Mallika Dureja
Taliban In Afghanistan: The acting deputy prime minister for economic affairs told the news agency Reuters that the Taliban will turn old foreign military bases into special economic zones for business. Earlier, the ministry said that it was working on the plan and had sent it to both the economic committee, led by acting deputy PM Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, and the cabinet for approval.
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“After a thorough discussion, it was decided that the Ministry of Industry and Commerce should gradually take control of the remaining foreign military bases in order to turn them into special economic zones,” Mullah Baradar told Reuters, adding that the pilot plan would start with bases in Kabul and northern Balkh province.
This comes at a time when Afghanistan’s economy is struggling and aid agencies are warning of a serious humanitarian crisis. This is because the Taliban took over in 2021 after the US pulled out its troops, which led to the freezing of central bank assets held by foreigners and sanctions on the banking sector.
But the Taliban have said that their main goal is to make Afghanistan more economically independent through trade and investment. Earlier, the World Bank said that Afghanistan’s exports went up and that the Taliban government was able to keep most of the country’s income stable in 2022.
