Afghanistan: Taliban seek to boost exports to save economy from collapse

The Taliban are working to boost exports to save Afghanistan’s economy from collapse, and a government official has said that international humanitarian aid alone will not prevent the country from plunging deeper into poverty.

“Humanitarian aid can not solve Afghanistan’s economic problems. The only way to achieve economic autonomy is to strengthen domestic products and export them abroad,” Taliban Deputy Foreign Minister Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai was quoted as saying. Bloomberg agency.

It is noted that foreign aid accounts for more than 40% of the country’s economy, according to data from the World Bank. Afghanistan, meanwhile, has lost access to its $ 9 billion foreign exchange reserves after being frozen by the United States after the Taliban seized power in August.

In 2020, the country imported most of the $ 9 billion worth of basic necessities. Exports amounted to just over $ 800 million and consisted of agricultural products such as pine nuts and dried fruits mainly to China, Pakistan and Iran.

As Afghanistan’s economy collapses in the last four months, the United Nations has warned that more than half of the country’s nearly 40 million people are facing starvation and a million children could die from it.

Stanekzai once again blamed the US for the chaos and called on them to release the funds belonging to the “Afghan people”.

As part of a new measure aimed at bypassing the Taliban, the United States plans to deliver aid directly to the Afghan people. The Biden government said last week that it would expand the ways in which aid groups can help alleviate the country’s rapidly deteriorating humanitarian crisis.

The Taliban also appear to be easing their stance on women’s rights, promising to end restrictions next year on teenage girls trying to gain access to schools, according to Ministry of Education spokesman Nazar Mohammad Urfan. This move could lead to a greater influx of foreign aid into the country.