Business
Afghanistan’s central bank gets shipment of new banknotes
A Polish firm delivered Afghani banknotes to Kabul this week after the United States paved the way for the Da Afghanistan Bank to make a payment via international banking systems, a member of the bank’s supreme council told Reuters on Wednesday.
The payment represents a shift for Afghanistan’s central bank, which has been largely cut off from the international financial system since the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) came into power last year.
State news outlet Bakhtar also reported that the shipment arrived on Wednesday.
The Afghan central bank held a contract with a Polish company for the printing of its banknotes but had been unable until early July to begin payment, Reuters reported.
Without access to fresh banknotes for more than a year, Afghanistan’s cash has been deteriorating, with notes torn in shreds or held together with sellotape, exacerbating the country’s liquidity crisis.
“Afghanistan’s markets run primarily on cash, but existing banknotes are crumbling …The Central Bank will be able to replace old and damaged banknotes, and this will improve the Afghan people’s ability to purchase food and other necessary items,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson said.
Shah Mehrabi, a member of the Afghan central bank’s supreme council, said assurances to banks and companies by the U.S. Treasury that they would not be prosecuted for allowing a transaction by Afghanistan’s central bank had been instrumental.
“These transactions that were facilitated by the Treasury are welcomed by all Afghans,” Mehrabi said.
He said the banknotes began arriving on Tuesday. The contract was for notes valued at 10 billion Afghanis, mostly in small denominations. A second contract with a French company had been reached for a similar value.
A spokesperson for Afghanistan’s finance ministry told Reuters that new banknotes would be used solely by the central bank for replacing old notes, not to fund the budget.
Mehrabi said that the bank would release its financial statements to ensure the cash was accounted for.
He said the bank had agreed to be subject to third party monitoring and the U.S. Treasury had approved of an agency to carry out the monitoring.
Nooruddin Azizi, Acting Minister of Commerce and Industry, met with representatives from the ministries of foreign affairs, defense and interior of Malaysia, along with other senior officials, on Wednesday and called on Malaysians to invest in Afghanistan.
The visiting delegation is being led by senior diplomat Dr. Shazelina Zainul Abidin.
According to the IEA’s foreign ministry, the two sides discussed bilateral trade, holding a business communication conference to strengthen trade relations between the two countries, the trade balance between Afghanistan and Malaysia, and creating a market for Afghan products, including carpets, cotton, and minerals.
According to the ministry, at the end of the meeting, the Acting Minister emphasized the increase of investment from regional countries in Afghanistan and called on Malaysian investors to also invest in Afghanistan.
The Ministry of Interior says that Afghanistan has started exporting goods to Turkey via the Herat-Khaf railway line.
In a post on X, the ministry said: “Afghanistan’s exports to Turkey started in a calm atmosphere through the Herat-Khaf railway line.”
The ministry added that one train will run daily for a month and then two trains will run daily.
According to the ministry, the security of Khaf-Herat railway line is provided by the guards of the National Public Protection Agency.
Khaf-Herat railway project not only connects Iran and Afghanistan by rail, but also completes a 2,000-kilometer route along the east-west rail corridor from China, through Uzbekistan, to Afghanistan, to Iran, and on to Turkey and Europe.
As a landlocked country, this railway network will provide a safe route to connect with Europe via Iran’s railway network and Iran’s southern ports.
This railway line is strategic for trade between Iran and Afghanistan and will allow six million tons of goods to be sent between the two countries.
A joint expo between Afghanistan and Kazakhstan will be held in Kabul in the next four days, officials said on Sunday.
Officials of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce said that the two-day expo will be held for the purpose of expanding and strengthening trade relations between the two countries.
“This expo will be held as a follow-up of the Kazakh-Afghan international expo, which was held in the city of Astana, Kazakhstan, with the participation of a large delegation of the government and the private sector of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” Abdulsalam Javad Akhundzadeh, the spokesman of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, said.
“At this expo, domestic products from different sectors of Afghanistan and the Republic of Kazakhstan will be put on display for two days.”
According to officials, 40 large Kazakh companies, and 40 large Afghan companies will exhibit their products.
Mohammad Saber Latifi, head of the Afghanistan International Expo Center, said that fruits, minerals and commercial services will be displayed at the expo.
During the expo, various memorandums of understanding for the trade of goods are also expected to be signed by companies.
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