Afghanistan Times
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By Farhad Naibkhel-KABUL: The Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI) on Tuesday released the seventh “Business Tendency Survey” underling the business environment as “extremely unfavorable” in the past three months.
The ACCI in the survey covered businessmen in Kabul, Balkh, Kandahar, Nangarhar and Herat provinces.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the ACCI, Attiqullah Nasrat, said that insecurity, lack of market, infrastructure, bureaucratic hurdles and inaccessibility to financial services are key problems faced by the businessmen in the provinces.
Speaking at a press conference here he said that 41.43 percent responders complained about insecurity, 21.16 percent about market, 13.93 percent about infrastructure 17.5 about administrative problems and 5.54 percent expressed grievance over inaccessibility to financial services.
He said that survey showed that business condition has drastically deteriorated as comparison to the last three surveys that had been conducted after presidential election’s result and establishment of the National Unity Government (NUG).
He said that after formation of the NUG people were hoping that security would improve and there would be rapid development and increase in investment.
The ACCI’s CEO said that when the new government established, responders expressed optimism in the first survey, but in the second survey the optimism declined because the government could not complete cabinet after three months and insecurity increased in some parts of the country while investment also decreased.
Six months after the NUG establishment no significant project was launched and the commitments were not fulfilled, he pointed out.
Sketching the “deteriorating” investment environment, he said that a company’s employers decreased from 2,000 to around 200.
The current survey revealed that people are becoming more and more disappointed as compared to the previous three months.
He said that traders’ asset and life must be protected; otherwise business condition will get worst throughout the country.
He urged the government to resolve the problems faced by the private sector.
Minister of Commerce and Industries, Homyon Rasa, said the government is committed to address the issues and pave ground for better investment.
