Business 'booming' in Kabul
Following up on my
previous post about Afghanistan, this
Washington Post article reports on the new dynamism in Kabul, as foreign investors pour in and local entrepreneurs build new businesses. Hyatt is even building a US $40M hotel.
The US is helping Afghanistan lure foreign firms and investment by providing forums in Kabul, setting up a trade show in Chicago for this summer (I think), and by helping with financing through the US foreign investment assistance instutitions.
Now, clearly we need to help Afghanistan get back on its feet, and one key component of that is funding for roads, education, health, and other essential infrastructure. That said, its my understanding that the vast majority of foreign aid from the West is wasted (on bridges in the middle of no-where, electricity generation plants that aren't connected to the grid, etc) due to inadequate oversight. So going slow could have some advantages. Of course, every day that Afghanis can't go to school, get to the market, have access to healthcare, etc. is a tragedy. But given a finite amount of funds, the better it's allocated, the better for the long term welfare of the country.
I'd still like to see more of a US security presence ensuring the peace, and the military could actually probably do a better job efficiently allocating funds and overseeing construction of basic infrastructure (as
it has done recently in the Philippines). Maybe once the war in Iraq is over we can send some more folks back to help with the rebuilding.
Posted by Stephen Bronstein at February 28, 2003 02:26 PM