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Weekly Press Review ? August 5-11
23 trained for tax law implementation
12,000 tons of fruits ready for export to India, UAE
Canal closure threatens rice, cotton crops in Kundoz
New Afghan law hikes rate of tax on airport use
Official Says Meeting on Pakistan-Afghan-Turkmen Pipeline Postponed
Pakistan to add more three items to Afghan trade list
Trilateral meeting on gas pipeline set back Press Clippings 23 trained for tax law implementation By : Mustafa Basharat KABUL, August 10 (Pajhwok Afghan News)
Twenty-three commerce and law graduates, nominated by the Finance Ministry as tax officers, completed three months training here on Wednesday. This was the first batch of the tax officers being trained ahead of September 23, date set for implementation of the new taxation law.
Addressing the ceremony, Deputy Finance Minister Asad Sakhi Farhad said the training was aimed at fulfilling the requirements of trained graduates and professionals of the country.
At present, he said, they were providing training to graduates in the central capital in matters relating to tax collection, but shortage of skilled manpower was still existed in other parts of the country.
Farhad said the government's revenue currently estimated at $270 millions, would go up by five per cent after implementation of the new taxation law.
Under the new law, individuals having more than 12,500 Afghanis ($250) monthly income will be liable to pay 10 per cent income tax.
Aziz Shams, spokesman for the Finance Ministry, told Pajhwok Afghan News the ministry needed 150 professionals to inform and guide people and organizations of the procedure of the new tax law.
12,000 tons of fruits ready for export to India, UAE By: Saeed Zabuli KANDAHAR CITY, August 9 (Pajhwok Afghan News)
The government is airlifting for the first time 12,000 tons of fresh fruits to India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from the southern Kandahar province. Officials said Tuesday 6,000 tons of grapes would be exported to India and the UAE each on Wednesday via the air route to save the commodity from going rotten.
Afghanistan's fresh fruits are in great demand in India, Pakistan, the UAE and Gulf states, but decades of conflict have left the government with little ability to arrange speedy shipment of the produce.
Abdur Raziq Rafiqi, chairman of the Kandahar Chamber of Commerce, said fruits were airlifted abroad for the first time in the history of the province.
In a chat with Pajhwok Afghan News, he informed three storages had been constructed in the province to preserve fresh and dry fruits throughout the year. Two of these have been built with financial assistance from the US while the third will be completed soon with the help of India.
The two storages, he added, had the capacity for storing 44,000 tons of fruits. "At present, 22,000 tons have been placed there."
About Afghanistan's fruit exports to India, Rafiqi said 35,000 tons had been dispatched to that country under the transit trade via Pakistan last year while a target of 20,000 had been set for the current year.
He said construction of the three storages had enabled them to keep fresh fruits till their demand shot up in the international market.
Haji Lal Mohammad, a resident of the Arghandab district, having grape orchards in the area, said the exports to India and the UAE via air routes would earn growers a reasonable price.
It is pertinent to recall that 85,000 tons of fruits were exported to Pakistan, India and England from the Kandahar province last year.
Canal closure threatens rice, cotton crops in Kunduz By: Rohullah Arman KUNDUZ CITY, August 9 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The closure of a canal in the Chahar Dara district of the northern Kunduz province has a debilitating impact on the cotton and rice crops sown on thousands acres of land.
The growers warned their yield would destroy if water was not released in the Nahr-i-Jadid in the next three days.
More than 500 farmers belonging to Yatim and Nahr-i-Sufi villages are striving for the last 10 days to repair the canal damaged by the recent flooding in the Chahar Dara River.
Bismillah, a farmer from the Yatim village, told Pajhwok Afghan News they were working hard to repair the canal for the last 10 days. But neither the government nor any NGO had so far extended help to save their families from starvation.
Officials on the other hand are looking towards the local to repair the damaged canal at their own. Chief of the provincial agricultural department Mohammad Ibrahim Turkman said there were 4,000 acres of rice and as many of cotton crops in Chahar Dara. He said half of the area could be irrigated through the damaged canal.
