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West says Afghanistan to get new bank notes, maps out Afghan Fund

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Thomas West, US Special Representative for Afghanistan, said Friday that new printed bank notes would soon enter the market in the country, replacing AFN notes that are disintegrating.

Addressing a virtual townhall organized by a US-based Afghan diaspora group, Afghans for a Better Tomorrow, West said: “We all know the banking sector in Afghanistan is cut off from the international financial system, by and large, with the exception of one private bank.

“But there are some transactions that the ministry of finance technocrats and the central bank technocrats want to responsibly move forward with and are unable to do so unless the United States and a number of other countries in a corresponding banking chain really lean in and help to conclude.

“So I am very pleased to say that in the past 24 hours we have finally seen the conclusion of two currency transactions.

“This will mean that new printed Afghani will replace bank notes that … are virtually disintegrating in the system,” he said.

He said he did not know when exactly the new bank notes would “show up in Afghanistan” but added the US would continue to support “priority transactions”.

Discussing the new Afghan Fund, which relates to the transfer of at least $3.5 billion of Afghanistan’s frozen foreign reserves, West said the first board of trustees meeting is likely to take place next month in Switzerland.

He said the basic governance structure is now in place but that this “will evolve”. He noted that four trustees would be the ones making big decisions on the disbursement of funds.

Both the US and the Swiss government will have a representative and the other two trustees are former finance minister Dr Anwar ul-Haq Ahadi and US college professor Dr Shah Mirabi - both of whom live in the United States.

West said Mirabi has served in an advisory capacity to Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) over the past 20 years, while Ahadi had also held the position of central bank governor and was a former commerce minister.

“These are two people we feel are exceedingly well qualified to help make responsible decisions about very limited disbursements of this money to enhance macroeconomic stability in Afghanistan,” West said.

However, there will be an additional advisory body, also made up of Afghans, who will be able to initiate their own ideas about how this money should be protected, preserved, and spent “in limited quantities”, he said.

West went on to say the majority of the $3.5 billion will remain “untouched”.

“It will be preserved for a future recapitalization of the Central Bank and of the financial system in Afghanistan.”

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Iran’s non-oil exports to Afghanistan rise by 31% this solar year

Iran’s imports from Afghanistan also rose sharply, totalling over $33 million, a 192% increase in this period

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Iran's non-oil exports to Afghanistan surged by 31% in the first half of this solar year (April to September 2024), totalling over $1.77 billion.

According to Iran’s trade association in Afghanistan, both the value and volume of non-oil exports to Afghanistan saw substantial growth. 

Statistics provided by the association indicate that nearly 560,000 tons of Iranian goods, including iron, steel, cement, eggs, and potatoes, were exported to Afghanistan during this period.

Iran’s imports from Afghanistan also rose sharply, totalling over $33 million, a 192% increase in this period. 

The primary exports to Iran included barley, corn, peanuts, and chilies.

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Private sectors of Afghanistan, Kazakhstan sign contracts worth $100 million

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Private sectors of Afghanistan and Kazakhstan have signed contracts worth $100 million during the visit of an Afghan delegation to Almaty recently, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) announced on Thursday.

The agreements include the export of more than 2,000 tons of dried fruit, the export of fresh fruit, including pomegranates, and the export of cotton, Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Islamic Emirate, said on X.

Mujahid said that the Islamic Emirate delegation during its recent visit to Kazakhstan signed a "road map of cooperation between Afghanistan and Kazakhstan in the fields of trade, industry, mining, energy, logistics, agriculture, telecommunications, health, higher education and humanitarian aid.”

He said Kazakhstan also assured that it would provide more facilities for the transit of Afghan goods to China and other countries through Kazakhstan.

The allocation of an area "as a logistics center for Afghan goods" in the port of Khargos was also part of the agreement between the two sides to facilitate the unloading and loading of Afghan traders' goods.

The spokesman of the Islamic Emirate also said that Kazakhstan will participate in the construction of the Torghundi-Herat, Kandahar-Spin Boldak and Mazar-e-Sharif-Kharlachi railway projects.

Mujahid added that Kazakhstan will also participate in the establishment of a trade and transit center in Herat province, which will be used to store and finance trade and transit goods. Meanwhile, Kazakhstan has agreed to establish permanent expo centers for the sale of Afghan goods in various cities of Kazakhstan.

It is worth mentioning that the delegation of the Islamic Emirate led by Nooruddin Azizi, Acting Minister of Industry and Commerce, participated in the three-day exhibition of Afghanistan's domestic products, which was launched on October 21 in Almaty.

The Ministry of Industry and Commerce recently announced that 23 tons of pomegranates from Kandahar province were exported to Almaty through the port of Torghundi.

 

 

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China resumes direct rail trade with Afghanistan

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China resumed its direct freight rail services to Afghanistan on Thursday when a train loaded with goods left Nantong city in Jiangsu province.

The train, carrying commercial goods in 55 wagons, is heading for the northern Hairatan border in Balkh province, Yue Xiaoyong, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Special Representative for Afghanistan, said in a post on X.

Nantong is a central hub of the Belt and Road Initiative and is located north of Shanghai.

The resumption of the rail line was marked at a formal ceremony on Thursday with Yue and Bilal Karimi, the Afghan Ambassador to China, in attendance.

This comes after China recently announced plans to lift customs tariffs on Afghan exports to China by the end of this year, further strengthening trade ties between the two nations.

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