The Economic Deputy of the Taliban’s Prime Minister has announced that Abdul Ghani Baradar laid the foundation stone of an industrial park in Balkh.

On Friday September 18, the 27th of Sunbula, the deputy’s office wrote in a newsletter that this industrial park is located at the Hairatan crossroads of Balkh province.

At the event, Baradar said that the Taliban’s priority is to gradually turn Afghanistan into a producing country, transform its young human force into a productive force, connect industry, production, and the market together, and supply quality manufactured products to regional and global markets.

He added that the Balkh industrial park proves in practice the Taliban’s commitment, strategic thinking, and strong determination to build an industrial and producing Afghanistan.

In his view, this work will resolve the problem of industrial land shortage in the province, provide a ground for industrialists to operate, reduce dependence on imports, and at the same time create job opportunities for thousands of citizens.

He called Balkh one of the country’s important commercial, transit, and industrial provinces and said that the Hairatan port in this province should not be only a route for importing goods and ordinary traffic; rather, this route should be an important transit road for exporting processed products and Afghan manufactures.

Baradar once again asked the international community to fully open the doors of formal economic relations with Afghanistan and end the financial and banking freeze.

He emphasized that the Taliban have the capacity and the will to actively participate in regional and international economic engagement.

It is worth noting that, according to the Taliban’s newsletter, the Balkh industrial park will be built on an area of 22,000 jeribs of land, which will provide the ground for processing raw materials, producing quality products, and exporting in various sectors.