Michael Hughes: The U.S. state-building watchdog reported on July 29 that despite Washington investing $3 billion in Afghanistan’s power sector the country still suffers from one of the worst electrification rates in the world. The report, issued by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), beat around the bush citing issues like “poor project management”
Press TV July 23, 2016 Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry says at least 80 people were killed and 231 others wounded in two bomb blasts in the capital Kabul. The blasts were carried out at the Deh Mazang Square, where thousands of Shia Hazara demonstrators had gathered from early morning in protest against a controversial power line project. The Daesh Takfiri terrorists
1TV: The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday it had approved a $45 million, three-year credit facility to support reform and raise growth in Afghanistan. “Afghanistan is undergoing a difficult political, security and economic transition,” said IMF Deputy Managing Director Mitsuhiro Furusawa. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, has helped Afghanistan’s Kabul Municipality develop a simpler, more efficient construction permit system that will significantly cut red tape and processing times, and increase private investment in the city’s construction sector. The initiative, the result of a partnership between IFC and Kabul Municipality signed in 2014, is
The Express Tribune: Afghanistan takes pride in its world-class pistachios, but with looters harvesting the nuts well before maturity fears are growing that the Taliban and local strongmen are depriving the war-battered country of much-needed export income. Pistachios are not ripe for the picking until late July, but raiders rushed the forests earlier this month and, according
Press TV July 5, 2016 Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says providing the central government in Afghanistan with full support is one of the fundamental policies of the Islamic Republic. “We regard terrorist and extremist groups as a danger not only to the friendly and neighboring country of Afghanistan but to the entire region,” Rouhani said in
China Dialogue: For 6,500 years Afghanistan has been famous for the brilliant blue lapis lazuli, coveted by everybody from the Egyptian pharaohs to the common jewellers of today. These days mining of the precious stone is funding illegal armed groups and driving extremism and corruption in the northern province of Badakhshan, a two-year investigation by Global Witness,
Tolo News: A depressed economy and poverty are among the reasons for the slump in shopping sales Kabul as Eid al-Fitr arrives. Afghans say increasing unemployment, the decrease in the value of the Afghani against dollar and prices hike have had a negative effect on the markets in the country. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: The Kabul Zoo is experiencing a sharp annual rise in visitors as over 1,500 visitors on weekdays and nearly 5,000 over weekends come to see the animals, say officials The income from the zoo, the only one in the country, has increased by up to 40 percent over the past three months – compared to
Tolo News: Afghanistan is by a long way still the world’s largest opium producer, accounting for some 70 percent (3,300 tons) of global opium production, according to the United Nations World Drug Report of 2016. Myanmar is the second largest producer of the drug at 14 per cent (650 tons) of global production. Click here to read