Afghanistan Economic Working Group Links U.S. and Afghan Partners
In February the Embassy of Afghanistan created the Afghanistan Economic Working Group (AEWG) with the aim of guiding economic program initiatives and raising awareness of each U.S. government entity’s role in fostering commerce and economic growth in Afghanistan. The AEWG is composed of representatives from relevant U.S. government departments responsible for economic development policies and programs for Afghanistan and the Embassy’s Economic, Trade and Investment Department. Through monthly mee
tings, AEWG aims to encourage greater collaboration involving planning of events and ministerial-level visits.
As Afghanistan’s economy further develops, it is extremely important to coordinate bi-lateral efforts in order to share synergies on best past practices and future programmatic ideas. The AEWG will also serve as a platform for achieving the following goals: Encourage more seamless planning of events and ministerial visits to the U.S. and U.S. delegation visits to Afghanistan; enable greater coordination of commercial programs between the U.S. and Afghan governments; help consolidate efforts in regards to joint commercial initiatives; institutionalize regular and coordinated interaction among U.S. agencies and Afghan ministries; and, provide a forum to discuss new ideas and commercial exchange, and to pool limited resources.
The AEWG consists of the Afghanistan Investment Reconstruction Task Force of the Department of Commerce, Afghanistan Reachback Office of the Department of Defense, Economic and South Asia Bureaus of the Department of State, U.S. Embassy-Kabul Economic Section, USAID, National Security Council, U.S. Trade and Development Agency, U.S. Trade Representative, and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.
