Afghan Businessmen Raise $20 Million for
Rebuilding Afghanistan
The Embassy of Afghanistan
10/03/2005
Washington, D.C. – Members of the Afghan
Business Council-Dubai, Afghan-American Chamber of Commerce,
and Afghanistan International Chamber of Commerce met on September
26, 2005 in Dubai to invest personally in the economic future
of Afghanistan. The participants endorsed investment in the
economic opportunities of Afghanistan by creating a company
which will issue stock for the price of $500,000 per share.
The “founding members” adopted the name, Afghan
Investment Company (AIC), to be registered in Afghanistan. With
enormous enthusiasm, an initial equity capital of $20 million
was raised to bring large scale investment into Afghanistan.
The founding members have elected prominent international
businessmen Nassrullah Rahmat as Chairman, Farid Maqsudi and
Sherkhan Farnood as Vice Chairmen, and Mahmood Karzai as the
Spokesman of AIC for the first year of operation. Chairman Rahmat
said, “We just decided that certain things needed to happen
were not happening and that we needed to do them quickly.”
“We appreciate the work of the donor nations, NGOs and
the government, but it is difficult for them to move fast and
Afghanistan does not have time to spare,” he added.
The establishment of the Afghan Investment Company
has already attracted over 80 Afghan businessmen investing a
minimum of $500,000 each for economic development in Afghanistan.
Spokesman Karzai stated: “We have just started. Our goal
is a $100 million fund. That’s already a lot of private
money for Afghanistan.” He added, “If one begins
to consider the leveraging effect of that money with banks and
international financial institutions, the final investment could
be well over $500 million dollars.”
The Afghan Investment Company’s first decision
is to stimulate investment of over $100 million in two related
areas: coal mining and cement. It will build the first modern
and high-capacity cement plant in Afghanistan. The coal would
fuel the cement plant. Currently almost all cement and coal
are imported as Afghanistan is in the midst of a construction
boom.
Contact:
M. Ashraf Haidari
(202) 483-6410, (Ex-811)
Haidari@embassyofafghanistan.org
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