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Three years after the Taliban returned to Kabul, Afghanistan’s economy has experienced “zero growth”, its people have fallen into poverty, and the humanitarian crisis has continued to worsen, with no hope of improvement in the short term.
A new government succeeded the existing one in 2021. Prices are down, the currency is strong, corruption is no longer unprecedented, and tax collection has improved.
Most importantly, security has been restored, creating an atmosphere conducive to business activity. After 40 years of war, goods and people can now be safely transported from Kabul to Herat in the west and from Mazar-i-Sharif in the north to Jalalabad in the east.
But according to the World Bank, gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to shrink sharply by 26% in 2021 and 2022, with “zero growth over the next three years and a decline in ‘per capita’ income due to population growth.”
Development aid has effectively ceased as the government is not recognized by any country and humanitarian assistance has been reduced, with a third of the 45 million Afghans surviving on bread and tea and unemployment high.
Afghanistan is rich in minerals and has great agricultural potential, but faces problems such as brain drain, lack of infrastructure, foreign expertise and financing.
“The war is looking for a strategic partner,” Deputy Commerce Minister Suleiman bin Shah told AFP this morning, saying the Taliban entered Kabul in August 2021 and is currently serving as an investment adviser.
Kabul found some: “With Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran [e as repúblicas da Ásia Central]we cooperate a lot,” said Ahmad Zahid, deputy minister of commerce and industry, with satisfaction yesterday.
day to day
AFP asked Afghans in Kabul, Herat and Ghazni how life is today.
Wahid Nekzai Logari is a member of the National Symphony Orchestra and has traveled as far as India to give concerts of the traditional stringed instruments, the sarunda and the harmonium. “I support my entire family. We have a good life,” said the 46-year-old Afghan in his modest home on the outskirts of Kabul.
“With the creation of the Islamic Emirate, music was banned. Now I’m unemployed.” To support his family of seven, he occasionally drives a taxi. Currently, he earns just 5,000 Afghanis (65 euros) a month, a fifth of his concert earnings.
“The Taliban searched my house, like all the others in Kabul. They saw my instruments. I told them I would no longer touch them, and they did not break them. No one told us: You can’t play music anymore, but we will find a way to feed your family”, he lamented.
For four years, Abdul Wali Shaheen had wanted to “die as a martyr” in the Taliban’s ranks. After the victory, he traded a rocket launcher for a computer at the Ministry of Information and Culture in Ghazni.
“I wasn’t under as much pressure then as I am now,” the 31-year-old former jihadist admitted. “I have more responsibility to the public. The only thing we did in the past was ‘jihad’, but now it has become more difficult,” he said.
10,000 Afghans’ wages are enough to support a family of 5. “I have donated 1/10 of my income to the Emirate in the past three years. Everything is going well and we are full of hope for the future,” he said.
He cited “huge success” in restoring security and expropriating illegally occupied land and public buildings. However, he acknowledged that there were “gaps” that he hoped “could be filled.”
“The peace must continue,” he concluded.
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