Afghanistan Times
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By Akhtar M. Nikzad-KABUL: The Afghanistan Investment Support Agency (AISA) distributed 55.5 acre of lands among 36 new companies in five industrial parks of Afghanistan. The companies would invest Afs1.1 billion.
The agreements were signed by Chief of AISA Mohammad Qurban Haqjo with the owners of the private companies here on Tuesday.
After signing the agreements, Mohammad Qurban Haqjo said that the lands were provided to the companies in Herat, Ghazni, Nangarhar, Balkh and Kandahar provinces.
He said that the 36 private companies would invest around one billion Afghanis in the areas of construction, food production, rug process, melting of iron and beverages making.
Haqjo said the companies would start functioning in a next few months and would create 5,200 direct and 1,180 indirect jobs.
Twenty-one factories will start investment in field of construction in Ghazni province. They received 20.5 acre of lands. Seven factories received 19 acre of land and they will invest in food production, rug processing and melting of iron ore. Five factories received seven acres of land in Kandahar province to extract and produce juice from fresh fruits. Two factories received four acres of land in Nangarhar province to produce plastic-made goods. A construction firm received five acres of land in Herat province, he said.
The chief of AISA said that due to growing insecurity and inattention of the government, investment has decreased in 2015. Most of the foreign investors withdrawn their capital from Afghanistan and invested in other countries. “Afghanistan is a good country for investment and trade. Foreign investors shall have invested in this country but they do not feel secure,” he pointed out.
According to him, in the first nine months of the current solar year up to now, $600 million has been invested in different fields and it would increase to $700 million in the coming months.
Some owners of the factories termed insecurity, lack of electricity and land as major challenges in front of the investors in the country and asked the government to take practical steps to resolve the obstacles.
Officials of AISA said that in the past 14 years around $25 billion had been invested in the country.
