Lets get started. Im dan runde. I hold the chair here at csis. Were going to have a conversation about the private sector in afghanistan. We have been doing a series of events on afghanistan over the last year. We recently hosted Abdullah Abdullah about two weeks ago. We couldnt have done this without the partnership of ambassador tony weng, the Senior Adviser here. Thank you for everything. I think were going to have an interesting and constructive conversation today. When i think about people who are qualified for their jobs or the right people at the right time, i cant think of a better person than my friend greg uygur. Fz who served both in pakistan and afghanistan has served some of the toughest places in the world for the United States of america. Greg is a friend. Greg is a patriot. Greg is a really qualified individual. Thank god that greg uygur has raised his hand and agreed to do Public Service again. Thank you very much. Come on up here. Give him a round of applause. [ applause ] its very nice to see many of my old friends here in the audience. Particularly my friend from cairo who has done a lot of the things that have been done or might need to be done in afghanistan. Great to see all of you. Id like to say a few words about the south asia strategy then a few points. Three each. On how that applies to usaids role in afghanistan and ill mention pakistan because the two are related and then talk about some of the specifics. In essence, i feel fortunate to be returning to usaid at a time when we actually do have a strategy for what to do in the region. The south asia strategy. So i feel very fortunate that i have got some marching orders. And within it, then, we have a component, as i said, for afghanistan and for pakistan. The afghanistan role for usaid, if you will, is to help with three things. First to sustain the gains made in the social sector over the last 16 years. Health, education, and womens empowerment. The second is to help build the bond between the government and the citizens. And that, through three things. Through the Service Delivery that i mentioned, through credible elections, and through significantly reduced corruption. The third of three. Private sector Led Economic Development focused on Market Centers and importantly but not exclusively on exports. Ill talk a little bit more in detail on that in a minute. After i get a sip of water. This is a very president ial thing to do, by the way. In pakistan, where we have been engaged for a long time, we have three things that we are trying to help pakistan do. And fortunately, we are on the same page with the government of pakistan and the network of important stakeholders in pakistan related to these things. So the first one is to help pakistan merge and mainstream the federally tribal administered area fattah in any way they feel appropriate with the adjacent province. And in doing that to help make the area a place where the people who have lived there all along can live a normal life and to help the 1 there were 1. 6 Million People displaced by conflict, into the rest of pakistan. About 85 to 90 of them have returned. So to make it possible for them to reintegrate. So thats the first piece. The second piece is to help communities in pakistan, particularly the areas vulnerable to extremism to gain resilience against that. And particularly, then, parts of kavachi, northern sin, southern punjab, and the fatah as it merges with the other province. Thats very much working with Civil Society to help them do that. They are already doing it, so we are building on something thats happening. The third is helping pakistan attract private investment to create jobs particularly for the younger people because of the very large youth bulge that pakistan has. Now, under all of that is to make maximum effort to be accountable for the taxpayers funds that go into supporting our programs in pakistan and afghanistan. And also in the broader context as i will mention in a minute. To make the relationship with india as constructive as possible. Within that, one of the things that afghanistan has done over the last year is to create an air corridor between kabul, kandahar and india and delhi. This has been a real support to businesses, private afghan businesses, that are exporting the processed product of the countryside. The things for which afghanistan is well known, particularly in markets in the region. So the fruit, fresh and dry, nuts, carpets, marble, onyx, gem stones. Cashmere, wool, those kinds of things. So this air corridor has been quite successful and now is, i understand from my last trip to kabul, they are contemplating extending that to the uae, kazakhstan, other Central Asian countries and perhaps turkey. As that happens and as we collaborated with our business colleagues in egypt and other places, the processing or the ability to invest in plant and equipment to process the product of the countryside depends importantly on one, a policy regulatory and administrative environment thats conducive to that. No one knows it better than the Business People themselves. Second, security, electricity, easy, clear access to land and a transparent relationship between the business and the government. So they can pay their taxes, get their permits and do all the things that they need to do to do that kind of business. We think that that is a real opportunity for afghanistan and so were going to be doing everything we can to support it. And would like to see five, seven, ten years hence what one can see if one drives from cairo to alex andrea, using drip irrigation producing high value profits for exports markets. We are going to focus our support strategy on the market areas in the larger cities in the areas adjacent to them where the work force is available and where the