Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

China-South Asia Forum will contribute to Recognizing Challenges

China-South Asia  Forum will contribute to Recognizing Challenges

Yunnan (Outlook Afghanistan) – Regional integration plays a vital role in creating an environment to attract trade and investment which will lead to sustainable growth and private sectors play a key role in this agenda, said Kamila Sidiqi, Afghan Deputy Minister of Commerce and Industry, at China-South Asia Cooperation Forum held on 15 June in Chinese province of Yunnan.
She said that private sectors can contribute through trade and investment and interlink countries and region. Sidiqi stressed that countries “must not underestimate the power of private sectors”.
She also stated that the door of Afghanistan is open to the world for trade and investment. “Our access to WTO sends a clear message that we are open for business,” Sidiqi said while speaking at the forum as one of the Afghan representatives. 
Sidiqi praised China for its key role in the development of Afghanistan and “being a good friend of Afghanistan”. She hoped that the exchanges of views and experiences in the session would “contribute to the identification of challenges” and provide a better opportunity for Asian countries, mainly China and Afghanistan, to reinforce trade and investment.
Afghan high-ranking delegates such as Second Deputy CEO Haji Muhammad Mohaqiq, minister of economy Mustafa Mastoor, governor of Kabul province Mohammad JakubAydary, and governor of Bamyan province Mohammad Tahir Zohair attended the forum.
Haji Sardar Behzad, chairman of Kabul Behzad Group of Companies, who attended the forum said to Outlook Afghanistan that transportation is one of the challenges Afghan traders face. He said that there is no railroad or land route from Afghanistan to China and, therefore, his company only imports good to Afghanistan rather than exporting any goods from Afghanistan to China. Answering to the question that if the railroad connecting China and Afghanistan through Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan mitigate the challenges of Afghan traders, Behzad said, “Still this railroad has not been handled appropriately. Besides import, we should also have export and the containers going from China must not return empty from that side. The containers return empty and this is the disadvantage.” Other than dried fruit, shipping goods by air will not benefit Afghan traders because it will cost heavily, according to him. Behzad, who used to export lapis lazuli from Afghanistan to China, said that the precious stones such as lapis lazuli lost their market recently and he no more exports them to China.
He was not very optimistic about the achievements of China-South Asia Forum for the country. He said that Afghanistan does not have the agency of Afghan Chamber of Commerce in China and such forums lacked tangible results for Afghanistan in the past. However, he hoped that Afghanistan could make the best use of such opportunities.
Based on interviews Outlook Afghanistan had with Afghan traders in China-South Asia Cooperation Forum, they demand the two countries to facilitate traders with short route for shipping their goods so that the import-export does not cost so heavily. In other words, if Afghanistan and China seek to extend their cooperation in terms of trade and investment, they need to build a direct route or railroad for the easy shipment of goods rather than having connection through a third country. Hence, the two sides are hoped to resolve this issue through such forums. As Sidiqi talked about the “identification of challenges” in this forum, the difficulty for shipment of goods because of no direct land road between China and Afghanistan despite having land border is one of the challenges to be identified and resolved by the two sides. (Outlook Afghanistan)