Speaking to Reuters, the acting Minister of Commerce and Industry, Nooruddin Azizi, said that every country can invest in the lithium sector of Afghanistan.
Azizi also talked about his recent visit to Kazakhstan, saying that the delegation discussed facilitating international financial transactions with private banks in a bid to ease the Afghan banking sector’s isolation.
“Every country can invest in Afghanistan’s lithium sector because the hope of the people of Afghanistan is lithium and I don’t want lithium to be wasted by a company, a country, a person or a hundred people,” Azizi told Reuters.
Nooruddin Azizi, acting Minister of Commerce and Industry, led a business delegation to Kazakhstan last week.
In addition to banking he discussed the possibility of preferential trade tariffs, telecommunications projects and transit routes, including for possible shipments of Russian oil to South Asia, Reuters reported.
“We had teams from Da Afghanistan Bank (Afghanistan’s central bank) and private banks in Kazakhstan, they discussed and are trying to find good ways to decrease the price of financial transactions … we don’t have any banking limitations with Kazakhstan,” he said.
But Reuters also said that Kazakhstan’s trade ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The economists said that Afghanistan’s lithium mines are important and strategic.
“Lithium is one of the strategic minerals of Afghanistan which is important in Afghanistan economic stability. Therefore, the deal about the Afghan lithium is a strategic move which relates to the Afghanistan national security and foreign policy,” said Sayed Masoud, an economist.
“Afghanistan is among three countries which have the major lithium of the world. The future of technology is reliant on lithium. If it is managed well, and with proper contracts based on proper conditions, it can take Afghanistan out of poverty,” said Azeraksh Hafizi, an economist.
Based on the information of the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, various countries including China have expressed interest in investing $10 billion in Afghanistan’s lithium mines.