Kazakhstan expects to increase trade with Iran to $1bln this year and $2bln till the end of 2015, Kazakh President Nour Sultan Nazarbayev said at the Kazakh-Iranian business forum.

“Iran is one of the most important economic partners of Kazakhstan in the Middle East. However, bilateral trade in recent years, due to the situation in the global economy and in Europe, has fallen. But, according to the first half of 2014, trade is growing and we expect that it will reach $1bln,” Nazarbayev said at the start of the event in Astana, the Herald Tribune reported.

“Next year, we expect that the new Kazakh-Turkmen section of Bereket-Gorgan railway, a connecting node between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf, will increase the trade turnover between the two states to $2bln,” Nazarbayev added.

On Tuesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced that Tehran and Astana are planning to start a considerable boost in their trade transactions.

"We intend to gradually increase the volume of Tehran-Astana trade exchanges by up to five times," President Rouhani told reporters in Astana.

President Rouhani left Tehran for a bi-nation tour of Central Asia on Monday.

The Iranian president is accompanied by a high-ranking political and economic delegation, including a number of cabinet members.
 

News ID 187164