Business
Central bank governor says international reserves have not been compromised
Ajmal Ahmady, Afghanistan’s central bank governor and former minister of industry and commerce, posted a series of tweets on Wednesday stating he wanted to “clarify the location of DAB (Central Bank of Afghanistan) international reserves.”
He said that DAB reserves were approximately $9.0 billion as of last week but that “this does not mean that DAB held $9.0 billion physically in our vault.”
He said as per international standards, most assets are held in safe, liquid assets such as Treasuries and gold.
He said that DAB was set to receive approximately $340 million on August 23rd from the International Monetary Fund.
“Not sure if that allocation will now proceed with respect to Afghanistan,” he said.
Given Afghanistan’s large current account deficit, DAB was reliant on obtaining physical shipments of cash every few weeks, he said.
“The amount of such cash remaining is close to zero due to a stoppage of shipments as the security situation deteriorated, especially during the last few days,” he said.
“On Friday morning, I received a call notifying me that there would be no further USD (US Dollar) shipments,” Ahmady said, adding they were expecting one on Sunday, the day the Taliban took control of Kabul, but that this shipment did not arrive.
Ahmady said that on Saturday, banks placed very large USD bids as customer withdrawals accelerated.
“For the first time, I therefore had to limit USD access to both banks and dollar auctions to conserve remaining DAB dollars.
“We also put out a circular placing maximum withdrawal limits per customer,” he said.
He assured Afghans that in no way were Afghanistan’s international reserves ever compromised.
“We had a program with both the IMF and Treasury that monitored assets. No money was stolen from any reserve account,” he said.
However, he stated that given that the Taliban are still on international sanction lists, it is expected that such assets will be frozen and not accessible to Taliban.
“I believe local banks have told customers that they cannot return their dollars – because DAB has not supplied banks with dollars.
“This is true. Not because funds have been stolen or being held in a vault, but because all dollars are in international accounts that have been frozen,” he said.
“Taliban should note this was in no way the decision of DAB or its professional staff. It is a direct result of the US sanctions policy implemented by OFAC (the American Office of Foreign Assets Control),” he said.
In conclusion, Ahmady suggested the Taliban implement capital controls and limit dollar access.
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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