Kandahar self-sufficient in producing plastic made items

KANDAHAR (Pajhwok): Thirty-nine factories producing plastic items have been active in southern Kandahar province that not only met the local demand but also supplied its production to other provinces, an official said on Thursday.

Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC), Poly Ethylene Plastic, fruit packing boxes, bags and other plastic items were made in these factories.

Sayed Sarwar Amani, head of Chamber of Mines and Industries told Pajhwok Afghan News told Pajhwok Afghan News Kandahar province was self-sufficient in the production of PVC pipes, polyethylene products and other plastic items and the imports of such items must be prevented.

Additional to PVC and polyethylene, some more items like water tanks, packaging boxes, dishes and plastic nets are also produced in Kandahar province, Amani said.

Such items were imported from other countries with a high cost in the past, but currently they are produced domestically which not only helped generate job opportunities for the workers but also prevent fleeing of capital from the country, he added.

He added: “Currently our industry is growing; we have 39 factories of PVC and other plastic items that can respond to the needs of our country and prevent the imports of low quality of products from other countries”.

Amani encouraged the investors and companies to take the advantages of this opportunity and use their own efforts and invest in the country and the companies must also use such products in projects implemented by the government.

Amani has also pointed to the problem of electricity shortages but expressed hope, as the officials promised, the imported electricity will be extended to Kandahar to address this problem.

The owners of PVC and polyethylene factories in the industrial park of the province said that they invested $1.5 dollars 12 years ago in this business.

Abdul Rafi, the factory owner told Pajhwok Afghan News, they have hired 200 employees and the capacity of the factory was 300 metric tons of production in 24 hours.

Rafi added: “We import the raw material for PVC pipes from foreign countries but the raw material for polyethylene is processed and produced here in the factory from other recycled materials, we sent our products to the markets of Uruzgan, Ghazni, Zabul, Helmand and many other provinces”.

The biggest issue in Kandahar is the shortages of electricity, however the problem of electricity has been solved somehow now comparing to the past, currently we have the power for 18 or 20 hours, but sometimes there is outage which causes problems for our machinery, he said.

The employees of the factories are happy for the jobs opportunities they have and urged the government to do more about the growth of the industry which can generate more jobs opportunities for other people as well.

Abdul Razaq, a worker of the factory said: “I have been working here since seven years, I am happy that I win the bread for my family, but he also asks for the supply of more electrical power for the factories.”

Sayed Ahamd, another worker of the factory said that he had a food store but suffered financial losses so he shifted from that job into working here.

Sayed said: “I had a food store but suffered financial losses, since then I have been working here in the factory, if the electricity shortage issue is solved, that will be good and we will be able to work for longer hours and win more money.”

The industrialists ask the government to decrease custom duty raw materials which are imported to the country from foreign countries adding that this move will help in the growth of the industries and bring down the prices of the products in the country.

There are 250 different factories in the industrial park of Kandahar, according to the information of the officials, 150 of the factories are functioning while the rest of them are not operating due to the shortages of electricity and some other issues.

According to the estimated figures, there are about 4,000 employees working these factories that produce plastic pipes, dishes, steel products, cotton processing, oil, beverages, batteries, ice cream, salt, silverwares, candies and some other items.

Aw/nh