JULY 29, 2010: AFGHAN BUSINESS SYMPOSIUM RESOLUTION STATEMENT
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Afghanistan is a mosaic of ethnicities, languages and traditions. Each region shares different familial interrelationships and loyalties, where almost all loyalty to an accepted national leader clearly is secondary to tribal family, clans of tribes, and subsets of clans. Tribal leaders have made it clear that they desire to be a part of a real Afghanistan, an inclusive nation, ruled by a constitution with guarantees of individual rights, but also ruled by the tribes -- the families and networks of loyalties that bound the country together before the Soviet occupation.
Considering historical lessons, the tribal system resists all changes except from within, unless introduced in certain ways. Any external influence, or threat (especially military), are cause for uniting of the tribes, for outright war, passive resistance and deception. It matters little if there are values and admirable behavior involved: invasion equals resistance. Attempts by any external culture to supplant proven ways of coping with everyday life are met with resistance.
However, there are a number of scholars and professionals who do not want to see a return to tribal traditions; they see any tribal rule as a loss of individual freedoms. Some say that any attempt to force tribal rules on the young and the independent thinkers would lead to more fighting. We say that Afghanistan has always had a system for individual expression, the Jirga. Even America’s ultimate form of individual freedom and self expression - the Town-Hall Meeting or Caucus - was born from the same cloth as the Afghan Jirga; both came from Ancient Greece. Therefore, we believe that there should be accommodations for different Afghan perspectives; just as there are always accommodations for both rural and urban perspectives no matter what country.
However, there is a rapidly growing industry of private contractors, NGOs, think tanks and individuals, all addressing solutions to the rapidly growing chaos in Afghanistan. Their role is critical to any nation building endeavor in Afghanistan. All of Afghanistan, whose people live within and without, is suffering the same loss, feeling the same failure and is ready to restore what previously existed.
THE AFGHAN DIASPORA
It is time for Afghanistan to use the blessings that are available to it through its expatriate brothers and sisters, who are willing to contribute experience and ability to create more stability in their country of origin. This additional dynamic, often ignored, is the Afghan Diaspora. Over three million Afghans fled into Pakistan during the Soviet occupation. Residing in Pakistan today, they have overloaded that nation’s ability to maintain security in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (or FATA region).
An even more damaging Diaspora has been the exodus of highly educated Afghans into the West. This is a group that includes those capable of maintaining the complex fabric of Afghan society, as well as a mix of professionals and engineers, plus pastoral and agrarian experts with knowledge of modernizing influences.
THE WAR AND DRUGS
All of the building blocks necessary for Afghanistan to succeed have been disenfranchised to the extent of creating, not a nation state, but a self sustaining insurgency. Fighting the war creates and finances the opposition. Taking into account that Afghanistan is landlocked with extremely long supply lines through opposition held territory, the act of maintaining a military occupation force itself is financing the insurgency. Each supply truck pays up to $3,000 dollars bounty to opposition insurgents just to get through. Additionally, Afghan army and police units regularly sell ammunition and weapons to insurgents.
The massive drug trade has built a powerful criminal empire stretching from India to Switzerland and north into Russia, with heroin from Afghanistan becoming available to millions around the world. Money from this drug operation threatens to buy influence not only in the government of Afghanistan and the republics of the former Soviet Union to the North; it has drawn criminal elements from around the world into Kabul and Kandahar. In the guise of security and support for humanitarian and other legitimate activities, individuals serving the needs of the narcotics cartels operate openly and with impunity.
There is also broad evidence that multi-million dollar contracts are being awarded to false-front companies controlled by opposition insurgents; this allows them to remain economically viable and in fact, bloats them with cash that is increasing in rate as troop levels increase.
With billions of dollars in drug cash and false-front criminal contracting undermining efforts to restore traditional Afghan culture and lifestyles, a new “chaos culture” of guns and “warlordism“ has grown beyond the control of any authority including NATO. Even more tragically, “chaos culture” is undermining the chance for organized authority to emerge that can form a government of national unity.
OUR RESOLUTION
Expatriates took their professional knowledge out of Afghanistan and blessed the rest of the world. In the last 31 years their knowledge and talents have only been enhanced. Now it is they who want to share their knowledge and talents with their native blood-line connections in Afghanistan. They know that unity within the universe of Afghans outside of Afghanistan will in record time translate into national unity within Afghanistan; particularly if they are allowed to have dual citizenship.
So, we have come together to resolutely declare that it is time to put forth initiatives by Afghans for the benefit of Afghans to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan through prosperity. Afghans have a knack for gravitating towards and demanding what they see as beneficial to their numbers wherever they are.
We begin by combining e-Transparency (fiscal-transparency) Solutions initiatives with Biz-Jirgah to Biz Jirgah; expatriate-Afghan “Business Councils” doing business in Afghanistan through native-Afghan “Business Councils”. E-Transparency Solutions is a top-down focused strategic plan. When combined with Biz-Jirgah to Biz-Jirgah a strategic bottom-up approach jobs plan, we are placing business systems in sync with the anticipated phased down of foreign assistance.
Using e-Transparency with Biz-Jirgah business projects allows talented Afghan professionals to approach their actual blood-line relatives without the need for expensive contract protection; this will offer interpersonal contact and negotiations in terms that are impossible for today’s NGO teams.
Through e-Transparency’s anti-corruption device’s continuing automatic monitoring systems, every financial transaction that is out of phase with anti-corruption algorithms calls for closer scrutiny and examination.
E-Transparency’s anti-corruption device is "an electronic contracting and bidding system," specifically designed to eliminate layers of middlemen receiving payoffs". It is an "electronic contracting, bidding, tender system" for short.
