Estonia offers seaports for Tajik aluminum export

Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip, who is on a two-day official visit to Tajikistan offered the Tajik government to widely use the seaports of his country for the export of Tajik aluminum to other countries.

"I am accompanied with the representatives of the business circles, who are interested in the cooperation, including in the aluminum sector. After the world financial crisis, demand for aluminum decreased, however, recently it is rallying. We hope for the increase of demand for aluminum, which will allow increasing its export, including via our ports," Ansip told journalists after his meeting with his Tajik counterpart Akyl Akylov.

Akylov, for his part, said that during the negotiations both parties expressed mutual interest in the increase of the trade turnover, cooperation in the energy, light and food industries.

The parties expressed intend to develop trade-economic and investment cooperation taking into account the new opportunities to get access to the South Asian markets.

The main export commodity of Tajikistan is aluminum. In 2000 -2010, its share in total exports increased from 51 percent to 62 percent. The destinations of aluminum exports have completely changed, from the European Union and Russia in 2000, to China and Turkey in 2010. Tajikistan exported 277,700 tons of aluminum in an amount of $664.5 million in 2011.