‘Hundreds of factories collapse in Afghanistan’

MAZAR-I-SHARIF (Pajhwok): Ministry of Commerce and Industries officials and trader representatives on Sunday said hundreds of factories collapsed across the country due to lack of identification of investment priority.

They expressed these views at a conference entitled “traders’ issues and their solutions” in Mazar-i-Sharif, the provincial capital of northern Balkh province.

Nisar Ahmad Faizi, acting minister of Commence and Industries, told the conference that efforts were underway to address issues facing commerce affairs.

He said hundreds of production factories collapsed in recent years nation-wide and the main reason for their collapse was lack of prioritization of businesses by investors.

He added investors would invest in different parts of the country through a specific mechanism in future.

Ismail Ghazanfar, Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce Federation head, told the gathering that the government should provide further facilities to traders in areas of investment in Afghanistan.

He said many farmers suffered losses instead of income due to lack of storage facilities. He urged the government to construct cold storages in provinces for agriculture products.

Abbas Imbrahimzada, Wolesi Jirga deputy speaker, termed corruption in customs as another hurdle to traders in the country.

He said, “When traders bring goods from across the border into Afghanistan, they lose more than half profit to corruption before reaching their destination.”

He added due to such concerns, many traders shifted their investment aboard.

He termed insecurity as another issue that confronted traders with further challenges. He urged the government to pay more attention to traders and investors’ safety in Afghanistan.

pk/ma

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