DUSHANBE, November 28, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- Authorities of Afghanistan and Tajikistan ought to take measures to simplify legal procedures connected with cross-border trade between the two countries as much as possible, Afghan Ambassador to Tajikistan, Mr. Said Muhammad Khairkhoh, remarked at the republican forum “Trade between Provinces of Tajikistan and Afghanistan: State, Problems and Opportunities of Economic Development” in Dushanbe on November 28.  

According, to him, the cross-border trade between Afghanistan and Tajikistan is currently developing actively, however, there are some formal obstacles that impede to properly realize the existing potential of the cross-border between the two countries.  

The forum, staged by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MoEDT) and the Khorog-based Milal-Inter Association in the frames of the Cross-Border Promotion  Project of the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), has brought together representatives of relevant ministries and organizations of Tajikistan and Afghanistan as well as international organizations active in Tajikistan to discuss the present state of the cross-border trade on regional level, obstacles impeding development of the cross-border trade and ways to expand it.

The conference considered the following subjects: historical roots of trade cooperation between Tajikistan and Afghanistan; state and modern forms of economic and trade cooperation between the two countries; and ways of further expansion of security and cooperation on the common border of the two countries.

The main objective of the forum was to help tackle problems existing in the cross-border trade on regional level and improve coordination of activities of state institutions and international organizations to enhance work of the existing cross-border markets and establish the new ones.