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Ministry
of Commerce initiatives
Investor
roadmap
The
Ministry of Commerce is currently developing an
“Investor Roadmap”, which is an in-depth study of
the steps required of an investor to become legally
established in Afghanistan. The Roadmap will present
all the licences, permits and approvals required by
investors, as well as the documentation needed, the
number of days it takes for each, and how much money
is collected.
The goal
of the Investor Roadmap is three-fold:
• to develop a comprehensive investment guide,
detailing step-by-step all the requirements an
investor must fulfill to invest, become fully
operational, and to continue operations;
• to identify the remaining bottlenecks and
inefficiencies and to make recommendations on how
best to streamline them, through eliminating
regulations, reducing the number and amount of
supporting paperwork to comply with regulations, and
by making approvals more automatic and transparent
and less discretionary; and
• to analyze other factors impacting the investor
that result from the legislative and regulatory
environment.
The Investor Roadmap is comprised of 13 core
processes divided into 4 process groups over two
phases of investment—start-up and functioning. The
four process groups include:
• employment issues, including temporary and
permanent residency permits and work visas for
investors and expatriates and labor relations;
• locating issues, including leasing and developing
land, as well as utility hook-ups;
• reporting to government, including business
registration, environmental compliance, and tax
registration and reporting; and;
• operating, which includes importing, exporting,
and profit and capital repatriation.
This study is being conducted by staff from the
Ministry of Commerce (assisted by ASI) under joint
direction and responsibility of both the MoC and
AISA.
Relevant
links and downloads:
Afghan Investment Support Agency
Investor roadmap document
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Increasing the participation of the Afghan
construction industry in public procurement
 A
policy investigation was initiated to identify and
overcome the problems that prevent the Afghan
construction sector from enjoying a significant
level of participation in government procurement.
As there
was very little information other than divergent
viewpoints available for this task, it was decided
to undertake a survey of the construction sector in
order to obtain their input to the policy
investigation and to better understand the problems
they experience. The survey covered 152 construction
firms located in Kabul. All the firms interviewed
were Afghan owned and managed. Foreign and
foreign-local partnerships were excluded. The survey
took place between 29 November and 7 December 2005
and was carried out by trained staff of the Internal
Trade Directorate of the Ministry of Commerce (MoC).
Some 46% of the companies interviewed were
struggling with growth problems, with 21% seemingly
unsustainable. Despite companies of different sizes,
the obstacles to growth were largely confined to a
small number of issues. These included the shortage
of affordable industrial land, reliable electricity
supply, the transportation and storage of equipment,
import duties on equipment, accessing finance and
corruption.
Relevant downloads:
Summary of Findings: Increasing the participation of
the Afghan construction industry in public
procurement (English, *.doc)
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