Entrepreneurship, Conflict And Private Sector In Afghanistan – OpEd
Afghanistan is amongst one of the poorest countries in the world with an estimated per capita income of 502 US dollars and average mortality age of 64 years in 2019. Progress on to a path of economic and socio-political recovery has been arduous and slow in Afghanistan they country is deeply fallen down to the poverty. In recent years’ government and foreign partners, supported programs and policies have increasingly been concerned about the development of the private sector, besides the National Export Strategy also focus on the development of the private sector. It is not clear, how best to proceed and improve entrepreneurship in the country since there continues to be a lack of reliable empirical evidence on the current state of entrepreneurship in Afghanistan.
Entrepreneurship always plays an important role in getting out countries from poverty traps and conflict situations, some scholars argue that productive entrepreneurship is something that nurtures the development. In the other hand conflict has a direct or indirect impact on both the possibility of holding an entrepreneurial activity, and on the motivations to do so, whether for the survival or because of exploring and identifying new entrepreneurial and business opportunities. Different levels of conflict intensity across Afghanistan have a direct impact on the entrepreneurial activities and private sector.
Entrepreneurship and private can be important elements to restore the war-affected economy and institutions of Afghanistan. As compared to erstwhile the economy of Afghanistan has improved, there are infrastructure projects, and investments in different industries in the country. The opening of trade corridors with China, India, Turkey and Azerbaijan has helped Afghanistan’s economy to improve. There has been no proper management and utilization of all resource within the country so facilitate platforms and build a proper management system in the country. There is an immense need for Entrepreneurship and private sector to become conventional in Afghanistan which unfortunately faces serious complications in the country. Following are some factors that frustrate the entrepreneurial and private sector activates.
Political issues; the unstable and ambiguous political system of Afghanistan creates a lack of confidence in young generation entrepreneurial mindsets besides private sector can’t run smoothly because of pressures from people of high ranks with influencing networks and with central authorities in order to run and establish businesses entrepreneurs and businessmen have to pay different type of commissions and several installments.
Lack fund providing institutions; there are no formal funds/financial support providing organization to Afghan start-ups in the country, which is a big problem for entrepreneurial activates and innovative ideas this is a big problem because there are very innovative ideas and people who cannot establish their ventures because there is no financial support. Local companies need direct financial and technical assistance to expand in the formal economy, access external markets, and mitigate risk.
Security Conflict; ongoing security conflict led to inadequate access to markets and lack of adequate infrastructure to support business activities. At a minimum, a continued inadequacy of access to markets and infrastructure is likely to prevent the process of expansion and moving up on value chains by the productive entrepreneurs.
We can conclude that robust private sector and entrepreneurial development is possible and vital to Afghanistan’s future, government and international community must be thoughtful about how to achieve progress. Private-sector development is not a quick and easy solution to Afghanistan’s problems, and it requires a fundamental shift, Afghan entrepreneurs must be empowered to be the key drivers. There are several problems that government and international community can solve them easily by making useful polices and strategies.
*Noman Shadab, Entrepreneur, Marketing Consultant at Reliable Steps Consultancy & Service Company, Blogger, Author, Influencer, Education Activist, Founder & CEO TSA, The Student Afghanistan