Ivo Toniut Services Afghanistan

Opium production in Afghanistan has been on the rise   😞 since the US invasion in 2001. Last year 9,000 tonnes were produced, an increase of 87%! 😱 As a result, the record number of people turning to drugs in desperation is also increasing.

The Italian Embassy in Kabul hosted today 14 March 2018 the Joint Committee to move forward on the project for the construction of the 155 km road from Herat to Chishti Sharif funded with Italian taxpayers' money. In the pictures below, the First Secretary Ugo Ferrero with the Afghan Minister of Public Works Yama Yari and representatives from the Ministry of Finance of Afghanistan, the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), and the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation in Afghanistan (AICS Kabul). Italy is financing the Herat-Chishti Sharif Road Project with a Soft Loan worth approximately 92.3 Million Euros and 2.0 Million Euros as a Grant to UNOPS for technical assistance; the Intergovernmental Agreement has been signed on April 2016.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on Monday invited Pakistan to take part in the Chabahar Port project. According to Dawn News this came as Zarif sought to ease concerns of Pakistan over India’s involvement in the port. Zarif also meanwhile extended the invitation to China. “We offered to participate in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). We have also offered Pakistan and China to participate in Chabahar,” said Zarif, who is on a three-day visit to Pakistan. While in Pakistan, Zarif held bilateral talks with his Pakistani counterpart Khawaja Asif and addressed a trade conference, Dawn News reported. This move comes after Iran last month signed a lease agreement with India, which would give India operational control of the port. Dawn news stated that Zarif said both Pakistan and India need to link through sea and land routes in order to boost development in eastern and south-eastern Iran and in south western Pakistan. Minister Zarif also said the Chabahar port project was n...

Some drivers complain that they are forced to make undocumented payments in high tonnage scale at Hairatan dry port in the northern Balkh province. They say the operators of the scale ask them to pay the toll, but don’t give them official receipts. Due to rampant corruption in the country’s freight weighing stations, Afghanistan’s High Economic Council decided in December 2017 to transfer control of some high tonnage scales, including Hairatan port’s scale, from the Ministry of Public Works (MoPW) to the Ministry of Finance (MoF). Traders and drivers say the amount of money they pay at the key northern port is different from day to day. Jalil, a driver, told The Heart of Asia: “These payments go to the pockets of local officials because neither a receipt is given to drivers nor is the amount of payments specific. The money is paid as per the agreement of both sides.” A security source from the port reveals to The Heart of Asia that drivers were not being asked to pay the money when ...