Ayaz Gul VOA News July 21, 2019 ISLAMABAD – The World Bank estimated Sunday that Afghanistan’s economy grew by less than two percent (1.8 %) in 2018 primarily due to ongoing war, drought and political uncertainty, likely leading to further increases in poverty. In its latest assessment of the Afghan economy, the Bank noted that
Ariana: Pakistan opened its airspace for all civilian traffic including Afghan flights after over four months of closure on Tuesday. The Ministry of Transport says that though alternative ways were used for the flights from Afghanistan to India, Afghanistan lost 27 million dollars due to the closure of Pakistan’s airspace. Click here to read more (external
FP: Wood smuggling is big business for the terrorist group. Small numbers of fighters for the Islamic State of Khorasan Province, the Afghan branch of the militant group, have been in Kunar since 2015. But the group’s new stronghold is in Kunar’s deep forests, inheriting a booming wood industry previously controlled by the Taliban that is now
Al Jazeera: Years of war and fighting have had a devastating effect on forests. Many were destroyed, and Afghan authorities caught up in fighting did not see the disappearing forests as a priority. Meanwhile, by 2013, at least half of Afghanistan’s forests had disappeared. Timber trade has become a profitable business. In the eastern provinces, local people and armed
1TV: Afghanistan is seeking membership of International Maritime Organization to use its own ships for trade with India via Iran’s Chabahar port, authorities said on Sunday. Mahdi Rouhani, a spokesman for Afghanistan Transport Ministry, said that a request has been sent to IMO to secure membership of the organization. He said that talks are underway on
Al Jazeera: The Wakhan Corridor, a mountainous region situated in the far northeast of Afghanistan, is bordered by the Hindu Kush mountains and peaks, some reaching 5,000 metres. Isolated from the rest of Afghanistan, the region was spared by the war that raged through the country for years. But many of the territory’s residents continue to
Tolo News: The outgoing governor of the Central Bank, Khalil Sediq, says that tens of thousands of dollars are smuggled from Afghanistan to Iran on a daily basis through the air and ground routes. Sediq said that big groups from inside and outside Afghanistan are involved in money laundering in the country through different channels. Critics said
1TV: A total of 185,000 Afghan refugees returned from Iran in the first five months of 2019, officials said Monday. Of the number, 100,000 were forced to leave the country while another 85,000 voluntarily returned, Afghanistan Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation said. Demand for Afghan labor in Iran has drastically fallen as its economy has slowed
Tolo News: Save the Children’s annual Global Childhood Report released on Tuesday shows that two out of five children are not in school in Afghanistan. The report says that Afghanistan is ranked 157th among 176 countries on children’s access to health care, education, nutrition and protection – as well as child labour, child marriage, displacement due
Al Jazeera: Rich in copper, lithium, talc, marble, gold, uranium and others, Afghanistan’s vast mineral wealth is estimated to exceed one trillion dollars. But according to data, every year the government loses around $300m in revenue from mining. Poor security, the lack of proper legal framework and organisational capacity, as well as corruption, have prevented the development of the sector. Deficient