Saturday November 30, 2013
Kabul (BNA) Officials of Ministry of Commerce and Industries (MoCI) have said that various world countries including Indian, China, Russia and some other regional countries have shown willingness to expand their investments in Afghanistan in various sectors.
Elaborating on the topic, Wahidullah Ghazi Khail, a spokesman to the Ministry of Commerce and Industries (MoCI) said, “Various world countries are prepared to invest in the country in different fields same as agriculture, mines, energy and some other sectors and this could lay constructive impacts on Afghanistan’s economic growth and business activities. “These countries announced their preparedness during an international conference under the theme of Business in Afghanistan which was held in the Indian capital New Delhi and the meeting was attended by at least 250 investors from twenty countries, India has been one of the major investors in Afghanistan over the last twelve years.”
“India intends to transfer its products from the Iranian Chabahar Port towards the central Asian states via Afghanistan soil.
In the past twelve years, India has invested in different sectors in the country such road construction, health, mines and has provided hundreds of educational scholarships to the Afghan university students to pursues their higher studies in the Indian institutions, Mr. Ghazi Khail said.”
Meanwhile, a number of economists have said that for enhancement of international investments and rebuilding of investors trusts, the government of Afghanistan requires formulating comprehensive strategies to attract international investments.
“To attract international investments, the government of Afghanistan should focus on development of rule of law, security and legalization of investment programs, the government should also concentrate on reviving investors’ trusts by maintaining effective security measures in order to provide trust to the international investors to come in Afghanistan, said economic analyst Hamidullah Farooqi.”
“However, major investment opportunities exist in Afghanistan, but practical steps haven’t been undertaken to further develop this sector, in the first step we have to focus on security maintenance, revival of basic economic infrastructures and implementation of law, another expert Saifuddin Saihoon added.”
In the meantime, nationals of the country have said that the government by creating suitable investment opportunity should revive trust of international investors to ensure economic development of the country. This came after several meetings have been held in London, Turkey, Chicago, Beijing and India and during these sessions various world nations expressed willingness to invest in Afghanistan.
