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)