| The 2nd Afghanistan National Export Conference, June 21, 2009 |
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The 2nd Afghanistan National Export Conference held on June 21, 2009 at Inter-Continental hotel in Kabul was aimed at highlighting the challenges facing exporters and deciding on an action plan to address those challenges. The conference was a unique platform of face to face discussion of the Government and the private sector in presence of donor representatives that brought together Afghan Government high-ranking officials, representatives of private sector institutions, representatives of the donor agencies and foreign embassies, and approximately six hundred leading exporters from all over Afghanistan. |
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| The exporters pointed out the following challenges and asked the Afghan Government and the donors to stick to their commitment of developing the private sector by removing these barriers and addressing the challenges. |
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- Lack of cold storage facilities for preservation of perishable products.
- Poor infrastructure, especially relating to transportation that impose extra cost
- Lack of accredited laboratories for quality testing of products to issue quality, phyto-sanitary and other types of certificates that will enable Afghan products to be exported to the international markets.
- Threat of fruit insect and inadequate facilities to assure treatment against this pest.
- Poor governance coupled with excessive red tape results in extra costs for producers and exporters.
- Complication of foreign countries’ visa issuance to Afghan exporters.
- Non-standard processing and packing of export products.
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| At the end of the conference, a joint declaration was agreed upon by the participants allocating various tasks to concerned ministries in order to address the prevailing challenges related to the export sector. |
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