Engineer Khalilullah Amin, head of the provincial irrigation department said the European Union was funding the canal de-silting in the area. He hoped the work would be completed in a week. He added the department had provided five tractors to speed up the repair and de-silting of the canal. New Afghan law hikes rate of tax on airport use By: Habibur Rehman Ibrahimi KABUL, August 9 (Pajhwok Afghan News)
Afghanistan expects to earn 1.8 million dollars annually in taxes on use of its airports and air-space under a new law approved last week by the Karzai cabinet.
Coming into force at once, the law imposing taxes on airports as well as domestic and international flights has been framed jointly by the transport and justice ministries.
Ayyamuddin, senior official at the justice ministry, told Pajhwok Afghan News on Tuesday every aircraft using Afghanistan's air-space would have to pay the government a tax of $300.
By the same token, he added, an airplane staying at an Afghan airport for 24 hours would be required to pay 3,000 afghanis - a tax rate much higher than what was charged previously in accordance with the 1984 rules and regulations.
Deputy Transport Minister Engineer Raz Mohammad Elmi explained 150 aircraft of 35 different airlines flew every 24 hours through Afghanistan's air-space.
In all, the country has eight air routes - mostly used by planes of South Asian and East European countries. The transport ministry regulated the tax on the aircraft using the Afghan air-space, he said, adding the levy would be paid to the country's representative in Geneva. Official Says Meeting on Pakistan-Afghan-Turkmen Pipeline Postponed (Pajhwok News Agency) 8 August 2005
The ninth trilateral meeting on the Pakistan-Afghan-Turkmen gas pipeline project, scheduled to take place in late July has been set back following a high-level reshuffle in Ashkhabad.
Mir Mohammad Sediq, Afghan minister for mines and industries, told Pajhwok Afghan News on Monday [8 August] that Turkmenistan could not make the requisite preparations for the session owing to the recent reshuffle of officials concerned.
He hoped fresh dates for the meeting would be firmed up soon and actual work on the multi-billion gas pipeline project would get under way before December. The pipeline agreement between Pakistan and Turkmenistan was signed in 1990 and Afghanistan later agreed to provide the transit facility. However, the plan has been delayed owing to ubiquitous security concerns in Afghanistan.
Hinting at the extension of the pipeline to India, Sediq said the project would go a long way in meeting the gas requirements of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Kabul will earn up to 300m dollars annually in transit duties.
At the next meeting, the Asian Development Bank, which has already surveyed the project, will present a detailed report on security. The project's implementation has been delayed for a decade, according to Afghan officials.
Sediq claimed: "With security fully restored in Afghanistan, there should be no hurdle to execution of the pipeline plan." At the last meeting held in Islamabad in April, the security question was atop the agenda.
The 1,700-kilometre pipeline will pass through Herat, Farah, Helmand and Kandahar provinces in Afghanistan before reaching Pakistani territory. Karim Uloomi, advisor to the minister for mines and industries, put the approximate cost of the project at around 3.2bn dollars.
Ahmad Shah Karim Uloomi, advisor to the Ministry of Mine and Light Industries, told Pajhwok on Wednesday that the security situation had improved to some extent. Ergo, he stressed, the project should go ahead as planned. PAKISTAN TO ADD THREE MORE ITEMS TO AFGHAN TRADE LIST Asia Pulse 8 August 2005
Pakistan is going to expand the Afghan transit trade list by adding three more items to boost trade ties between the two neighbors. The items proposed to be added to the list included television and telephone sets and tires.
Speaking to Pajhwok Afghan News, chairman of Pakistan's Central Board of Revenue (CBR) Abdullah Yousaf said inclusion of these items in the transit trade list was recommended during a meeting of the Joint Economic Commission (JEC) held in Kabul on July 3.
"The inclusion of the three items in the list will give legal cover to their shipment across the border," said Yousaf. He added the two countries were adopting measures to block entry of the transit goods back into Pakistan.
Pakistani industrialists had serious reservations about the inclusion of electronic goods in the transit trade list believing wide ranging smuggling of these items was affecting their business.
