Search the Internet          Tips  Sites: Finance, Investment

Karzai woos India Inc to set shop in Afghanistan

Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday to court India's political and business chiefs.

Leading a 30-strong political and economic delegation on a two-day visit, Karzai told a gathering of industry chiefs his country was open for business and wanted to establish a robust economy, as well as rebuilding itself.

"We are aware...that as important as it is to have reconstruction in Afghanistan there also must be construction in Afghanistan," he said.

Karzai is due to meet Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, President K R Narayanan, Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who arrives on Wednesday.

New Delhi backed the Northern Alliance, now the main force in the interim Afghan regime, against the Taliban government, which had been supported by India's traditional rival, Pakistan, until soon after the attacks on the United States on September 11.

Since Karzai's interim administration assumed office just before Christmas, a string of ministers wary of a Pakistan hostile to them in the past have beaten a path to New Delhi to shore up regional support.

India, which has close cultural and historic ties to Afghanistan and is home to up to Afghan 30,000 refugees, has already announced $100 million in aid for the impoverished nation ravaged by decades of war.

Key Afghan ministers have family here and Karzai, a little-known Pashtun tribal chief before he was catapulted from exile to power by the US war on terrorism, studied politics at a university in Shimla two decades ago.

Indian business has already sent a trade delegation to Afghanistan and companies are lining up to win business there.

LAND OF OPPORTUNITY

Promising transparency, good governance and strong anti-graft measures, Karzai said Afghanistan was now a land of opportunity for industry from infrastructure to education, health and hotels.

"Afghanistan was at war or in turmoil or some sort of disaster for the past 20 or 25 years," he said. "But the country survived. Businessmen were able to trade while the country was at war. I am sure that in peacetime this will be easier.

"You'll be surprised how many rich Afghans there are."

Karzai's delegation includes two vice-chairmen of his administration and his foreign, commerce and agriculture ministers, who are expected to meet some of their Indian counterparts in separate discussions.

Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, Interior Minister Younous Qanooni and Deputy Defence Minister Ahmad Rashid Dostum have visited New Delhi to renew the close relationship that existed before the hardline Taliban regime seized power in 1996.

India's ties with the new regime were evident last month when Afghanistan's airline flew to New Delhi from Kabul on its first commercial international flight since the United Nations lifted a flight ban. New Delhi is also training 20 Afghan diplomats.

YOU MAY ALSO WANT TO READ:
The Rediff Budget Special
The Rail Budget 2002-03
The Economic Survey 2001-02
Run-Up To The Budget
Money

Tell us what you think of this report