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The Weakness and Ineffectiveness of 
International Efforts to restore the Afghan 
Economy and the country’s regional Economic 
Ties
In the course of over 30 years of continuous armed 
conflict, all branches of Afghan industry (including 
those created with Soviet assistance in the 1960s and 
1970s) have been destroyed. The situation in agricul-
ture also fares only marginally better with there hav-
ing been a sharp decline in the volume of agricultural 
output as a result of the fighting and mass migration 
from the villages. The country has become increas-
ingly dependent upon deliveries of food from abroad. 
The collapse of the Afghan economy in turn deter-
mines the weakness of the country’s regional eco-
nomic ties from which it finds itself cut off. For ex-
ample, over the period 2002-2011 the five neighbors 
of Afghanistan (Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, 
Tajikistan, and Pakistan) together accounted for only 
some 10 percent of its foreign trade turnover.
It is obvious that the reconstruction of 
Afghanistan requires, therefore, large-scale invest-
ment in the country’s industry and agriculture as 
well as the development of economic ties with neigh-
boring countries. If this is to be achieved it is essen-
tial that cooperation between Afghanistan and its 
neighbors be bolstered and accelerated. However, the 
near total absence of international aid to Afghanistan 
directed toward the restoration of its industrial and 
agro-industrial sectors, combined with the weakness 
of the country’s regional economic relations, make 
it impossible even to tackle this crucial task. While 
international donors allocated a portion of funding 
to the restoration of certain Afghan roads (mainly 
those used to supply the NATO troops deployed in 
Afghanistan), the prospects for the reconstruction of 
Afghanistan’s industry and agriculture remain hazy.