However, Abdullah Yousaf said they would block re-entry of these items into Pakistan to avoid any harm to the local industry and the country's economy.
Regarding the time frame for the announcement on the inclusion of these items in the transit list, he said a letter had been sent to the ministry and an announcement would soon be made after formal approval.
With the addition of the three items, only edible oil, cigarettes and spare parts will stand out of the list.
A trade union leader in Islamabad Saad Mushtaq welcomed the expansion of the list and said the step would further cement trade ties between the two countries.
IWPR 08/08/2005 By: Abdul Baseer Saeed
New law pits the government against local charities in the fight to claim foreign aid Kabul Who should receive and disperse the foreign aid money flowing into Afghanistan: the government or the legion of domestic and international non-government organizations, NGOs, which have been handling much of the money up to now?
On one side of the debate are the growing number of officials who accuse the NGOs of corruption and inefficiency. On the other are the non-government groups, which contend that the government currently has neither the capacity nor the skills to handle the millions of dollars that are coming in.
A new law, signed by President Hamed Karzai in mid-June but not published until July, seeks to resolve the dispute by establishing stringent controls over which types of organizations can register for NGO status, and regulating the types of projects NGOs can undertake.
At present, there are close to 2,400 NGOs operating in the country, involved in projects ranging from dam construction to media development, like IWPR. Other than the requirement that they file quarterly reports with the economics ministry, the government has until now imposed few restrictions on their operations.
The new law requires all NGOs to reapply for permission to work in the country. Their applications must be approved by an evaluation commission composed of five representatives from various ministries, before the economics ministry can register them.
In addition, the new law bars NGOs from being involved in certain types of projects, such as construction and overtly political activities. Some NGO directors say they are concerned that the legislation could limit the scope and effectiveness of their activities.
"The law has some shortcomings such as the lack of detail regarding expenditures, and the restrictions on NGO engagement in construction," said Sayed Fazlullah Wahidi, chairman of the Afghan NGOs Coordination Bureau, ANCB, and an umbrella organization. "All of this indicates the imposition of limitations on NGO activities." The dispute over control of foreign-aid money has been simmering for some time.
Ramazan Bashardoost, a former planning minister and long-time critic of how international aid funds are dispensed, has charged that the money has been misused by NGOs, and faulted the international community for not giving the assistance directly to the Afghan government.
Bashardoost, who was forced to resign his post earlier this year after he attempted to close up to 80 per cent of registered NGOs, is now demanding the establishment of a commission to investigate cases where aid money has been misused. The commission should conduct its inquiry secretly, he says, and report to the government. "The money that has been donated has not yet produced any effective work," he argued.
Even Karzai railed against NGOs earlier this year, blaming them for the slow pace of reconstruction in the country.
"The corruption in NGOs has created obstacles in the reconstruction process of Afghanistan, and it is our job and the international organizations' job to use the money in good ways," the president said at an international donors conference in Kabul this spring.
Afghanistan has received large infusions of foreign aid since the American bombing campaign toppled the Taliban regime in late 2001. The country has received over four billion US dollars in assistance over the past three-and-a half- years - the vast majority of it funneled through NGOs.
Some critics charge that the money has not always been well spent, saying too much has been siphoned off to finance what they see as the lavish lifestyles of overpaid foreign consultants, while some is simply wasted or stolen.
Bashardoost has gone so far as to call NGOs "economic criminals", and says, "The real NGOs are those that serve people 24 hours a day, not the ones that rent houses at high prices and waste a lot of money."
But some analysts doubt that the still young government, which has yet to establish a democratically elected parliament, is up to the task of handling such vast amounts of money or undertaking complicated projects.
"NGOs have qualified experts on staff," said Saifuddin Saihoon, a professor at the economics faculty of Kabul University. "Unfortunately, these people do not work in government.
"I don't think donors will want to give aid directly to the Afghan government. I still have doubts as to whether it can implement its own programs."
Others say that since the government still lacks effective control over some parts of the country, it is unable to effectively operate relief and reconstruction programs, especially in rural areas.