government has greater control than it does in other parts of the country. The idea being that, given the right policy environment and conditions, that there already are existing afghan businesses and there will be more who can set up facilities to process the product of the countryside and then reach out as one of the businessmen that i spoke with when i was over there a few weeks ago, he is mining for onyx in helmund and processing it near kaboul. Others growing fruits and vegetables, fresh and dried and selling it in kandahar and india. Recently we sponsored a trade event for three days at the end of september in india where we had, all told, between indian and afghan businessmen, women, government officials, media people, Civil Society representatives, there were about 1,700 people who participated in the event for three days. Out of it came 27 million in signed sales contracts, afghan product, for the indian customers, and another approximately 240 million in various types of agreements that have yet to come to fruition, but some of them will. That shows, though, that there are existing businesses in afghanistan that know how to deal with the region and have product thats acceptable. So our job is to make that grow. And were going to be doing a number of things to support those businesses. Including, as weve done with many of our programs, that many of them, as those who went to the event in india, are run and owned by women. So another piece of that that we are now looking at is what are the electricity electric Power Requirements of the growth of the private sector in afghanistan. And so, we have had for years our support to the electric power sector and were still working on that. But if this is to succeed, that there would be significant private sectorled Economic Growth that would importantly relate to exports to the region and other places, then what are the electric Power Requirements of that. So were trying to get a handle on that, together with our afghan colleagues and the government and the private sector, by the end of january. And then to see what we can do to home in on that and support it, as we move forward. An important part of it, and a few weeks ago i was talking with the leadership of the chamber of commerce and they said 70 of the jobs in peshawar depend on trade with afghanistan. Its also true when you talk to people in afghanistan who are in business that a lot of the opportunity relates to exporting and it would be nice if there were Free Movement of goods across the afghan pakistan border. And so, from both sides, from pakistan and from afghanistan, were going to be doing everything that we can to help get to yes on that. And yes in a sustainable way, because yes or two weeks is not really a good way to build your business. Another important piece that i will be one but last thing that i am going to mention, is the extractive sector. We worked for several years with afghanistan to help develop that, and the efforts really werent very successful. Now we are open to doing that again, and were looking to support it in ways that afghanistan wants to do. Were not going to get ahead of the Afghan Government and ahead of afghanistan on supporting the extractive industry because it can be a huge diversion and waste of money and time. However, we have engaged the u. S. Geologic service, geological service, to take the huge amount of raw data that was developed years ago on the Mineral Resources of afghanistan and to put that into some form thats useful to potential investors in extractive industries. And that we have already contracted. That is going to happen. So that way a Mining Company can know, if theyre interested in a particular resource, what it is and where it is and what about it. The independent anticorruption agency, a monitoring and evaluation committee, has done corruption vulnerability assessments on they started with ministry of health and then went to ministry of education. Their next target is the ministry of mines and petroleum. So we are supporting them to do that. And also supporting their quarterly followup on action taken against the recommendations made. The ministry of mines has a very good road map, we think, for development of the extractive industries. Mines and petroleum. And so, as the effort with the anticorruption push that president ghani emphasized at the recent senior officials meeting in kabul following up one year after brussels, as they push forward with that, there is a road map that theyve developed to develop the extractive sectors. We are going to do what we can to support that. Including a new project that we have coming on to help the government ministries address the sources of corruption within them and to help Civil Society to monitor the extent to which thats being done. So the final point that i would make, and forgive me for going a bit longer than i was allowed. The final point is that there is a u. S. afghanistan compact which is an afghan initiative, that includes over 200 Performance Measures related to the whole gamut of issues that face the country, including private Sector Development issues. And so thats an afghan initiative. The government has said, and president ghani has emphasized that they are Going Forward with that, we are available and are, in fact, helping them to move on those things to the degree that thats requested and that we have some capability to do it. And in parallel to that, we have a its not brandnew now but its called the new development partnership, which is taking key reform measures, Performance Measures, and relating u. S. Financial support to them. So its a fouryear 800 Million Program with 200 million a year related to specific Performance Measures agreed between the usaid and manufacturinafghanist. So those are elements that can