Peace and Economic Development
President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, in one of his speeches, said that peace will be one of the first priorities of his work; and, if there is not peace brought to the country, economic development will be impossible. While, by signing the Bilateral Security Agreement between Afghanistan and the U.S. himself challenged peace process in the country.
Before signing the agreement, Afghan media that is influenced by the U.S. was propagating that solutions for all the challenges and obstacles in the country are pending to signing the B.S.A. While the value of Afghani currency was decreased against dollar, Karzai was blamed for it. If the finance ministry was complaining about lack of financial resources, Karzai was claimed to be responsible. If Pakistan was firing rockets on Afghan soil, again Karzai was blamed for it. And the media was raising its voice that not signing the B.S.A. Karzai has oppressed Afghanistan, and if the B.S.A. is not signed those challenges and obstacles will not be solved.
No one was willing to answer the question that in which article of the B.S.A. is mentioned that the U.S. will develop the economy of Afghanistan, and in which article of the B.S.A. it was written that the U.S. will support Afghanistan against Pakistani attacks?
Finally the B.S.A. was signed on the second working-day of the new government, but still the value of Afghan currency is decreasing against dollar, still the ministry of finance is complaining about the lack of half a billion dollar budget, and the Pakistani rocket shelling on Afghan territory is still kept up, but the Afghan media that is influenced by the U.S. have gone to deathly silence.
Mining
Afghanistan is a landlocked country with limited economic resources. It is neither a self-sufficient agricultural country, nor has tourism, which will be a source of income for its internal basic necessities. The only option of being hopeful for the country is extraction of mines and minerals that will support its economy.
Mining in a country needs infrastructure, which needs prior investments. Mining is impossible without a nation-wide railway network, through which the raw materials will be brought to factories to be processed. In a country that does not have reasonable roads for basic traveling, the hope of having railway all around the country seems to be impossible.
Required Capacity
For the extraction of mines to be economic, there should be required capacity created in the country before mining. Same as other foundational sectors, in last thirteen years this sector was also out of attention. Maybe the involved ones were thinking that the outflow of dollar from other countries to Afghanistan will continue for long time.
One of the most important capacity building in this field is training professional units, otherwise Afghanistan needs to hire foreign engineers with high salaries. But, unfortunately in last few years there were not professional units, in the field of mining, trained in last few years. Though there are hundreds of private universities and colleges around the country, but none of them offered the faculty of mining and geology in the country.
Impacts of peace in the extraction of natural resources of the country
Security has a vital impact on the economic development, which the obvious example of it is Afghanistan that gained billions of foreign aid from international community, but still faces economic challenges. The main reason of it is lack of development, continuous war, and insecurity in Afghanistan.
The mines of Afghanistan are located in rural areas, where security is extremely challenging. Therefore, if a foreign company win the bidding of the extraction of a mine, without agreement with the opponents of the Afghan Government the company will not be able to starts its extraction. On the other hand, the Taliban recently created a new frame in their structure by the name of Mines, and they extract mines by volunteer mining companies. Even, if a mine is in an area that is not controlled by the Taliban, the company needs agreement with the Taliban for transferring the raw materials.
For example, most of the lapis lazuli that is extracted in Badakhshan Province is transferred through Topkhana, a place on the Badakhshan-Pakistan way, to Pakistan, and that way is controlled by Taliban.
Due to the mentioned reasons, in war and insecurity there is no hope for extraction of mines, and if there is, the Taliban will take their share, and that share to them means the continuation of war in the country.
Continuation of war in the country weaken the power of the government, and it will pave the way for the local powers, so those power holders will also have their share from the extraction of mines. It is even possible that war over mines will influence the ideological wars in the country. As some of the African countries experienced it, and it caused casualties and tribal conflicts in those countries.
Therefore, we can say that President Ghani was right in his speech that the priority of duties will be to bring peace to the country. But, as he took his first step and signed the B.S.A. with the U.S., he has chosen the way against his speech and has given the chance to the U.S. either it brings peace to the country, or not.
Currently the future of peace and war in the country is related to the negotiation between the U.S. and the Taliban, but the U.S. policy in Afghanistan is same as its policies in other Islamic states. Therefore, prediction of peace in the country seems extremely difficult for now.
The End