Michael Hughes: U.S. corporations are in secret talks with Afghan officials about exploiting the country’s coal industry in what appears like another ploy by the Trump administration to profit off the war while countering China’s dominance of the mining sector. Ironically, the discussions are occurring just as a watchdog report reveals yet again how the U.S.
William Gallo VOA News February 2, 2018 Afghanistan’s government is in advanced stages of negotiations with several U.S. companies interested in becoming involved with the country’s coal industry, a first step toward wider American investment in Afghanistan’s potentially lucrative industrial mining sector. The negotiations – confirmed to VOA by a senior Afghan diplomat and the
VOA News / February 1, 2018: The recent Taliban attacks in Afghanistan’s capital not only took dozens of lives, they also hurt the local economy. Afghanistan’s Chamber of Commerce and Industries says Kabul’s business community suffered more than $10 million U-S dollars in losses from the violence and chaos. Related Kam Air Still Struggling After
1TV: The horse was formerly owned by Hafiz Saeed, head of IS’s Afghanistan branch, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike on in July 2016. The horse was seized and was gifted to President Ashraf Ghani in April last year. Click here to read more (external link).
The Economist: Founded in 2004, AIB is now the largest private bank in Afghanistan, holding one-fifth of the country’s deposit base. And it is also the most profitable. It is so trusted that it does not even pay interest on its deposits. Click here to read more (external link).
Ayaz Gul VOA News January 10, 2018 ISLAMABAD — Pakistani officials say the U.S.-led NATO military coalition in Afghanistan has offered to import vital supplies through the southwestern port of Gwadar, calling it a much shorter and economically viable route into landlocked Afghanistan. The federal minister for maritime affairs, Hasil Bizenjo, says NATO representatives proposed the
Reuters: Pension liabilities — set to swallow the equivalent of a third of the current $5 billion budget within 15 years unless something is done — typify accumulated problems the government is now trying to tackle. “Previously, they kicked the can down the road and it’s snowballing right now and needs to be fixed,” said Deputy
Khalil Noorzai Habibzada Mohammad VOA News January 7, 2018 Airstrikes on narcotics processing labs may be forcing the Taliban to seek new ways to finance their insurgency in southern Afghanistan. Taliban officials say they have established a new customs house in the Delaram district of southern Nimruz province in the southwestern part of Afghanistan. The
WPR: Illegal mining has become so integral to the Taliban’s shadow government that it has established a fully functioning mining department, known as the Dabaro Comisyoon or “Stones Commission,” to manage the taxation of extracted minerals and ores. It even issues “official” Taliban-sanctioned mining licenses. Click here to read more (external link).
KABUL, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) — Afghanistan had a 2.6 percent economic growth rate in the Afghan Fiscal Year 1396 (2016/2017), despite persist challenges, the country’s finance ministry reported on Tuesday. “We witnessed a lot of achievements in the country’s economic sector in FY-1396. Over the year, our national revenue was higher than the target, and