NEW DELHI: To further deepen the economic engagement between India and Afghanistan, FICCI in collaboration with the Financial Access for Investing in the Development of Afghanistan (FAIDA) Department of U.S. Agency for International Aid (USAID) and Indian Embassy, Kabul, has organised interactive business meetings with Afghanistan Builders Delegation here recently.
‘Afghanistan-India Construction Sector’, a Business-to-Business (B2B) Matchmaking Event, which was organised under the aegis of the Trade Commerce and Investment Opportunities Confidence Building Measure (TCI CBM) envisaged under the Heart of Asia Process for Afghanistan.
A 35-member Afghan delegation was led by Afghanistan Builders Association (ABA), one of the largest construction associations in Afghanistan with offices in Kabul, Jalalabad, Kandahar, Mazar-e-Sharif, Herat and Gardez, with over 500 members from engineering construction companies.
Naeem Yassin, President, ABA, said that the delegation’s aim was to connect Afghan and Indian construction firms doing business in Afghanistan, facilitate joint venture opportunities in Afghanistan construction projects, share opportunities in construction material manufacturing in Afghanistan and import from India, investment opportunities in construction sector of Afghanistan and urban housing development opportunities in Afghanistan.
He said that ABA facilitates international investors and companies to work in Afghanistan in different construction fields. However, it also connects and provides J/V opportunities with qualified Afghan companies.
Pankaj Tandon, Vice President- SAARC & Myanmar, KEC, highlighted some of the challenges Afghanistan faces such as it is a landlocked country and difficult logistics across borders, perceptual security threat leading to difficulty in attracting talent, evolving institutions need to be aligned to global business needs and high cultural sensitivity.
Builders from Afghanistan have evinced keen interest in collaborating and forging joint ventures with Indian companies for executing projects in Afghanistan in housing, road construction, schools and hospitals.
He said that ABA facilitates international investors and companies to work in Afghanistan in different construction fields. However, it also connects and provides J/V opportunities with qualified Afghan companies.
Pankaj Tandon, Vice President- SAARC & Myanmar, KEC, highlighted some of the challenges Afghanistan faces such as it is a landlocked country and difficult logistics across borders, perceptual security threat leading to difficulty in attracting talent, evolving institutions need to be aligned to global business needs and high cultural sensitivity.
Builders from Afghanistan have evinced keen interest in collaborating and forging joint ventures with Indian companies for executing projects in Afghanistan in housing, road construction, schools and hospitals.
They have shown interest to source all kinds of building materials and building equipments/machinery. Such collaboration is bound to receive a fillip as India is in the final stages of preparing a draft memorandum of understanding (MoU) under which the government will help Afghanistan develop roads and highways and formulate a road transport policy and share its knowledge in transportation technologies.
Indo-Afghan trade has grown to US$ $632.18 million in 2012-13 and the flow of goods has been strengthened by a Preferential Trade Agreement signed in 2003, and further enlarged by the Strategic Partnership Agreement signed in 2011. India has carried out several construction and infrastructure projects in Afghanistan, including building of Afghanistan’s Parliament.
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