Business
Afghanistan generates up to $70bn annually from drug trafficking
Drug money is a massive source of profit for criminal groups and terrorists that makes up to $70 billion annually from drug trafficking and production.
The profits are largely reaped at the level of the international wholesale and retail markets of drug as well as in the process of money laundering in Western banking institutions.
The revenues derived from the global trade in drug constitute a multibillion dollar bonanza for financial institutions and organized crime.
Afghanistan transparency watchdog says illegal financial flows created fields for terrorists and criminal groups.
According to the watchdog’s findings, millions of dollars annually transferred to foreign countries from Kabul airport by the government officials and powerful.
But the government asked an opportunity to review the report and emphasized that they are working in a scheme that no one can illegally transfer the money outside the country.
US has pumped $7.6bn in counter-narcotics spending into the country, but the results have been dismal.
The explosion in opiate production, unaffected by the $7.5bn spent by the US since 2002 to combat it, puts “the entire US and donor investment in the reconstruction of Afghanistan at risk,” special inspector general John Sopko told a Senate panel.
Based on recent figures, drug trafficking constitutes “the third biggest global commodity in cash terms after oil and the arms trade.
Deputy Prime Minister for Administrative Affairs Abdul Salam Hanafi says Afghanistan has the potential to become one of the most important industrial centers in the region.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the national and international expo on the occasion of Industry Week, Hanafi said that the growth of industry lays the foundation for the growth of other economic sectors and that the Islamic Emirate fully supports domestic production in the country.
“Afghanistan has important and rich factors for industrial production, which can become one of the important industrial centers in the region. The growth of industry will be the basis for the growth of other economic sectors, especially agriculture,” said Hanafi.
Acting Minister of Industry and Commerce, Nooruddin Azizi, added that the IEA has programs in the fields of industry development and support for the private sector that will make Afghanistan self-sufficient.
Azizi stated that Afghanistan’s industrial sector is currently progressing and the quality of export goods has also improved.
Some investors said at the ceremony that after the return of the IEA, the country’s exports have increased and the number of manufacturing companies has also increased.
This expo is open to visitors for seven days, and industrial products are showcased in 450 booths.
Women in business also attended the meeting.
Afghanistan and Pakistan have agreed on the issuance of a temporary admission document for transporters of commercial goods, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Transport and Aviation announced on Sunday.
The ministry said in an announcement that truck drivers and their assistants carrying commercial goods from Afghanistan and Pakistan must have this document with them at the crossings.
Based on the announcement, the document will be issued to Afghans at the Pakistani embassy in Kabul and its consulate in Kandahar.
For Pakistanis, the document is distributed at the office of the Afghanistan transport attaché in Peshawar and Quetta.
The Ministry of Transportation and Aviation asked owners and drivers of trucks to submit the required documents to their respective transportation companies by June 1.
The ministry warned that after June 1, trucks cannot travel between the two countries without having the temporary admission document.
Pakistani officials have announced that consultations are underway with stakeholders on preferential trade agreements with Afghanistan and Azerbaijan.
According to Dawn newspaper, the issue was announced on Friday in a meeting on trade chaired by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
In the meeting, the strict monitoring of Afghan Transit Trade was also emphasized.
Pakistani officials have not provided further details on preferential trade with Afghanistan and Azerbaijan.
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