support the for specific private Sector Development initiative that we know is absolutely essential to afghanistan achieving the goal that president ghani laid out at the senior officials meeting in kabul, which is to move from talking about how to get more donor assistance to how to get private investment so that afghanistan can stand on its own, pay its bills and move ahead. So that, again, relates to the overall objective of the south asia strategy, which is to help afghanistan be stable enough to manage extremism within its borders and help pakistan be secure enough to play a constructive role in the region. So i look forward to the discussion and to having the chance to say hello to my old friends and meet new ones. Thank you. [ applause ] okay. Thank you very much, mr. Huger. Hello, everybody. Welcome to csis. I am ra mina bandura. I whether be moderating the panel today. Ill introduce briefly our distinguished panelists and i have a dozen questions to ask you. First, the lady. Mozhgan wafiq. Ceo of impressive consulting and member of the afghanistans Womens Chamber of commerce and industry. Ambassador anthony wayne, former deputy ambassador in kabul and former coordinating director for development and Economic Affairs at the u. S. Embassy in kabul. Jeffrey grieco. President and ceo of the afghanistan American Chamber of commerce and former usaid assistant administrator and hue sine ali mahrammi is an entrepreneur and member of the afghanistan craftsmen and traders. I would like to divide the panel maybe into the u. S. Perspective and jump into more of the local voices. Well start with the feelgood story. I would like to ask some questions about the achievements of afghanistan and the private sector in particular since the last 16 years Jeffrey Grieco and anthony wayne, what do you think are the, in your opinion, the three main achievements that the private sector in afghanistan has accomplished . Ambassador, you first. All right. So i will start with the private sector voice, maybe, on this. So afghanistan i think you have to historically looking at it in context, and i am very aware that cspan is here today, so we have a larger audience than just our audience here watching, and i think its really important that the American Public know that the successes that afghanistan has had with a lot of support from the United States and other donors, both multilateral and bilateral, has not just been in health and education and in womens empowerment. There is a lot of success going on in afghanistan. Unfortunately, a lot of that success cannot be talked about, publicly, because of the insecurity levels and the possibility that you could bring others into it who would like to take down that investment or take down that successful project. So i am going to try to whip through just a few private sector successes in a broad categorical way that i think identify how far theyve come, really. I will start with ict, a sector very close to my heart. In 2001 there was virtually no cellular or mobile telefonny in afghanistan, let alone women having access. By 2016 over 18 million mobile subscribers now exist with the penetration rate for women of between 86 and 92 having access to it. That is an incredible achievement. Now, how did the Afghan Government and the afghan private sector got there . It was with a lot of support from the donor community. There is no arguing with that. The early donor investments that started as early as 2002 came from the department of defense, the state department, usaid, helping to implement over 2. 6 billion worth of infrastructure within the ict sector inside inside afghanistan and upon that infrastructural base was an additional 2 billion of began and other direct investment to help build up some of the i. T. Infrastructure inside afghanistan to bring it to where it was a few years ago. Were going to talk in a few minutes about what needs to be done now. This is one of the sectors where theyve fallen rapidly behind to keep ict a really big Success Story for themselves. Afghanistan is primarily an agregrian economy. Its ag driven as a percentage of the 201 gdp numbers. Thats a presty sizable percentage. Afghanistans agriculture is still the main drive for employment, for living. Wheat is the main component of that. Afghanistan is now the largest per capita wheat consumer in the world. Outstripping every developing country as well. Developed country as well. The main products in afghanistan agriculture include not just wheat and opium, unfortunately, it is a big part of afghanistan still. Fruits, nuts, wools, even mutton, sheep skin and lamb skins are counted as key potential export items for them to other countries. A lot of exporting going on with pomegranates and other dates and fruits and nuts. Third area is Infrastructure Development. Theres been a major amount of Infrastructure Development done by the United States. By the adb, Asian Development bank, the world bank and others as well as the Afghan Government in a series of private Sector Investments that will hopely longer term, be privatized to be fully scaled as utilities and other operations in afghanistan. This includes the kadjaki dam. They recently announced a phase two and the contract was awarded to general electric. The cost of 1,000 project. Turk man 500 volt line thats been constructed and is almost finished. The cross line. 500 volt line is almost finished. The dabs project, hopefully soon available to a foreign investor. Theyve also spent a lot of time on a regionalization. Not just of their electricity their pour simply grid. Theyve done agreements successfully. Theyre coming into what is in the future we hope going to be a very diversified electrical system that will have major components owned by companies. Under their new production. A law tha