{"id":2259,"date":"2014-11-13T02:43:38","date_gmt":"2014-11-13T02:43:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=2259"},"modified":"2016-08-12T15:56:21","modified_gmt":"2016-08-12T15:56:21","slug":"copper-and-lithium-may-be-the-keys-to-afghanistans-economic-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/copper-and-lithium-may-be-the-keys-to-afghanistans-economic-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Copper and lithium may be the keys to Afghanistan’s economic future"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ali Reza Sarwar<\/a>, Texas A&M University <\/em><\/p>\n

On October 27, the last international troops closed their military camp in Southern Helmand Province and left Afghanistan, officially ending their combat role after 13 years of fighting. By the end of 2014, it\u2019s expected that only 9,800 American troops will be left in the country.<\/p>\n

Although Afghanistan continues to face security challenges, the completion of the planned transition<\/a> imparts hope that the country has achieved enough political and military stability to move forward on its own. The most pressing question now is how Afghanistan will finance its still-fledgling armed forces<\/a>, its state institutions and the revival of its beleaguered economy while preventing the return of the Taliban and Al-Qaida.<\/p>\n

Billions of dollars in pledged international assistance have been pledged, but this is only a fleeting solution. Afghanistan needs a sustainable source of income to retake control of its destiny and reclaim its ancient role as one of Asia\u2019s most important trade routes.<\/p>\n

The answer lies in the mineral deposits spread across the country that are overflowing with copper, iron, lithium and other metals and minerals. How much lies in Afghanistan\u2019s hills and mountains is still unknown, but they may be worth trillions of dollars.<\/p>\n

Three decades of war<\/h2>\n

Since the fall of the monarchy in 1973, Afghanistan has never had a chance to take advantage of the richness of its land. The subsequent three decades have been marked by protracted turbulence, including the Soviet invasion of 1979, uprisings, civil wars and finally the rise of the Taliban and invasion by US-led forces. The continual struggles eliminated any opportunity to design and implement an economic strategy to discover let alone excavate and use its vast natural resources.<\/p>\n

The limited work that has been done in this area was first conducted by Soviet geologists in the 1970s and 1980s. They identified abundant natural deposits that included<\/a> iron, high grade chrome ore, uranium, lead, zinc, bauxite, lithium, emeralds, gold, silver and the \u201clargest amount of copper.\u201d<\/p>\n

The World Bank says Afghanistan\u2019s copper deposits in the Eastern Logar and the Central Bamiyan provinces are<\/a> the largest in Asia and second-largest<\/a> in the world, at over 1.2 billion tons. Additionally, the Afghan government confirms<\/a> there are \u201cextensive deposits of coal, marble, precious metal, game stones, gas and hydrocarbons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most up-to-date and intriguing claim about the country\u2019s hidden wealth emerged in 2010 when The New York Times reported on a leaked internal memo prepared by US geologists and Pentagon officials. It said Afghanistan\u2019s mineral deposits could fundamentally alter<\/a> the country\u2019s struggling economy.<\/p>\n

The report helps confirm that Afghanistan could soon become a very wealthy country. Its lithium deposits alone are estimated to be worth as much as US$3 trillion, according to the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum.<\/p>\n

Foreign investors wanted<\/h2>\n

The Afghan government in 2008 passed<\/a> a law intended to open up its economy and spur foreign investment in the country\u2019s key sectors. Because of the ongoing security and political challenges, the level of foreign investment remains limited.<\/p>\n

Thus far China remains the single largest foreign investor. The Metallurgical Corporation of China and Jiangxi Copper Corporation are the two biggest companies contracted<\/a> to invest US$4.4 billion in Aynak copper deposits. Chinese National Petroleum Corporation won<\/a> the contract for Afghanistan\u2019s gas in the northern provinces of Sari-pul and Jowzjan with an annual US$400 million investment. And last week, Afghanistan\u2019s new President, Ashraf Ghani, paid his first official visit to China and signed a number of trade agreements, signifying the role of China in Afghanistan\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

A wise and sustainable approach to Afghanistan\u2019s natural resources, however, requires a strategy that involves many countries in the region and around the world, not just China. In particular, the countries in the coalition that ousted the Taliban and have been involved in Afghanistan for a decade now \u2013 whether fighting or building infrastructure \u2013 should be a part of that strategy.<\/p>\n

The time is ripe for such a strategy, and it should be included in the upcoming London Conference in December. Afghanistan\u2019s unity government will present its top economic policies and donors will unveil their post-withdrawal plans. The summit may be the last gathering of its kind, concluding one of the century\u2019s longest wars \u2013 though NATO and the US plan to maintain an advisory role through 2025.<\/p>\n

The ability to discover, extract and effectively manage Afghanistan\u2019s natural resources will help guarantee the ultimate success of the transition to complete independence \u2013 along with the security agreement with the US and President Ghani\u2019s fight against corruption. In the end, it could finally connect Afghanistan to its region and the world, turning the country once again into the region\u2019s most valued trade route.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Ali Reza Sarwar does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations.<\/em><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>.
\nRead the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ali Reza Sarwar, Texas A&M University On October 27, the last international troops closed their military camp in Southern Helmand Province and left Afghanistan, officially ending their combat role after 13 years of fighting. By the end of 2014, it\u2019s expected that only 9,800 American troops will be left in the country. Although Afghanistan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":5641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2259"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2259"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5642,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2259\/revisions\/5642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}