The meeting of the Balkh Chamber of Commerce & Industries with representatives of World Bank was called to order at 01:30 on January 17, 2010 in Balkh ACCI Conference Hall. Opening speech by Mr. Roshanzada, Introducing Balkh CCI activities & welcomed the guest participants from World Bank. Besides introducing Mazar as one of the largest environment in the country having better opportunities of investment, manufacturing & Trade. Mr. Roshanzada state; that the World Bank has not done more to the private sector in country, there have been many invitations for private sector, many promises, but no

opportunities & services provided for the private sector.. We request World Bank, OPEC to contact directly the traders & support Afghanistan private sector. The global markets are restricted against Afghanistan private sector, we cannot access to credit, cannot obtain business visa, and can t access customs in Europe, Can’t access foreign markets to exchange products. We suggest the World Bank to stay in direct contact with private sector section in order to reduce & avoid corruptions.

Representatives from World Bank said; that the aim of the team visit is to describe the important points of the report “Afghanistan Investment Climate in 2008” and also to explain that world bank is working together with Afghanistan Government in  improving of the infrastructure section, finance, electricity, roads, customs. The representatives from World Bank added that after the survey we would work in two ways with private sector.

1. To see what are the problems here, problems with domestic economic growth
2. Finding global markets & establishing a fund to help the private sector.

Mr. Abbas Ibrahimzada, one of the traders in Mazar commented on the lack of communication & access to global markets. Explained the situations of the banks, lack of trust of international banks on Afghani banks and requested for opening of World Bank Branch in Mazar to facilitate business relations between Mazar traders & global companies. Facilitate obtaining visa for traders in Mazar.

Another participant commented on issuance of prime construction projects to International Construction Companies instead of local construction companies; however the local construction companies have the capability and capacity of completing any kind of construction projects. The representatives from World Bank pointed to the requirement of guarantees that should be provided by the local companies which they cannot.

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