The Chairman of the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Investment (ACCI), Sayed Karim Hashemi, held separate meetings with Jeffrey Grieco, Chairman of the Afghanistan-American Joint Chamber of Commerce (AACC), and Dmitry Zhirnov, Russia’s ambassador to Afghanistan, to discuss expanding trade, investment, and economic cooperation.
During his meeting with Grieco at ACCI headquarters, Hashemi emphasized the importance of strengthening economic and commercial ties between the private sectors of Afghanistan and the United States. He called for greater cooperation to connect Afghan businesses with American companies and investors, including Afghan-Americans, and highlighted opportunities for increasing Afghan exports to the U.S. market.
Hashemi also stressed the need for direct engagement between companies, traders, and investors from both countries, as well as cooperation in technology transfer, management expertise, and support for entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises. He further called for efforts to facilitate the release of Afghanistan’s frozen assets, describing them as belonging to the Afghan people.
Grieco reaffirmed the Afghanistan-American Joint Chamber of Commerce’s commitment to working closely with ACCI and noted that several American companies have expressed interest in investing in Afghanistan’s mining sector. He also invited Hashemi to meet a large delegation of American traders and investors expected to attend an upcoming economic event in Uzbekistan, where Afghanistan’s investment opportunities could be presented.
In a separate meeting, Hashemi met with Russian Ambassador Dmitry Zhirnov and discussed ways to strengthen trade and investment relations between Afghanistan and Russia. The discussions focused on expanding commercial ties, exchanging trade delegations, attracting joint investments, and creating stronger links between the private sectors of the two countries.
Hashemi called for the deployment of Russian specialists to assist Afghanistan’s private sector and support the transfer of technical knowledge and industrial expertise. He also proposed enhancing cooperation between the chambers of commerce of both countries and exchanging lists of active traders, investors, and companies to develop practical market-driven initiatives for economic cooperation.
For his part, Ambassador Zhirnov said trade between Afghanistan and Russia had shown positive growth over the past year but remained below its full potential. He stressed the need for greater efforts to increase bilateral trade and promote practical economic cooperation.
The Russian envoy also pledged to support ACCI’s efforts at international conferences and forums by promoting Afghanistan’s investment opportunities and major economic projects to Russian businesses and investors. He emphasized that stronger ties between the private sectors of the two countries would play a key role in expanding broader economic relations between Afghanistan and Russia.
The meetings reflect ACCI’s ongoing efforts to attract foreign investment, expand international trade partnerships, and strengthen Afghanistan’s economic engagement with both regional and global partners.
