Sunday, August 21, 2011 – Officials in Afghanistan Investment Support Agency (AISA) has expressed concerns about the unstable security situation in Afghanistan and said, there has not been any major foreign investment in industrial sections of Afghanistan so far.
The officials further added, since the formation of Karzai’s interim government there haven’t been any international investments in industries and production fields and it’s all because of spiralling violence in key regions of the country as group suicide attackers target public locations and dishearten investors to assign big money here.
Noorullah Delawari, Chief of Afghanistan Investment Support Agency said, “When investors begin to feel they are no longer safe and their lives could be threatened, they wrap up their things and go.”
Meanwhile, senior officials in Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI) believe that continuation of insurgent-led violence would fully stop investments that could hugely affect the country’s economy.
Mohammad Qurban Haqjo, Head of Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries said, “Investors wait to see whether the security situation changes for the good and when they lose hope they would never turn their focus back.”
Director of International Liaison for ACCI, Mr. Azerakhsh hafizi said, “Investors are very cautious and their lives and goods safety always comes first. Bad news ruins the chances of foreign investments. But Afghan investors will make their investments under any sort of conditions.”
In the meantime, ACCI officials said, abduction of investors and attacks on traders avoid big investments to take place in the country.
Head of ACCI, Mohammad Qurban Haqjo said, abductions force investors “to take their properties and assets out of the country and bad security produces a bleak picture of Afghanistan among Afghans and foreign investors.”
Officials in Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries believe that suicide attacks ruin security and people refuse to rely on the situation and begin saving their money and it causes less circulation of money in markets, and could hold back the economy growth of a nation.
Meanwhile, officials in Afghanistan Investment Support Agency said, Security challenges have made investors open their main offices outside the country to immediately leave in case the situation turns more unstable.
