<

Businesses See Opportunity in New Afghanistan
Monday, November 26, 2001
The Associated Press

Unocal, the big California-based energy company, was the lead investor in the 1990s in a $2-billion pipeline that would carry natural gas across Afghanistan, connecting Turkmenistan in the northwest to Pakistan in the south.

Where others see desperate refugees and bombed-out roads and bridges, Islamudin Khorami sees factory jobs blossoming from Afghanistan's postwar ruins.

When peace comes, the New York importer plans to hire up to 500 workers to knit gloves and sweaters in his home city of Mazar-e-Sharif. Khorami, who fled the misery of Afghanistan 18 years ago, says 62 of his family members in Pakistan will return to the city and help run things.

As Afghanistan edges toward what the world hopes will be its first major break from conflict in two decades, a hardy breed of business people see opportunity in one of the poorest nations on earth.

They envision farms in the mountainous north sending raisins, almonds and pistachios to the Middle East; rugged sheep herders shearing wool for sale abroad; weavers making carpets prized across the globe for all-wool designs and bright natural colors.
(More: SPTimes.com News Source)
2001 © The Associated Press.

Dan