AT
Kabul: Abdul Jabbar Safi, the head of the Afghan Industrialists Association, says that more than 1200 industrial companies in the capital, south and east of the country have stopped operating due to the lack of electricity and thousands of people have lost their jobs in recent weeks.
With the trend of cutting off imported electricity from Uzbekistan, the head of the Afghan Industrialists’ Association believes that the industrialists are not able to meet the electricity needs of their companies and therefore they are forced to reduce the number of their workers.
He told the media that due to the lack of electricity, the domestic production companies are not able to compete in the market and imported products have replaced the domestic one.
The head of the Afghanistan Industrialists Association warns that if the electricity needed by industrial companies is not provided, the industrial companies will be permanently disabled.
Recently the interim administration announced the extension of Uzbekistan’s imported electricity contract until the end of this year. Based on this contract, Uzbekistan obliged to export 420 MW of electricity to Afghanistan.
However, after three weeks electricity transmission line was cut off from Uzbekistan. Breshna Company had called technical “problems” as the reason for the power cut from Uzbekistan.
Meanwhile Taliban acting foreign minister called on Uzbekistan to stick to their promises in supplying electricity to Afghanistan.