"The government is still not up to the task of coordinating assistance throughout the country," said Mohammad Hashim Mayar, program coordinator for the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief, ACBAR. "It still cannot help people in remote areas."
According to Paul Barker, head of Care International in Afghanistan, "The Afghan government is too young, it doesn't have much work experience. The banking system is not 100 per cent reliable and therefore the government will not be able to control the money."
Economics Minister Mohammad Amin Farhang insists that the government is fully capable of assuming responsibility for the aid money. The new law, he said, is not intended to penalize NGOs but to make the whole structure more rational.
"We are not against those NGOs which achieve good work, but we are against those that misuse funds," said Farhang.
For now, many NGO leaders are taking a wait-and-see approach. ?I hope that this law will distinguish between the good and bad NGOs," said Barker.
Trilateral meeting on gas pipeline set back By: Mustafa Basharat KABUL, August 8 (Pajhwok Afghan News)
The ninth trilateral meeting on the Pak-Afghan-Turkmen gas pipeline project, scheduled to take place in late July has been set back following a high-level reshuffle in Ashgabat.
Mir Mohammad Seddiq, Afghan minister for mines and industries, told Pajhwok Afghan News on Monday Turkmenistan could not make the requisite preparations for the session owing to the recent reshuffle of the officials concerned.
He hoped fresh dates for the meeting would be firmed up soon and actual work on the multi-billion gas pipeline project would get under way before December. The pipeline agreement between Pakistan and Turkmenistan was signed in 1990 and Afghanistan later agreed to provide the transit facility. However, the plan has been delayed owing to ubiquitous security concerns in Afghanistan.
Hinting at the extension of the pipeline to India, Seddiq said the project would go a long way in meeting gas requirements of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Kabul will earn up to $300 million annually in transit duties.
At the next meeting, the Asian Development Bank, which has already surveyed the project, will present a detailed report on security. The project's implementation has been delayed for a decade, according to Afghan officials.
Seddiq claimed: "With security fully restored in Afghanistan, there should be no hurdle to execution of the pipeline plan." At the last meeting held in Islamabad in April, the security question was atop the agenda.
The 1700-kilometer pipeline will pass through Herat, Farah, Helmand and Kandahar provinces in Afghanistan before reaching Pakistani territory. Karim Uloomi, advisor to the minister for mines and industries, put the approximate cost of the project at around $3.2 billion dollars.
Ahmad Shah Karim Uloomi, advisor to the Ministry of Mine and Light Industries, told Pajhwok on Wednesday the security situation had improved to some extent. Ergo, he stressed, the project should go ahead as planned.
Pakistan allows export of locally manufactured items to Afghanistan via land route ISLAMABAD, August 08 Online
Government has allowed export of all commodities produced or manufactured in Pakistan, excluding those manufactured in manufacturing bonds through land route, against Pak-rupee on filing of regular shipping bills without Form 'E', sources said here on Sunday.
Sources said that such exports shall not be entitled to zero-rating of sales tax on taxable goods, rebate of central excise duty and repayment or drawback of customs duty.
All items and commodities produced or manufactured in Pakistan exported, via land route or by air against irrevocable letters of credit, confirmed orders on realization of export proceeds through banking channel or advance payment, in convertible foreign currency, shall be allowed.
Zero-rating of sales tax on taxable goods, rebate of central excise duty and repayment or drawback of customs duty will be subject to the conditions, namely Afghan Customs Authorities will verify the proof that goods exported from Pakistan to Afghanistan on the basis of copy of import clearance documents across the border.
Packages or retail packing shall be prominently and indelibly be marked with the _expression ?For Export Only?, and in case of international donor agencies ?For Export only - supply for aid to Afghanistan (insignia of the organization) - not for sale in Pakistan.
