Tuesday December 27, 2016
Kabul (BNA) President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Mohammad Ashraf Ghani presided over the High Economic Council (HEC) meeting here the other day and discussed issuers related to business indexes, development of energy sector and increasing the energy production capacities, a presidential statement said. According to the statement, Minister of Commerce and Industries Mohammad Homayoun Rassa briefed the session on successfully merging of the Afghanistan Investment Supporting Agency (AISA) with the Ministry, adding since establishment of the registration and license department, 6500 licenses were registered, which among them 1500 are newly issued licenses and 4500 other are the renewed ones. According to the minister, 5.2 million dollar were collected on the basis of registration of the licenses. Later on, the Minister of Commerce and Industries and officials of the Georgia’s Reformatics Company as quoted in the statement, presented a report on investigation conducted by the company on business indexes, adding 168 proposals have been made to improve the business indexes, that implementation of which would help Afghanistan to provide better business environment. The minister went on saying that the company enjoying professional cadres and has been managing by the Georgia’s prime minister since its establishment in 2012.
According to the minister, the company has good working experiences, as it has helped Georgia to go from number 108 to 8th in world business indexes. The Reformatics experts have divided Afghanistan into 10 business indexes of beginning business, construction licenses, access to energy, registration of the properties, access to loans, protection of the micro investors, tax payment, overseas trade, implementation of the contracts and solving of bankruptcy, the statement added. Chief Executive Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, Minister of Energy and Water Ali Ahmad Osmani, MP Obaidullah Rameen, Director of Land Authority of Afghanistan Jawad Paikar, head of the Afghanistan industrialists Sherbaz Kameen Zada spoke related to the issue, emphasizing that such proposals would meet current requirements of the country. Praising Reformatics Company, President Ghani said that government has firm will to bring necessary reform, the statement further added. According to the president as quoted in the statement, investment needs insurance that without assurance and insurance, investment could face serious challenges, adding the company’s proposals needed to be reviewed so that to find the best and cheap option which also requires less time to be implemented. The president instructed the ministries of finance, economy and commerce to discuss the establishment of insurance company to provide services for the small and medium businesses. The session also decided that the legal aspects of the proposals are needed to be discussed through the laws committee led by the second vice president as well its economic prospects by the economic commission of the council of ministers. Pointing to importance of energy, the president said that efforts should be undertaken to generate energy through coal and gas, instructing the Breshna Sherkat, Ministry of Energy and Water and presidential advisor on infrastructures to review the Reformatics Company’s proposal and find the best way of its implementation.
