FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, January 8, 2002

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Lawrence Spinelli (202) 336-8690
Timothy Harwood (202) 336-8744

AFGHAN-AMERICAN COMPANIES, U.S. OFFICIALS CHART ECONOMIC COURSE FOR NEW AFGHANISTAN

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) today co-hosted the first high-level discussion of U.S. private sector involvement in post-Taliban Afghanistan, assembling Afghan-American business leaders and senior officials from the U.S. government and international institutions to outline investment opportunities and challenges in the war-torn country. 

More than 40 businesspersons and government officials attended the event at OPIC headquarters, jointly hosted by the Afghanistan-America Foundation.

OPIC President and CEO Dr. Peter Watson said OPIC and the foundation called the meeting to encourage U.S. investors, beginning with Afghan-American businesses, to help speed the reconstruction of Afghanistan, and to identify for unsuspecting companies the many sectors presenting opportunities for profit once the country stabilizes.

"Post-Taliban Afghanistan will require not only humanitarian assistance, but support as it rebuilds its economy and economic institutions, including a capacity to make use of foreign direct investment in a way that benefits as many Afghans as possible," Dr. Watson said. "Economic growth generated by investment stands to be the most sustainable and diffuse - two outcomes certainly we all support."

Afghanistan-America Foundation chairman Don Ritter said, "today's meeting will provide a model for Afghan-American businesses and professionals who are looking for specific projects in the country. We must make certain to follow through on the partnerships we establish today, because they offer an example of the kind of things that can be accomplished by the Afghan-American diaspora."

Undersecretary of State for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs Alan Larson said, "the international community is working with the people of Afghanistan to build a new country, and we can take heart that this meeting represents a major international development. Over the medium term, private sector investment will make an important difference in Afghanistan. We must make sure that the Afghan people have ownership of this process."

U.S. Trade and Development Agency (TDA) Director Thelma Askey said TDA "would support the commercialization of development assistance to Afghanistan , bringing our resources to help provide development that is both sustainable and involves U.S. businesses."

U.S. Export Import Bank Vice Chairman Eduardo Aguirre said the challenge to establish an economic infrastructure in Afghanistan was "precisely the kind of situation in which Ex-Im Bank could add value."

Other officials attending included Carole Brookins, executive director of the World Bank; Bear McConnell, director of the Central Asia Task Force at the United States Agency for International Development; Madelyn Spirnak from the Office of International Economic Affairs at the National Security Council; and senior staff members from the U.S. House of Representatives, the State Department, as well as the entire senior leadership of OPIC, including Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Ross Connelly.

They heard a dozen Afghan-American businessmen, spanning the engineering, water, fiber-optic communications, cement and banking sectors describe investment opportunities in Afghanistan for American companies, including plans to establish an Afghan-American Chamber of Commerce, a new Afghan-American commercial bank, and a low-cost telephone system for the country. Several attendees, including Peter Schaefer, senior fellow at the Institute for Liberty and Democracy, urged the Afghans to make the establishment of efficient systems of private property entitlement a high priority, and to modernize the country's agricultural sector.

Ali Seraj, representing Fibercore Inc. and Allied Controls, said "Afghanistan needs the help of the international community, but not to become a welfare state. We are equipped to help ourselves, but need additional avenues and opportunities to build our lives again."

Last month, Dr. Watson and Connelly met with Afghanistan's finance minister-designate, Hedayat Amin-Arsala, and said OPIC would work to attract U.S. private sector investment to the war-torn country as an important element in its rebuilding.

OPIC's political risk insurance and financing help U.S. businesses of all sizes invest in 140 emerging markets and developing nations worldwide. Over the agency's 30-year history, OPIC has supported $138 billion worth of investments that have helped developing countries to generate over $10 billion in host-government revenues and create nearly 668,000 host-country jobs. OPIC projects have also generated $63.6 billion in U.S. exports and create nearly 250,000 American jobs.