DUSHANBE, November 29, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- The ninth meeting of the Tajik-Kazakh intergovernmental commission for trade and economic cooperation took place in Astana, Kazakhstan at the end of last week.

According to the Tajik Migration Service press center, labor migration was among major topics of the meeting and the meeting participants supported an initiative to open the representative office of Tajikistan’s Migration Service in Kazakhstan.

Co-chaired by Davlatali Saidov, Chairman of the State Committee for Investments and State-owned Property Management of Tajikistan, and Nurghali Ashimov, Minister of Environmental Protection of Kazakhstan, the meeting reportedly considered issues related to promoting further expansion of cooperation on protection of rights of labor migrants and the meeting participants agreed to consider the issue of restoration of a 90-day period of stay without registration for Tajik citizens in Kazakhstan and Kazakh citizens in Tajikistan at the next meeting of the commission.

According to the Agency for Statistics under the President of Tajikistan, a two-way trade between Tajikistan and Kazakhstan over the first ten months of this period has amounted to 363.2 million U.S. dollars.