Foreign investors must have safe and adequate industrial locations at which to manufacture goods.  To support a wide range of modern manufacturing processes, industrial parks require consistent electricity and water, access to roads from which to receive raw materials and send finished goods to market, and adequate security.  The Afghanistan Investment Support Agency (AISA) currently manages industrial parks in Bagrami, Mazari Sharif, Kandahar, Jalalabad, and Hilmand that all feature prominently in its strategic plan to attract foreign investment.

On August 24 and 26, USAID’s Trade and Accession Facilitation for Afghanistan (TAFA) project staff met with the Afghanistan Industrial Parks Association and AISA regarding technical assistance requirements to attract new business and expand existing ones.  Most of Afghanistan’s industrial parks, like the Bagrami Industrial Park, represent or house firms ranging in size from large textile companies employing 600 full-time workers and 2,000 temporary workers to smaller firms producing pharmaceuticals.  In virtually every case, companies wish to export their goods, not just put them on the local market.  However, to do so they require business development services to upgrade the quality of their products, improve management, reduce the cost of bank financing, provide vocational training to upgrade the skills of workers, and locate new external markets.

TAFA will coordinate this assistance in collaboration with other donors, and will take the lead role in setting up a donor coordinating committee for AISA to provide assistance to industrial parks in Afghanistan.  This coordinated assistance will help ensure that textile businesses, like the one shown in Bagrami, continue to grow and expand their businesses, bringing new investment to Afghanistan.