Five cement factories to be built in Afghanistan: minister

Five cement factories will be built soon in Afghanistan, Minister of Mines and Petroleum Shahabuddin Delawar said during a visit to Kandahar province.

Delawar said that once the factories become operational, hundreds of millions of dollars will not be spent on importing cement. He said this will be another step forward in helping the country become self-sufficient.

He also said that revenue generated through mining in the country has increased substantially in recent times.

“The world does not recognize us and makes various excuses, but we maintained stability of the Afghani currency. In 12 months, the revenue of the Ministry of Mines was 17.5 billion afghanis,” Delawar said.

The cement factories meanwhile will be built in Herat, Kandahar, Logar, Jawzjan and Parwan provinces. At present, only Ghori and Jabal al-Sarraj cement factories operate in the country. Cement produced by these two factories only partially meets the country’s needs.

Delawar’s visit to Kandahar comes after a number of contracts were awarded to mining companies to extract minerals in the province. The agreement with these companies was that they would also give back to the community by spearheading projects such as the construction of roads.