U.S. Takes New Tack to Speed Afghan Rebuilding
CHICAGO -- With Afghan reconstruction efforts languishing and much of the world focused on stabilizing and rebuilding Iraq, the U.S. is trying to draw companies to Afghanistan with a method novel to government but well known in the business world: the old-fashioned trade show.
The combination of statesmanship and salesmanship appeared surreal at times Monday, with one of the United States’ two ambassadors to Afghanistan, William B. Taylor, answering questions from a California sheet-metal executive as representatives from American Plastics Technologies, Caterpillar and other companies swapped business cards.
But organizers, including the U.S. Trade and Development Agency and the U.S. Department of Commerce, were delighted on the first day of the two-day gathering at the Renaissance Hotel. More than 300 companies, well over the number expected, had shown up for the “Afghanistan: Rebuilding a Nation” conference to seek a slice of the reconstruction pie.
“While there are certainly challenges on the road ahead --last year Afghanistan’s exports were a little more than half those in 1975 -- there are also tremendous opportunities,” said Grant Aldonas, the Commerce department undersecretary for international trade and a board member of the Overseas Private Investment Corp. “Our role is to encourage these opportunities by promoting a move toward a more stable, transparent and open trading environment.”
Representatives from companies large and small, some of which already are working in Afghanistan, are attending the conference in hopes of securing contracts to build roads, schools and airports; to purify and bottle water; dig wells; build dams, and otherwise return the Third World nation at least to functioning status.
Since the U.S. routed the Taliban in 2001, bringing at least occasional peace to some areas of the Central Asian nation for the first time in more than two decades, reconstruction has begun, but it is not at the pace many had hoped.
An assessment by the World Bank, the United Nations and the Asian Development Bank places the cost of rebuilding at $15 billion to $20 billion over the next five years. Only a fraction of that has made its way into the country, and much of that money has gone to aid organizations.
“Most of the successes have been political, not rebuilding,” said Craig Steffensen, the Asian Development Bank’s coordinator for Afghanistan. “The fact that [Hamid] Karzai is still president is a miracle.
“That 2 million refugees decided it was better to return to Afghanistan than live in a refugee camp in Pakistan is a huge success.... The turnout here shows there’s money to be made in Afghanistan, and people know it.”
Outside contractors have helped provide residents of Kabul electricity for the majority of each day. In Kandahar, Herat and other major cities, power is much more reliable than before the U.S. presence, but still spotty; in smaller towns and villages, it remains rare or nonexistent.
About 3,000 recruits have been trained as soldiers for an Afghan national army -- long considered a key to any lasting peace and reconstruction -- but as many as half have deserted because of lack of pay or tribal tensions within the ranks, according to CARE International. For every member of the army, there are 100 gunmen reporting to various warlords, CARE said.
Karzai has recalled several provincial governors for hoarding taxes, tariffs and other income instead of sending the money to Kabul, but warlords continue to wield far more clout than the president in much of the country.
Progress is being made, albeit slowly, and the conference focused more on the promise than the perils of Afghanistan.
President Bush has taken a personal interest in the decrepit, bombed-out road linking the capital city of Kabul and the southern city of Kandahar, Taylor said, and ordered that it be completed by Dec. 31.
Ariana, the Afghan national airline, operates someplanes on routes to New Dehli, Dubai, Frankfurt and a few other destinations, but contractors and others still find themselves taking long flights to Pakistan or another country in the region and then waiting for an Ariana flight or driving into Afghanistan.
Swiss Skies, an offshoot of Georgia-based World Airways that advertised itself at the conference as “the smart, safe way to fly to Kabul,” is scheduled in July to begin twice-a-week service from Washington, D.C., through Geneva to the Afghan capital. Coach fare is $3,500 round-trip, and business class $7,500.
“For these people to do what they need to do,” World Airways Vice President Bob Perry said, pointing around the room, “they need an airline.”
With facilities at Kabul International Airport still limited, Perry noted, the Swiss Skies flights will be directed in by U.S. military AWACS planes.
To do what they need to do, the rebuilders will also need cell phones, which explained the Motorola booth, and, if things go well, a place to publish help-wanted ads, which the owners of the start-up Afghan Business Journal said would help them with much-needed capital.
An Afghan American business group promised lodging, inking a plan Monday to build a $40-million Hyatt-run hotel near the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.
What contractors, as well as Afghans, need more than anything, however, is security, a commodity still precious in the country.
More than two dozen people have been killed in bombings in recent weeks, including four German peacekeepers Saturday near Kabul.
In May, two Norwegian peacekeepers were shot and wounded near Kabul and U.S. soldiers mistakenly shot and killed four Afghan soldiers near where the hotel is to be built.
Workers clearing minefields have been targeted several times by snipers in recent weeks, with a member of the International Committee of the Red Cross being killed in one ambush.
Outside the main conference hall, two businessmen sipped coffee and talked about big contracts and big risks.
“I don’t know,” said one, “if I’m ready to have one of my people shot over there.”
