Afghanistan exploring measures to revive its textile industry

Afghanistan government has called on industry owners to present plans and recommendations for ways to revive the textile industry in the country, as it harvest almost 60,000 tons of cotton a year but there are no factories in the country to process cotton, a finance ministry spokesman Ajmal Hamid Abdul Rahimzai said on Tuesday.

Industrialists have been asked for their recommendations on Kandahar and other textile companies so that the issue is discussed by the high economic council and it should be both in the interests of government and the private sector.

But the Industrialists Union has said that government does not have the capacity to ensure textile factories are well run. If government gives textile companies to the private sector, with the help of modern technology and latest management skills they can revive Afghanistan’s textile companies which will create jobs for thousands of people, said Sakhi Ahmad Paiman, head of the Industrialist Union.

In the past, there were at least seven textile companies in Afghanistan – in Kabul, Parwan, Balkh, Kandahar and Baghlan which employed more than 30,000 people at one time in these factories but over the years these were destroyed in the various wars.