KABUL - Afghanistan may have a national stock exchange as early as 2014, head of the Afghanistan Investment Support Agency (AISA) Wafiullah Eftekhar has claimed.

AISA is working with relevant government organs to prepare the regulations of the stock market after major companies said they wanted to be able to publicly sell shareholdings in their companies, Eftekar told TOLOnews.

"It's one of the basic solutions for the financial crisis of the companies in Afghanistan. They can get huge benefits from selling or buying parts of their shares," Eftekhar said Wednesday.

A stock market allows companies to raise funds by selling shares of ownership in the company to a public market. However, its feasibility depends strongly on trust in the financial system, the transparency of transactions, and robust regulations to control the release of company information.

With the recent banking scandal of Kabul Bank and high levels of corruption in the country, 2014 may prove to be an ambitious start date.

Meanwhile, Eftekar claimed that investment in Afghanistan increased about 20 percent in the current year. "We have had a 20 percent increase in investment in 2012. Considering to the willingness of traders, there should be more investments in the next year," he added. It comes despite concerns that the withdrawal of foreign forces in 2014 from Afghanistan will lead to an economic crisis. (Tolo News)