Reuters: Afghanistan’s Taliban-led administration has set up a consortium of companies, including some in Russia, Iran, and Pakistan, to create an investment plan focusing on power, mining, and infrastructure, the acting commerce minister, Nooruddin Azizi, said on February 22. The consortium included 14 Afghan businessmen and the Commerce Ministry had signed a memorandum of understanding with the foreign companies who would send delegates to Kabul to look into projects worth up to $1 billion, Azizi told Reuters. Afghanistan’s economy has been severely hampered since the Taliban took over in 2021, prompting the international community to enforce sanctions on the country’s banking sector. Click here to read more (external link).