Business
IEA discusses easing banking transactions with Kazakhstan
A delegation of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) discussed facilitating international financial transactions with private banks on a recent trip to Kazakhstan in a bid to ease the Afghan banking sector’s isolation, the acting commerce minister said.
Nooruddin Azizi, acting Minister of Commerce and Industry, led a business delegation to Kazakhstan last week.
In addition to banking he discussed the possibility of preferential trade tariffs, telecommunications projects and transit routes, including for possible shipments of Russian oil to South Asia, he told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.
“We had teams from Da Afghanistan Bank (Afghanistan’s central bank) and private banks in Kazakhstan, they discussed and are trying to find good ways to decrease the price of financial transactions … we don’t have any banking limitation with Kazakhstan,” he said.
Afghanistan’s banking sector has been hampered and international transactions severely limited since the IEA administration took over two years ago as foreign forces withdrew.
Some IEA leaders are subject to United Nations and United States sanctions. Many international banks have limited transactions with Afghan banks to reduce risk, economists and diplomats say, contributing to a stall in the financial system.
That has been exacerbated by the United States and other governments freezing Afghan central bank assets held abroad.
Azizi also said transactions that went ahead often incurred expensive fees, sometimes 5% of the transaction, which they hoped to reduce.
Fixing Afghanistan’s banking sector was a priority, he said, adding that there are no sanctions directly on banks. But he acknowledged international financial institutions were not easily facilitating transactions.
“It is the preference of some banks that they don’t want to deal with Afghanistan, they might think the trade volume is low, but for us it is very important,” he said.
The United States has issued exemptions to sanctions for humanitarian operations and at times helped facilitate specific transactions, such as an Afghan central bank payment to European companies to buy fresh bank notes.
But traders and international agencies say normal banking has not been restored, hampering the economy and causing headaches for traders and aid programs.
The United Nations, which uses billions of dollars a year to fund humanitarian operations, has to fly in pallets of cash in physical shipments to Kabul.
An unnamed Afghan businessman is reportedly ready to invest up to $12 million in iron ore mining in Panjshir province, the provincial governor’s spokesman Saifuddin Laton said Sunday.
According to Laton, the businessman has shown interest in investing between $3 and $12 million to mine an area covering 22 square kilometers in Paryan district in Panjshir.
Laton said the contract for this project has been approved by the Economic Directorate of the Prime Minister’s Office of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA).
In addition to extraction, the businessman will also carry out the processing and packaging of the iron ore within the province to create greater added value.
Laton said that in the first phase, the company will launch an exploratory program of the reserves over six months, during which around 500 jobs will be created.
After completing this phase, formal extraction work will begin, he said.
Afghanistan possesses substantial iron ore reserves, estimated at 2.2 billion tonnes, making it a top 10 country for extractable iron.
The largest deposit, Hajigak, is located in Bamiyan province, and contains an estimated 1.7 billion tonnes of high-grade ore.
Sadri Azam Osmani, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock, on Saturday left Kabul to participate in the 7th International Exhibition of Iran’s Export Capabilities in Tehran.
The expo will be held from April 28 to May 2. According to the organizers, between 2,000 and 3,000 foreign traders from around the world are expected to attend.
Osmani expressed hope that this trip will pave the way for the growth of trade and attract more investments to Afghanistan.
Business
Pakistan’s deputy PM discusses Trans-Afghan Railway Line project with Uzbek FM
On Thursday, in a post on X, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said Dar hoped that the three countries would soon sign the framework agreement for this important regional connectivity project.
Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar held a telephone conversation with the Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan, Saidov Bakhtiyor Odilovich, on Thursday to discuss the Trans-Afghan Railway Line Project.
This comes after Dar’s recent visit to Kabul, where he held talks with officials on the planned Uzbekistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan Railway Line Project.
The three neighboring countries signed an agreement in February 2021 to construct a 573-kilometer railway line through Afghanistan, connecting landlocked Central Asia to Pakistan seaports, with an estimated cost of $4.8 billion to enhance regional economic connectivity.
On Thursday, in a post on X, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said Dar hoped that the three countries would soon sign the framework agreement for this important regional connectivity project.
The two leaders also discussed strengthening bilateral relations, enhancing economic and trade connectivity, promoting people-to-people ties, and exchanged views on current regional and international issues.
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