Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Posts tagged: Economy

Economy

Decades before Point Zero: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev on a state visit to Afghanistan in 1955. Photo: archive

From Point Zero to ‘New Warmth’: Russian-Afghan relations since 1989

Thomas Ruttig •

After the Soviet occupation years, Afghan-Russian relations were on absolute zero. But post-Soviet Russia has worked carefully on improving the situation step by step. This strategy is based on an about-face under Yeltsin: dropping Najibullah and building a relationship with the mujahedin, beginning in 1992. In recent years, mounting Afghan-US and Russian-US tensions have made […]

Regional Relations Read more

Little Bridges: AAN’s new report on the slowly growing links between Afghanistan and the Central Asia republics

Christian Bleuer • S Reza Kazemi •

Reports about Afghanistan and its neighbours to the north usually lump the five former Soviet Central Asia republics together as an undifferentiated block  – ‘the Stans’. Such an approach does not reflect the reality of five countries with very different, mainly bilateral and very local relationships with Afghanistan. The distortion has only been worsened by […]

Regional Relations Read more

May Day on Workers Street: Trade unions and the status of labour in Afghanistan

Thomas Ruttig •

More than 1,000 Afghan men and women took to the street on International Labour Day on 1 May. With the country’s latest mining disaster, killing at least 24 workers only one day earlier, the participants had one acute problem to address: workers’ safety in the mining sector. However, the new leadership of Afghanistan’s largest trade […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more

Afghan economy at a crossroads

AAN •

Deutsche Welle, 26 March 2014 In another (English-language) election primer, the German radio station looks at the state of the Afghan economy and the "economic challenges ahead". It quotes AAN's Sari Kouvo: According to Sari Kouvo, an expert on human rights and co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN), the living standards have considerably improved […]

AAN in the Media Read more
Photo: Pajhwok Afghan News, 2013

Cure or Curse? Implications of the Kilij mine closure for Bamyan’s security situation

Jalil Benish •

As Afghanistan prepares to take full responsibility for security and state functions by the end of 2014, the country’s natural resources are often touted as a major source of future state revenue to substitute for dwindling international aid. There are, however, concerns regarding the ability and willingness of the Afghan government to ensure that extraction is […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more

External Publication: Einiges besser, nichts wirklich gut (Some things better, nothing really good)

Thomas Ruttig •

WeltTrends, January/February 2014 In this German-language article, AAN’s Thomas Ruttig attempts to draw a balance of the twelve years of the US/NATO-led intervention in Afghanistan. Looking at the security situation, the state of the insurgency, achievements and shortcomings in reconstruction, the economy and institution building and at the often-overlooked social situation of the population. He concludes that […]

Special Reports Read more

Some Things Got Better – How Much Got Good? A review of 12 years of international intervention in Afghanistan

Thomas Ruttig •

2013 marked the year in which the international community started to wrap up many of the initiatives to re-build Afghanistan – arguably the biggest international effort since the post-Word-War-II Marshal Plan. But where did this effort leave the country? For AAN’s year-end piece, co-director Thomas Ruttig has summarised what has happened, what has been achieved – […]

International Engagement Read more

Afghanistan, After the War Boom

AAN Team •

The New Yorker (blog), 13 November 2013 “This year, Afghanistan’s GDP is expected to grow 3.7 per cent, down from growth of twelve per cent in 2012, according to a projection by the World Bank”, writes May Jeong and visits Kabul to find out about Afghanistan’s post-2014 economic future, in the light of the current foreign […]

AAN in the Media Read more

The Other Side of the Amu Darya: Tajik and Afghans, neighbours apart

Thomas Ruttig •

Despite pushes from the West and economic needs, Afghan-Central Asian economic cooperation has not taken off, yet. The people of Tajikistan, for example, are not very interested in or even prejudiced towards their southern neighbours, as they concentrate on their troubles with their former Uzbek brothers. The Tajik government and the other more or less authoritarian […]

Regional Relations Read more

The Rise and Fall of the Kabul Bank – making the details public

Martine van Bijlert •

Much has been written about the Kabul Bank crisis. A series of confidential investigations and audits have described the legal violations and technical processes involved in the bank management’s fraudulent operations, and most of these reports were fairly widely leaked. Media appearances by the various protagonists and representatives of government institutions involved in the follow-up […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more

As NATO Nears Exit, Construction Dries Up

admin •

As NATO Nears Exit, Construction Dries Up A curse or a blessing? According to the executive manager of the Afghan Builders Association, the number of construction companies in Afghanistan had fallen to at most 3,000, compared with 10,000 at one time, and there was a ’30 to 40 percent drop in investment in construction this […]

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Afghanistan publishes mining contracts in anti-graft fight

admin •

Reuters, 14 October 2012 As the Afghan government finalizes new laws designed to attract more foreign mining investment, it made public 210 previously awarded contracts in the fields of mining and energy.

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