The issue was raised in a meeting between Kabul's Ambassador to Tehran Nasir Ahmad Noor and Persian Gulf Mining and Metal Industries Special Zone CEO Massoud Hendian in the Southern city of Bandar Abbas on Monday.
Ahmad Noor said Afghanistan enjoys rich natural and mineral resources and is considered as an untapped market for Iranian investors.
Afghanistan is currently going through reconstruction process, he said, adding that his country can meet its needs to steel and aluminum through this Iranian special zone.
Early in January, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for the expansions of cultural ties and cooperation between the Iranian and Afghan nations.
The Iranian president made the remarks during a meeting with Afghan Minister of Culture Sayed Makhdoom Raheen in Tehran at the time.
The president voiced the Islamic Republic's readiness to continue its cooperation with Afghanistan particularly in the cultural sector.
The Afghan minister, for his part, stated that the two countries should use their cultural and historical similarities to expand their ties.
Late in December 2012, Iranian Minister of Science, Research and Technology Kamran Daneshjoo and Afghan Minister of Higher Education Obaidullah Obaid explored avenues for the further expansion of academic and scientific cooperation between the two neighboring countries.
During the meeting in Tehran, Daneshjoo referred to cultural, historical and religious commonalities and said that Iran is ready to make its experience in the area of higher education available to Afghanistan.
"We are ready to undertake joint technical and engineering projects involving both states' experts," he said, noting that this will benefit the two nations.
Daneshjoo also voiced the Iranian universities' readiness to grant scholarships to the Afghan students.
He further proposed the establishment of Persian language and literature centers and Islamic studies centers in the Afghan universities.
Obaid, for his part, hailed the scientific exchanges between the two universities and hoped that mutual cooperation, especially in the field of higher education, will further improve.
In December, Tehran's former Ambassador to Kabul Mohammad Ebrahim Taherian said that Iran and Afghanistan attach great importance to the increasing broadening of their bilateral ties and cooperation,
"Afghanistan shares 1,000 kilometers of common borders with Iran. We should know that if anything happens in Afghanistan, this will be the people of Iran who, after the Afghans, should pay the price for it," Taherian told FNA at the time.
The security of Afghanistan and Iran are interrelated and influence each other very strongly, he said, adding that the two states, thus, want widening of their ties and cooperation for the same reason.
Earlier in December, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi and Afghanistan's newly-appointed Ambassador to Tehran Basir Ahmad Noor explored avenues for the further development of the two states' mutual cooperation in a meeting in Tehran.
During the meeting, Salehi referred to the "historical" and "friendly" relations between Iran and Afghanistan, and expressed satisfaction with the two countries' mutual cooperation, which he described as a result of the firm resolve of the two nations' officials.
Iran is one of the most important donors to Afghanistan which has kept its promises to help to the reconstruction of the war-hit country.
Iran has built some roads, power transmission lines, and border stations, among the other infrastructure projects which would better link the two nations.
Iran has also contributed more than $50 million annually to Afghan anti-narcotics efforts in the last 8 years.