Export shall be allowed only through authorized export land routes i.e. Torkham, Chaman, and Ghulam Khan (for export of cement only) and Qamar Uddin Karez (when it becomes operational);
Export from Export Processing Zones and manufacturing bonds, except vegetable ghee and cooking oil, shall be allowed but these exports shall not be entitled to zero-rating of sales tax on taxable goods, rebate of central excise duty and repayment or drawback of customs duty. New regulations for loans granted to exporters of goods, services to Afghanistan Tehran Times Economic Desk 7 Aug 05
TEHRAN ? The way of calculating part of commission rates for letters of guarantee and the interest rates for the loans granted to the exporters of goods and services to Afghanistan were announced yesterday.
The new regulations cover all goods and services destined to Afghanistan either for sale to Afghan customers or for use in the finance projects by the Iranian investors in that country.
According to the bylaw, the operating bank will calculate the total interest and commission rates for the loans to be granted to the investment projects (upon approval at certifying bodies) and will deliver to the Export Guarantee Fund of Iran (EGFI) for approval. The documents will be then delivered to the Organization for Investment, Economic and Technical Assistance of Iran for final approval. The loans are payable by the organization through debiting the operating banks. Pakistan likely to allow India trade route with Afghanistan By: Pakhtun Sahar & Zainab Mohammadi ISLAMABAD, August 7 (Pajhwok Afghan News)
Keeping the long standing demand of Afghan government in mind, Pakistan has decided in principle to allow route to India for trade with Afghanistan.
A well-placed source in Pakistan's Commerce Ministry confided to Pajhwok Afghan News negotiations had been initiated and the two countries would soon reach an agreement on the issue.
The source said Pakistan wanted India to create space for its goods in the Indian markets. This is the pre-condition for allowing India to pass on its goods to Afghan markets via Pakistan.
The source said Pakistan would allow as much Indian goods for onward shipment to Afghanistan via Wahga as India creates space for Pakistani goods in its markets.
He further said the matter had come under discussion during a meeting between Afghan ambassador Nangialai Tarzai and advisor to Pakistani prime minister on commerce Dr Salman Shah in Islamabad the other day.
An economist, when consulted by this scribe on the issue, confirmed talks between Pakistan and India. He said Pakistan was faced with problems due to lower prices of Indian and Iranian goods in Afghan markets. This is why they are pressing India to allow space for Pakistani goods in its markets.
The Afghan authorities, on the other hand, are sceptical about Pakistan's measures in this regard. Mohammad Azeem Wardag, head of the foreign trade wing of the Trade Ministry, complained Pakistan's actions often restricted to papers.
He said President Hamid Karzai had discussed the issue with his Pakistani counterpart and he had agreed to allow India to start trade with Afghanistan via Pakistan.
He added Trade Minister Hidayat Amin Arsala and Finance Minister Anwar ul Haq Ahadi, during their visits, had also talked to Pakistani authorities and they had received positive response.
According to the Trade Ministry, Afghanistan imports spare parts, motorcycles, bicycles, tractors, cooking oil, sugar and tea from India while exports fresh and dry fruits and carpets to that country. Carpet Industry Still Faces Challenges Institute for War & Peace Reporting By: Abdul Baseer Saeed in Kabul (ARR No. 181, 06-Aug-05)
Hand-woven rugs are an important export for Afghanistan, but neighboring Pakistan is attempting to make inroads into the industry.
Carpet weaving is one of Afghanistan?s foremost industries, and the hand-woven treasures constitute one of the best export hopes. But years of civil strife drove many to flee their country for neighboring Pakistan, where their business continued to flourish.
Now, the government in Kabul would like to see the weavers bring their looms back home. However, continued instability in many areas of the country, coupled with enticements by the Pakistani government, which wants to keep its own rug industry going, are prompting some Afghan carpet-makers to relocate aboard and discouraging others from returning home.
Abdul Shukoor, a resident of Kunduz province, has a carpet-weaving business that keeps seven members of his family employed. In his village, he told IWPR, 50 families engaged in the trade have already gone to Pakistan.
