New Delhi, Sep 1 (SocialNews.XYZ) Two decades of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) presence in Afghanistan till mid-2021 saw billions of dollars spent on reconstruction and development, but since their withdrawal, many of the projects either remain incomplete or have failed to deliver the expected results, according to reports.
Five years since the withdrawal of the largely United States-led NATO troops, Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi has sought Washington's investment, particularly in the mining, infrastructure, agriculture, and trade sectors.
The Minister, who has been actively seeking global support, visiting several countries with permission from the United Nations, which restricts the travel of Taliban officials to foreign countries, told the Financial Times that Afghanistan would welcome American investment in these sectors.
Muttaqi had earlier visited India. A Taliban representative has been stationed at the embassy in New Delhi, though without official recognition of the regime in Kabul.
Centuries of strategic games played by global powers on its soil have left the war-ravaged country scarred, with a larger part remaining bereft of even life’s basic necessities. Despite natural resources like precious stones, minerals, and gas, some have either been tapped by occupiers, or left unexplored due to the uncertainty and tension prevailing over the rugged lands.
A business daily had reported that since 2021, Kabul has announced more than $7 billion in mining investments involving countries including China and Iran. According to assessments by US geologists and the former Afghan government, the country has at least $1 trillion worth of mineral reserves, including copper, iron ore, niobium, cobalt, gold, and lithium, according to separate reports. However, sanctions, as well as political and human rights concerns, remain among the main obstacles to attracting US investment in Afghanistan, these add.
Quoting an earlier report of the United States Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), Tolo News reported on Monday that nearly $145 billion had been appropriated for reconstruction and related activities in Afghanistan by June 2021. This, according to the report, comprised $88.6 billion spent on security, $36.3 billion for governance and development, an amount of $4.2 billion in humanitarian assistance, and $15.9 billion as programme administration costs.
But the issue was not only how much money was spent, it added, pointing out: "How these resources were used and how effective they were also remained under scrutiny".
According to it, administrative corruption was among major challenges during that period. It listed the Central Asia-South Asia power project, commonly known by the acronym CASA-1000, as one of the most important initiatives. Worth about $1.2 billion, the project was designed to transmit surplus electricity from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Pakistan through Afghanistan. Launched in 2013, work in Afghanistan was suspended in September 2021, added the report.
The most ambitious gas project, TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) pipeline, was set to transport 33 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually from Turkmenistan’s Galkynysh gas field through Afghanistan into Pakistan and India. The report claimed construction of the Afghan section, officially launched in 2018, was limited.
In the transport sector, the Khaf-Herat railway waits to connect Afghanistan to the regional rail network, with its Afghan section inaugurated in 2019.
An Afghan economic analyst blamed instability in the last 20 years as one of the most significant factors preventing some projects from being implemented. Yet, the report pointed out: "Afghanistan’s economy recorded significant growth during the same period".
According to the World Bank, it stated, Afghanistan’s economy grew by an average of more than 7 per cent annually from 2000 to 2019, while gross domestic product increased by 180 per cent. However, this growth remained heavily dependent on foreign assistance. Aid during this period averaged nearly 60 per cent of Afghanistan’s GDP and stood at around 45 per cent in 2019.
But experts claimed poor management of these resources meant that the funds were not effectively spent in the right sectors. "Security, effective governance, sustainable infrastructure, regional cooperation, and stronger domestic production and exports are also essential," the report concluded.
Muttaqi thus intends Washington to view mutual relations from a point beyond the past 20 years of war, rather based on future cooperation. So, the call to invest, reopen the US Embassy in Kabul, while withdrawing sanctions. However, he also said that the American military’s return to Afghanistan and the retaking of control of Bagram Air Base would be unacceptable.
Source: IANS
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