Afghanistan open to Indian investment: IEA

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) minister of urban development Hamdullah Nomani met with India’s Charge d’Affaires to Kabul Bharat Kumar recently and said the country needs India to help rebuild and sustain its infrastructure.

Speaking to The Hindu on Sunday, Shaheen said Nomani told Kumar that “Afghanistan is open for Indian investment including urban infrastructure (projects).”

Several Indian companies were involved in building and maintaining numerous projects in Afghanistan over the years. However, teams located in Afghanistan, were evacuated in August last year when the IEA came into power.

Indian companies had left numerous projects incomplete but according to Shaheen, “they are the projects started by India during the past regime, but left incomplete. India can resume work on them or make investments in new projects.”

The Hindu reported that the relation between the Taliban administration and India has remained undefined although a team from India was sent back to Kabul a few months ago to reopen the embassy.

Shaheen, however, assured the Indian envoy of a peaceful working environment for Indian companies and said: “Security of Indians is our responsibility and we assure them [of it].”

Over the last two decades, Indian public and private sector entities invested around $3 billion in mainly the infrastructure sector of the country.