Afghans get down to business
By Kate Linebaugh
Bloomberg News Service
KABUL, Afghanistan — Pameir Motors is selling about four used Japanese cars a day. Down the road, Haji Ghulam Sakhi of Kabul Khurasan Mobel Furniture says sales rose fivefold since the Taliban regime was toppled.
These are among the first signs that Afghanistan's economy is reviving after a U.S.-led war ushered in a new government and raised hopes of recovery from two decades of conflict.
Building-supply shops and imported-food stores are also reporting brisker business in a capital, Kabul, that is teeming with diplomats and international aid workers gearing up for planned reconstruction spending of $1.8 billion this year.
Small businesses aren't just accidental beneficiaries: They're key to rebuilding efforts that the World Bank and United Nations predict will help the economy grow at a 15 percent pace for the next 2 1/2 years.
"It's critically important to have a private-sector-led recovery," said William Byrd, the World Bank's acting country director for Afghani-stan. "That will be the bedrock of Afghanistan's recovery."
Business suffered under the Taliban both from the legacy of civil war and because of the regime's extreme interpretation of Islam, under which it relegated women to the home and banned many forms of entertainment.
That austerity extended even to mundane things like furnishings, according to 70-year-old Sakhi, who says he persuaded four sons to return from exile in Pakistan now that business is rebounding.
"The high ranks of the Taliban preferred to sit on cushions, so they didn't need furniture," said Sakhi.
The nascent boom is being driven by diplomats, aid workers and journalists and by locals who are starting to rebuild homes on hope the interim administration led by Hamid Karzai marks the beginning of stability.
At the Rahim Gardizi Co. building-supply store, Matia Ullah said business is 50 percent better than this time last year. Gardizi has increased its imports by as much as 80 percent, hoping demand will grow even faster once winter is over.
"Security is better and people whose houses were destroyed are building again," he said.
Among his customers have been the International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations Center for Human Settlements and French group Solidarit.
Although reconstruction efforts have yet to get into full swing, the preparations alone are putting more money into the local economy. CARE, a U.S.-based aid group that raised its Afghanistan budget by 80 percent this year to $16 million, is building a parking lot at its head office and renovating houses for expatriate staff as it prepares to move its operations to Kabul from Peshawar in Pakistan, according to program officer Asif Rahimi.
Not everyone is seeing the benefits. Kashmin, who sells Afghanistan's celebrated green raisins, almonds and walnuts in Kabul's main market, said business is slow. "Ever since the U.S. started bombing, there haven't been many buyers," he said.
Many people also must repay debts before they have money to spend. Among them are some of the country's 200,000 civil servants, who last month received their first pay in more than six months. They're still waiting for back pay.
