Afghanistan is the victim of three decades of what is called the foreign-imposed war. After the Taliban was toppled in late 2001 as result of US-led invasion, a new window of hope and affluence opened for Afghanistan. One of the areas under international focus was to boost 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. As we moved ahead, the security situation got worse with each passing year hampering all kinds of expected developments including attraction and encouragement of foreign and domestic investments.

According to Afghanistan Investment Support Agency AISA, doing business in Afghanistan can be very rewarding. Even smaller investments may generate high profits in a short period of time. Most of the national and international firms functioning in Afghanistan - despite the security threats - have been generating huge amounts of profit. Taking high risk in business either leads high profits or severe losses. But both the domestic and foreign direct investments in Afghanistan have been too little forming a monopolistic competitive market than a perfect one.

Investment in Afghanistan has remained confined to only a few companies while many multinational companies do not dare investing here. On the mining sector – deemed a hope for Afghanistan's long term economic stability – contracts have been signed for extraction of Iron Ore and Copper in Bamiyan and Logar provinces respectively. Nonetheless, such contracts would take long time to yield benefits to Afghanistan.

Afghanistan has failed to attract sufficient Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Over the last few years, according to AISA figures, FDI has decreased rather than increasing. The reason for little investment can largely be deemed to be the lingering security condition in Afghanistan.

Poor infra structure, lack of facilities, political instability, unskilled labor and government's procedures are other causes of lack of interest of business companies towards Afghanistan. However, if the government is willing to work on economic well being of the country, it has to take measures to lessening of the mentioned issues. For how long will Afghanistan have to remain dependent on foreign aids?