Afghan President said that the issues surrounding the power shortages would be resolved within the next 18 months with the completion of the electricity network

The President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, made the remarks during a meeting with the industrialists and traders of northern Parwan province. The Office of the President, ARG Palace, in a statement said President Ghani on Monday met the local traders and industrialists of Parwan and heard their recommendations and issues regarding the security, provision of loan facilities, establishment of cold storage facilities, and attention required to Senjid Dara industrial park.
The statement further added that President Ghani thanked the local traders and industrialists for investing in various sectors in this province and emphasized on the importance of cooperation between the government and private investors for the development of the country. He said the recent changes in laws and regulations have resolved major issues which were available on the way for investment in the country. President Ghani also added that an association should be established for manufacturers, processing firms, and exports in bid to pave the way for the provision of loan facilities. He also added that the proper electricity network of Afghanistan would be completed in coming eighteen months and issues surrounding the power shortages to the factories would be resolved.
>>> READ ORIGINAL ARTICLE @ Heart of Asia

Wishing Hedayatullah Sulaimankhail every success

Afghanistan Ministry of Education continues its efforts to bring transparency by establishing mobile phone salary system

The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology of Afghanistan signed contracts for mobile phone salary payments of about120,000 teachers with two telecommunication companies in Kabul. The contract for monthly salaries of 43,000 teachers from Kabul was signed with Afghan Wireless and another contract for 76,000 teachers from Herat, Paktia, Balkh, Badakhshan, Khost and Laghman provinces was signed with Roshan. A pilot phase of the mobile salary payment scheme started six months ago in Parwan, Kandahar and Nangarhar provinces, covering 32,000 employees of the Ministry of Education including teachers. The process has proven successful and is now being expanded, said a representative of the education ministry. After registering for the mobile phone money system, teachers will be able to draw their salaries from the telecommunication companies branches, stores where the companies have agents, banks where the companies have contracts, and in some areas teachers will be able to get their salaries from vendors who sell mobile phone top up cards. One reason for establishing this system is to prevent corruption and misuse of salary payments.
The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology said that soon will be a tender for companies for the same system for a further 120,000 employees of the Ministry of Education.

Yes, Kabul is a very dangerous City; but it doesn't mean you shouldn't think about investing in Afghanistan

NEVER FORGET:

There is no country in the world with greater UNTAPPED ECONOMIC POTENTIAL than Afghanistan.

Kabul City in 2018

The University of Central Asia in Afghanistan

The so-called 'key step towards promotion of foreign investment in Afghanistan'

Contract signing for extraction of two major Afghan gold and copper mines in the US sparked criticism as members of civil society say the accords were signed under US and UK pressure, and in violation of Afghanistan’s Minerals Law.
The Afghan embassy in Washington said late on Friday that the contracts for Badakhshan Gold Mine and Balkhab Copper Deposit were inked in DC on Friday by Afghan Acting Minister of Mines and Petroleum Nagis Nehan and Centar Ltd Founder Ian Hannam, who was once known the “King of Mining” in the British press for his role in deals involving mining giants such as BHP Billiton Ltd. and Xstrata PLC. According to the embassy statement, the licenses will grant Centar Ltd to explore the mineral deposits.
Addressing the agreement signing ceremony, an official of the embassy Fazl Rahman Fazl Yar termed the inking of the agreements as a key step towards promotion of foreign investment in Afghanistan.
However, civil society activists in Afghanistan say the Afghan government has been under pressure from US and UK to grant the right of extraction to the company despite it being in conflict with Afghanistan’s Mineral Law.
Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA ) Chief Syed Akram Afzali says the two contracts were signed after British and the US governments influenced some officials in the Afghan government and all the profit of the contracts goes to the contractors.
He said the signing of these contracts mean looting of the natural reservoirs and international conspiracy.
Afzali said the Afghan government, especially President Ashraf Ghani, was somehow making a political bargaining on the contracts, which was a warning for the future of the country’s mining sector.
IWA Chief also said that Mineral Law of Afghanistan prohibits members of Afghan cabinet and other high ranking officials from getting mining contracts for at least five years after their tenure is ended, but former Minister of Urban Development Mr. Sayed Sadat Mansour Naderi, who resigned some months back, is shareholder of the firm that won the contract.
The winner company founder Ian Hannam also implicitly admitted the US government influence in getting the contract as he told The Wall Street Journal that the Trump administration’s renewed focus on Afghanistan’s mineral wealth helped push the government to finalize the deals.
President Donald Trump spoke to the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani last September to send a message that Afghanistan’s natural resources, including large deposits of copper, iron ore and gold, should help pay for the war.
>>> READ ORIGINAL ARTICLE @ http://heartofasia.af/2018/10/07/gold-copper-mines-contracts-singed-under-us-uk-pressure-iwa/

About CENTAR: CENTAR Limited is a U.S.-based mining and exploration company founded in 2010 by the late Polish business magnate, Jan Kulczyk, and City of London banker Ian Hannam. The company is Afghanistan’s leading independent mining company and was created by several prominent global business leaders including Chip Goodyear, the former CEO of BHP Billiton, Ian Hannam, the former chairman of capital markets of JP Morgan, Peter Hambro, one of the founders of UK-listed miner Petropavlovsk, and mining and oil investors from Turkey, Thailand, Indonesia, the U.S. and the UK. CENTAR’s technical management team hold in excess of 150 years of combined relevant experience and have extensive experience in resource exploration across Afghanistan including the Qara Zaghan gold project.