?In Pakistan everything is available; they pave the way for us. If something isn't done for carpet weavers and traders here, they'll all go to Pakistan,? he said. Afghan hand-woven carpets have been famous for centuries, and are one of the most profitable economic activities in the country. In the period preceding Afghanistan?s two decades of war, carpets accounted for around ten per cent of exports. The industry still helps lubricate the local economy. Traditionally, most carpets were woven in northern areas of Afghanistan. But after the communist coup in 1978 and the years of Soviet occupation that followed, millions of refugees including carpet weavers fled the country, the majority to Pakistan. Afghan government leaders say all that?s changed now and they are doing their best not only to support those weavers who stayed in the country but also to encourage others to return. ?Conditions have now improved for Afghan businessmen,? said Ghulam Nabi Farahi, the deputy minister of commerce. ?We have signed a protocol with Ariana Afghan Airlines to transport carpets made by Afghan weavers to world markets and now we take their rugs to Japan, America, Canada and all European and Arabic countries tax-free.?
Projects are under way to provide land for industrial parks where carpet factories would recruit traditional weavers. And the push is on to attract international investment.
But primitive conditions, the lack of basic necessities such as electricity and water, and the continuing unrest in many parts of the country keep investors at bay. ?Gunmen rule in our area; if went there, they?d not only loot our properties, but our lives would be in danger as well,? said Sayed Mohammad, originally from Faryab province. He now runs a carpet shop in Peshawar, Pakistan, and says he has no intention of going back to Afghanistan.
Farahi dismisses claims that security concerns are driving weavers to Pakistan, ?The security situation in Afghanistan is better than in most other countries, and the security problems faced by Afghans exist elsewhere in the world too.? Meanwhile, Pakistan continues to welcome the weavers with open arms and is anxious to discourage them from returning to Afghanistan.
According to Hamid Qaderi, president of the Afghan International Chamber of Commerce, the Pakistani government has enticed Afghan weavers to remain by offering them subsidized land, housing, electricity and security. ?This shows astuteness on the part of Pakistani officials,? he said.
Still, Afghanistan is anxious to reclaim its prominence on the world carpet market and government officials like Farahi insist that the industry will once again prosper.
?I can tell you with confidence that the carpet weaving businesses which are now in Pakistan will be transferred to Afghanistan within the next five or six months,? he said. Sweet Alternative to Opium Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi in Mazar-e-Sharif (ARR No. 181, 06-Aug-05)
Farmers in Baghlan province see the revival of an old sugar factory as a way to produce an alternative to lucrative opium production. The factory is ready, the workers trained, but rest is something of a gamble.
Will the farmers of Baghlan province, northwest of Kabul, plough up their poppies and swap the rich harvest of opium for sugar beet? Many say that they will, even though poppies have been a reliable source of income over the years of jihad and civil war. At a recently refurbished factory, the only sugar plant in Afghanistan, manager Abdul Karim Wazeri said he is trying to persuade all the farmers of the Northern provinces to plant beet. If they do, he has pledged to buy their entire crop for the next two or three years. He told IWPR that nearly 200 workers were already at the factory, being paid a wage of three US dollars a day, and that the plant could process 100,000 tones of beet a year from which 15,000 tons of sugar would be produced. At least one farmer appears ready to make the switch. "Even though we'll earn less than with poppies, it will be much better because we can cultivate and sell sugar beet freely, without any threats or restrictions," said Taza Mir, a 63-year-old farmer in the province. Taza Mir is old enough to remember the days when beet was the major crop in Baghlan and the province was noted for its sugar. "If the factory had not been damaged during the war years and we could still have sold our sugar beet, we would never have planted our lands with poppy,? he said. At present, Afghanistan imports around 400,000 tones of sugar annually from neighboring countries, mainly Russia and Pakistan, said Wazeri. Getting farmers to switch from growing poppies to other crops has been a long-stated government goal as it attempts to shed its reputation as a narco-state, producing some 80 per cent of the world?s opium. But previous efforts have met with limited success. Taza Mir said he abandoned a previous effort to grow wheat because it only earned him 50 dollars an acre, a fraction of what he could make growing the raw material for heroin. ?The agriculture ministry is closely cooperating with the sugar beet