KABUL: Afghanistan’s Taliban-led administration has set up a consortium of companies, including some in Russia, Iran and Pakistan, to create a investment plan focusing on power, mining and infrastructure, the acting commerce minister said on Wednesday.
The consortium included 14 Afghan businessmen and his ministry had signed a memorandum of understanding with the foreign companies who would send delegates to Kabul to look into projects worth up to $1 billion, Nooruddin Azizi told Reuters.
Afghanistan’s economy has been severely hampered since the Taliban took over in 2021, sparking the international community to cut most development funding and enforce sanctions on the banking sector.
A series of attacks waged by Daesh against foreign targets has also worried some investors.
Azizi said the administration was focused on launching several longterm business plans including the consortium and special economic zones, and that it was working on ensuring security.
“Lots of discussions on security have taken place in cabinet meetings also, commissions have been established and ... the hiding places (of militants) have been destroyed,” he said.
“The Islamic Emirate will ensure security and will support the private sector in the security field,” he said, referring to the Taliban administration.
As well as mining and power projects, he said the consortium was eyeing the possibility of building a second tunnel through the Salang pass that connects Afghanistan’s north to the rest of the country, and a project to divert water from northern Panjshir province to the capital as well as re-building the main highway connecting Kabul to western Herat province.
The minister said the Taliban administration was planning to focus on building special economic zones it hoped would attract foreign investment.
His ministry has helped develop a plan to convert foreign bases into the zones, and a board was being set up with representatives of different ministries. He declined to elaborate while the details were finalized with other ministries and senior leadership.
Shipments of oil, gas and wheat under a major deal with Russia last year had begun arriving in Afghanistan by road and rail through Central Asia, he said, after the payments were made via banking channels despite sanctions that have limited many international payments.
He did not elaborate on which banks had facilitated the payment.
Taliban sets up investment consortium with firms from Russia, Iran
https://arab.news/bf4kv
Taliban sets up investment consortium with firms from Russia, Iran
- Afghanistan's economy has been severely hampered since the Taliban took over in 2021
- Azizi said the administration was focused on launching several longterm business plans including the consortium and special economic zones
Saudi Arabia set to attract $500bn in private investment, Al-Falih tells conference
RIYADH: Sustainability, technology, and financial models were among the core topics discussed by financial leaders during the first day of the Momentum 2025 Development Finance Conference in Riyadh.
The three-day event features more than 100 speakers and over 20 exhibitors, with the central theme revolving around how development financial institutions can propel economic growth.
Speaking during a panel titled “The Sustainable Investment Opportunity,” Saudi Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih elaborated on the significant investment progress made in the Kingdom.
“We estimate in the midterm of 2030 or maybe a couple of years more or so, about $1 trillion of infrastructure investment,” he said, adding: “We estimate, as a minimum, 40 percent of this infrastructure is going to be financed by the private sector, so we’re talking in the next few years $400 (billion) to $500 billion.”
The minister drew a correlation between the scale of investment needs and rising global energy demand, especially as artificial intelligence continues to evolve within data processing and digital infrastructure in global spheres.
“The world demand of energy is continuing to grow and is going to grow faster with the advent of the AI processing requirements (…) so our target of the electricity sector is 50 percent from renewables, and 50 percent from gas,” he added.
Al-Falih underscored the importance of AI as a key sector within Saudi Arabia’s development and investment strategy. He made note of the scale of capital expected to go into the sector in coming years, saying: “We have set a very aggressive, but we believe an achievable target, for AI, and we estimate in the short term about $30 billion immediately of investments.”
This emphasis on long-term investment and sustainability targets was echoed across panels at Momentum 2025, during which discussions on essential partnerships between public and private sectors were highlighted.
The shared ambition of translating the Kingdom’s goals into tangible outcomes was particularly essential within the banking sector, as it plays a central role in facilitating both projects and partnerships.
During the “Champions of Sectoral Transformation: Development Funds and Their Ecosystems” panel, Saudi National Bank CEO Tareq Al-Sadhan shed light on the importance of partnerships facilitated via financial institutions.
He explained how they help manage risk while supporting the Kingdom’s ambitions.
“We have different models that we are working on with development funds. We co-financed in certain projects where we see the risk is higher in terms of going alone as a bank to support a certain project,” the CEO said.
Al-Sadhan referred to the role of development funds as an enabler for banks to expand their participation and support for projects without assuming major risk.
“The role of the development fund definitely is to give more comfort to the banking sector to also extend the support … we don’t compete with each other; we always complement each other” he added.
