Officials in Mazar-e-Sharif say that 85% of manufacturing plants in the province are closed due to restrictions on monetary services and banks. They call on the Taliban to take action immediately to address their challenges while supporting domestic production. Meanwhile, the director of the chamber of commerce and investment in Balkh says that he has listed the problems of the factory owners and discussed them with central Taliban officials.
With two industrial parks, Balkh is one of the provinces with the largest number of production factories. However, the lack of foreign exchange, the scarcity of raw materials, and restrictions on the money transfer through banks have led to the closure of a large percentage of manufacturing plants in the province. Officials at the Balkh Department of Mines and Industry are urging the Taliban to cooperate and support the domestic production plants.
Yasin Akbari, the director of the mines and industry department in Balkh, referring to the problems of industrialists, said that 85% of production plants in Balkh province have been closed.
“Unfortunately, our craftsmen have many problems,” Akbari said. “There are other problems as well. At the moment, the banks cannot pay and we cannot waste our money on raw materials. For this reason, 85% of factories in Balkh province are currently closed.”
According to the officials of the Department of Mines and Industry of Balkh province, the impossibility of money transfer abroad to buy raw materials is another challenge that industrialists face. They call on the Taliban to address the problems of the banks as soon as possible so that the banks can solve the problems of the private sector and facilitate the transfer of money abroad.
The director of mines and industry in Balkh province said that he calls on the Taliban to address the problem of banks as soon as possible so as the factory owners could buy raw materials and resume activities.
Balkh manufacturers say that the crisis in the country has affected the manufacturing plants the most. The purchase of raw materials depends on the exchange of money through banks. Najmuddin Siddiqi, the owner of a factory in Mazar-e-Sharif, said that manufacturers cannot buy or sell anything at the moment. “Because it is not possible to transfer money.” According to Najmuddin Siddiqi, about 500 people work in his factory.
Factory owners call for Taliban support. According to them, if the factories cease operations, the number of unemployed people will increase.
“The closure of the factories will make the working population in these factories unemployed,” said Bismillah Hamdard, owner of another factory in Mazar-e-Sharif.
He called on the Taliban to support domestic factories so that workers do not lose their jobs, According to him, everyone who works in these factories is supporting a family.
Meanwhile, the director of the chamber of commerce and investment in Balkh, who visited some factories in the province, said he had written down the problems of the factory owners and discussed them with Taliban officials in Kabul. “We came to see the work of craftsmen,” said Mawlawi Yarmohammad Shabir, the director of the chamber of commerce and investment in Balkh. “Their work is going on as usual and we support them. We write down their problems to share with the elders in Kabul, and the craftsmen are fully supported. We hope that all their problems will be solved in the future.”
This is while, according to the Chamber of Commerce and Investment in Balkh, out of 260 manufacturing plants, 240 have closed so far. Factory owners in northern Mazar-e-Sharif province warn that if the electricity and other facilities are not provided, residents will face challenges due to the closure of these factories.
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