The Taliban’s Ministry of Industry and Commerce says that around 50 memorandums of understanding (MoUs), valued at nearly $1 billion, were signed during the fifth International Industry and Mining Week Exhibition between Afghanistan’s private sector, Iran, and several other foreign parties.
According to the ministry, Nooruddin Azizi, the Taliban’s Minister of Industry and Commerce, said during the exhibition’s closing ceremony on Tuesday that the administration has reduced customs tariffs on industrial machinery, exempted raw materials required by factories from customs duties, and taken practical steps to expand industrial parks and facilitate the issuance of business licenses in support of the industrial sector.
Azizi added that the Taliban plans to reduce the income tax rate from 20 percent to 10 percent and introduce a five-year tax exemption for new industrial investments.
He also urged industrialists to refrain from constructing factories in unauthorized areas, avoid what he described as “unfair competition,” and set reasonable prices for their products.
The fifth International Industry and Mining Week Exhibition opened in Kabul on June 30. During the opening ceremony, Mawlawi Abdul Salam Hanafi, the Taliban’s Deputy Administrative Prime Minister, said the exhibition of domestically produced goods reflects Afghanistan’s industrial development.
Ali Reza Beigdeli, Iran’s ambassador to Kabul, also attended the exhibition. He said relations between Iran and the Taliban are moving in a constructive direction and that the growing ties will contribute to expanding cooperation between the two countries and across the region.
Writer:Saeed Sameer
