran.EF/ MAPhoto: Iranian Agriculture Minister Javad Sadati-Nejad (R) and Kazakh Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov indication MOU files in Astana on Thursday.