Taliban regime was ousted from power in late 2001 and with that a new window of hope and prosperity opened for Afghanistan and its people. One of the areas under international focus was boosting up Afghan economy by encouraging investments. Encouraging the private sector was deemed vital for reaching this purpose.

Attracting the foreign and domestic investment – in agriculture, industries (including mining), education, telecommunication, transportation and etc. - fell among the key plans of the government and its foreign backers, although plans remained plans only. From 2002 to 2006, the way investments were made in Afghanistan was promising. After 2006, however, large investments have continued to dwindle with increasing insecurity.

Funds that have been flowing in the forms military and non-military aids constitute the main structure of Afghan economy. As is the case with security situation, Afghanistan national economy might also collapse all it once if the international community stops supporting it. This is no less than a national tragedy for the country. However, the government has reluctantly acted to lay strong economic foundations over the past 12 years. Meanwhile, it has terribly failed to attract foreign direct investment (FDI). Actually, FDI is directly related to the political and security situation of a country. In Afghanistan the security situation is at its worst. This could be better, if the government had logically formulated its policies, especially towards the insurgents.

Specifically speaking, it is the Taliban who are responsible for the deteriorating security situation. For a part of their success, the way the government has been dealing with them is the main reason. The Taliban have been killing thousands of innocent people each year and instead of being prosecuted and sentenced to severe punishments, they are being set free in a way that it feels as there is no law in the country. This is how the government policies have been sophisticating the business and investment environment in the country.

At current, most of the business activities are confined to Kabul city only, even not to its districts. That is the very reason for why the population of this city has been so rapidly growing over the past decade. The government has failed to make environment feasible for living a terror-free life, let alone for doing business in many other provinces that hold much capability to develop fast. Definitely, large business firms will not invest in a country where they can only operate in its capital city.

With much regret, economic development of Afghanistan is highly fragile at times when the government policies are inclined more towards the Taliban than towards the hands that have supported it and the country for the last decade. The current political deadlock has added fuel to the fire. With the prevailing uncertainties, only naïve entrepreneurs would come here for making large-scale investments.