Afghanistan is on the recovery path of business, with a clear focus on turning the country into an export hub, drawing foreign investments and business-friendly reforms, assures Chairman of Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce  Sayed Mohammad Karim Hashemi, in an exclusive interview with ABP Live     

We are here on the invitation of the Government of India, and we are also here as Afghanistan has a long relationship with India historically and culturally. Next, we would also like to increase the volume of trade and market some of our Afghan products. As you know,, Afghanistan is an importing country. First, our focus will be to shift this to an exporting country. That is our main agenda.

Over a couple of days, we have had very good and productive meetings with our Indian counterparts, the chambers of commerce, as well as the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Commerce. We told them about the sectors in which we would need their support, such as mining, food processing, pharma and healthcare. The ACCI also mentioned sugar factories and rice. The agreement signed between ACCI and Assocham is a significant step towards creating a structured framework for facilitating trade, investment, entrepreneurship, innovation and business-to-business engagement between India and Afghanistan. 

You want FDI, but what are you doing to attract capital to Afghanistan? 

Most importantly, the current government in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan has put in place a system of peace and security in the country so that companies can easily come. The Government will provide them with land, facilitate obtaining business licenses and also ensure five years of free tax. All these incentives will be given. 

As the chairman of the ACCI, who is also serving the private sector of Afghanistan, I can say we definitely want to grow our economy and collaborate in this with our Government, particularly to create more jobs for the people and to counter poverty in Afghanistan. As a chamber of commerce, ACCI is an independent, non-political and non-governmental institution. The private sector has the full support of our government, and we are working to bring more foreign investments into the country. We are trying to travel abroad to bring in more FDI. We will go to all countries interested in working with Afghanistan to bring in investments. 

A week ago, we were in Tashkent for a business forum, then we came to India, and next we will be going to Kyrgyzstan for a business forum. A few weeks later, the ACCI will go to China for another session on business. We are also engaged with many Iranian, Russian and American chambers of commerce and the private sector. We are in touch with them. 

I will say that we are non-political and have no interest in any political issues. There is, by the way, good news of a peace agreement between Iran and America. We hope so, as the future of trade in the region will be secure. As we see war in our country a lot, we don’t want the same conflicts in any country, and to see people suffering from uncertainty.