factory and is doing its utmost to persuade farmers to cultivate their land with sugar beet,? Ghulam Mustafa Jawad, deputy agriculture minister, told IWPR, He said that they will initially help Baghlan farmers and then move to other provinces to try to expand the beet crop, training farmers to get the most out of their land. Before the wars, the main centers for growing beet were Baghlan, Kundoz and Samangan provinces. All depended on the Baghlan factory to buy their crops. ?One of the main issues is to establish a market for farmers? crops. While the sugar factory was not working, no farmer was ready to use his land for sugar beet," said Jawad. ?We are determined to prevent poppy cultivation completely next year.? On the side of the ministry and sugar factory is the fact that beet is a legal crop. There are none of the problems that swirl around opium production -harassment by warlords, raids by police, the need for bribes to avoid poppy destruction, the chance of arrest. There is also the fact that growing the poppies and collecting the opium is much more labour intensive than beet. Farmers have constantly to weed between the poppy plants, while collection of the raw opium requires each poppy head being slit with a razor to allow the sap ? a milky substance to ooze out of the plant. It then has to be left for a day to dry out, ending up as pure black opium. Workers have only 15 days in which to collect the opium from the time the poppy head matures, with the best time for "milking" the plant being during the heat of the midday sun. ?We have to spend the whole year working the land with poppies because opium needs to be worked on, and at the same time collecting it is also very difficult. To do this, we had to hire people and pay each of them 10 dollars a day," Lal Mohammad, another Baghlan farmer, told IWPR. ?I used to cultivate my lands with sugar beet before the war years and I had good crops from it." In nearby Balkh province, farmer Noor Mohammad, 55, told IWPR, ?If the Baghlan sugar factory contracts with us to buy beets, I will never cultivate my land with opium poppy. I and all the farmers had to plant poppies because we didn?t have a good alternative."
Plant manager Wazeri said the factory would pay 1,300 Afghanis (about 26 dollars) per ton of beet. A farmer could produce more than 10 tons per acre, meaning they could make some 300 dollars for each acre of their land. Opium cultivation, depending on the final quality, is known in some areas to bring a gross 1,000 to 3,000 dollars an acre. But that is before expenses and ignoring the risk of poppies being destroyed in a police sweep or the opium being seized as it is being smuggled out of the country. Two German companies financed the refurbished factory, originally built in the 1940s. Wazeri said the plant had already provided some farmers with the seeds to produce beet and had told them it would contract to buy all their harvest. And Wazeri is already planning for the future. ?We will set up two [additional] sugar producing machines during the next three years and then we will be able to process more than 500,000 tones of beets into 80,000 tones of sugar,? he said. ?Farmers have already shown their interest in planting sugar beet and at present, dozens of them are coming to us each day and promising us that they will cultivate their lands with beet next year. And with that increase, the output of our factory will also go up.?
Addition of more items to transit trade list on the cards By: Pakhtun Sahar ISLAMABAD, August 6 (Pajhwok Afghan News)
Pakistan is going to expand the Afghan transit trade list by adding three more items to boost trade ties between the two neighbors.
The items proposed to be added to the list included television and telephone sets and tires.
Speaking to Pajhwok Afghan News, chairman of Pakistan's Central Board of Revenue (CBR) Abdullah Yousaf said inclusion of these items in the transit trade list was recommended during a meeting of the Joint Economic Commission (JEC) held in Kabul on July 3.
"The inclusion of the three items in the list will give legal cover to their shipment across the border," said Yousaf. He added the two countries were adopting measures to block entry of the transit goods back into Pakistan.
Pakistani industrialists had serious reservations about the inclusion of electronic goods in the transit trade list believing wide ranging smuggling of these items was affecting their business. However, Abdullah Yousaf said they would block re-entry of these items into Pakistan to avoid any harm to the local industry and the country's economy.
Regarding the time frame for announcement of inclusion of these items in the transit list, he said a letter had been sent to the ministry and announcement would soon be made after formal approval. With the addition of the three items, only edible oil, cigarettes and spare parts will stand out of the list.
A trade union leader in Islamabad Saad Mushtaq welcomed the expansion of the list and said the step would further cement trade ties between the two countries.
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