Afghanistan

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Afghanistan that want to become a part of the global trade market are faced with a myriad of problems that render this objective very difficult if not impossible in many cases.

Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (US-AF-01) between the Department of Defense of the United States of America and the Ministry of Defense of the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan (with annexes). Doha 22 January 2004 and Kabul 16 February 2004

AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND AFGHANISTAN FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT AND OPERATION OF UNITED STATES RADIO TRANSMITTING FACILITIES IN AFGHANISTAN. WASHINGTON 3 OCTOBER 2002 [United Nations Treaty Series vol. 2935 I-51044.]

Since 2001 the Government of Afghanistan has placed significant emphasis on institutionalizing reforms aimed at improving the country's overall business and investment climate improving supplyside competitiveness of key priority sectors (both goods-and services-based) and strengthening regional integration. The private sector is provided a prominent role to participate in policymaking debates affecting business and investment. However Afghanistan continues to face security challenges that are inhibiting these promising efforts. These conditions that are exerting downward pressures on the economy are evident by the registered decline in the GDP rate (2.4 per cent in 2018 from 2.7 per cent in 2017)1 and is expected to affect job creation as well as further productive growth. As a post-conflict country in reform the country faces a multitude of important hurdles to overcome.

Afghanistan wishes to expand its position as an economic link between Europe Central Asia the Middle East South Asia and East Asia in addition to providing socioeconomic gains to its citizens through trade led growth. This assessment finds that development of Afghanistan's e-commerce ecosystem will be an essential ingredient in this eventual success story.

The eTrade for all Initiative launched at the fourteenth Ministerial Conference of UNCTAD in July 2016 is a practical example of how to harness the digital economy in support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development notably Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 5 8 9 and 17. The initiative seeks to raise awareness enhance synergies and increase the scale of existing and new efforts by the development community to strengthen the ability of developing countries to engage in and benefit from e-commerce by addressing seven relevant policy areas.

This Rapid eTrade Readiness Assessment for Afghanistan was prepared by Rahul Bhatnagar in close collaboration with a team comprising Cécile Barayre Marian Pletosu and Dominic Leong under the overall guidance of Torbjörn Fredriksson. An UNCTAD team comprising of two national consultants Malyar Jabarkhel and Saleem Ahmadzai lent valuable technical and coordination-based support. UNCTAD's ASYCUDA field coordinator in Afghanistan Reza Mohammadi was instrumental in providing guidance on project management matters.