Biz-Jirgah to Biz-Jirgah grass roots projects are the second phase of our activities that allows Donor Nation funds to reach the little person on the street or village level. Donor nation foreign assistance providers need reliable and trustworthy Afghan partners who can take charge of redevelopment assets and show transparent application and usage of those funds for redevelopment from beginning to end of project phases.
In Afghanistan, word of mouth (oral tradition) marketing of small successes fills the void and hunger for good news among Afghans on the street. Honest successful Afghan businessmen like Atta Amin (whose family runs the Amin Market in Herat Province) can travel freely throughout Afghanistan and represent Afghan Business Network on any business initiative.
BUSINESS INITIATIVES
1) According to Afghan Business Network Representative Atta Amin there is a great need for American formula grade cement in Afghanistan (Atta is an Afghan American businessman who travels to Afghanistan frequently). There is also a monopoly on cement imported into Afghanistan. The only way to obtain satisfactory quantities of cement for our construction goals in Afghanistan is to acquire an old unused cement factory and bring it back on line. By owning our own American-grade cement factory, we can not only supply our own needs, we will become the new standard. We could then control cement reconstruction costs whereby Return of Investment (ROI) would be huge. Those funds could then be used to acquire and rebuild the Amin Market to 21st Century standards, with Amin Market outlets throughout Afghanistan.
We could also afford to provide cement to build housing for Afghan refugees living in Iran; allowing them to leave unbearable conditions in Iran for homes in Afghanistan, built to more modern standards.
2) Another great need is sanitation. Kabul’s sanitation infrastructure was built decades ago for a maximum population of five hundred thousand. Today there are over five million inhabitants inside Kabul; sanitation inadequacies are a nightmare. NWSC, Inc.’s Biomass to Energy solution brings mobile toilets to every corner of Afghanistan where the need exists. Human and animal waste is collected through this system to provide methane gas for cooking, heating, hot water (with tankless water heaters) and small generator electricity; the best natural fertilizer in the world is a byproduct. A trash recycling program would be a natural extension of this idea.
3) We also have plans for a water project. Afghanistan has hundreds of millions of gallons of water in the mountains in snow-pack and glaciers. That water does not reach the lowlands because it flows into earthquake generated tectonic fissure cracks to end up underground, traveling beneath Afghanistan and Pakistan as underground rivers, then out to sea.
Rubber dams can re-direct the water flow towards the lowlands. Water diverted by the rubber dams can flow along a milder slope and can create significant energy head which can be utilized to create hydroelectric energy to power villages and cold storage facilities for produce and meats. With water flowing to the floodplains in large volumes, farming can be increased on a major scale. In fact, with water and cold storage, Afghanistan can rival California as a produce producing region.
Water can also be used as a strategic asset. We can offer Afghan water to Pakistan as an alternative to their water feuds with India in Kashmir. In fact, our long range planning calls for an economic union of nations in South Asia with Afghanistan and Pakistan at its core, and including the northern border region nations. India would be invited to join later, and even Iran would be given incentives to change its behavior so that it could also join.
4) With an abundant supply of water and cold storage facilities, large scale sustainable agriculture can transform Afghanistan into the produce capital of the region. We can move from seed to selling in 120 days with agricultural products. It would take 5 to 7 years to go from seed to selling with orchards, unless we imported mature trees from tree-farms; then it would take from 1 to 2 years to get mature orchards. Large scale agricultural development can provide sustainable employment on a scale greater than all other industries combined in today’s Afghanistan. A vibrant agricultural industry in Afghanistan could be the foundation that could bring all the nations in the region together into a common market, then into an economic union.
We believe that America and the West would rather see a viable economic union of nations in the region, a global economic partner with a multi trillion dollar economy, rather than dozens and dozens of terrorist havens with ill will towards the West.
We also believe that (today) Afghanistan and the United States are bound together in a delicate dance that will determine which future may come to pass -- a regional “chaos culture” or a regional economic partner. New World Strategies Coalition, Inc., Afghan Business Network, Inc., and Afghan International Development Corporation are counting on our “’Afghan Development Group’ Partners” -- a group made up of those who attended the July 29th Business Symposium for Afghanistan (potential LLCs) -- to work with us towards the brighter future.
FUNDING
The Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs, reports that “Donor… (Nations) spent US$36 billion in Afghanistan in 2001-2009 out of a total of $62 billion pledged in grants and loans”.
“Critics contend there has been a lack of transparency and coordination and that much of the funding has been squandered through corruption, mismanagement and poor targeting: achievements the government likes to point to in health, education, governance, and communications, could have been achieved at a fraction of the cost, they say”
With the release of the first Donor Financial Review (DFR) by Afghanistan’s Ministry of Finance, basic
facts and figures are finally available:
The Afghan government has been pilloried over allegations of endemic corruption, ineptitude and the mismanagement of aid, but it disbursed only 23 percent of foreign grants (about $8 billion).
Over $29 billion (77 percent of the total disbursed aid) was directly spent by donors with little or no government input; more than $15 of the $29 billion was disbursed directly by foreign military channels, according to the DFR.
This includes the Commanders Emergency Response Program - where senior officers in the field have access to cash for tactical spending - and the Provincial Reconstruction Funds, which "aims to win ‘hearts and minds’,” said Oxfam’s Jackson.
Mark Ward, special adviser on development to the UN’s top envoy in Afghanistan, said donors have funded their own projects because the government has not produced enough well designed national programs.
“The donors' projects are often not designed closely with the Afghan government and may reflect domestic priorities, not Afghan priorities,” he told IRIN.
During an international conference in London in January 2010 donors supported the government’s ambition to disburse 50 percent of total development aid by 2012.
Kabul, 28 September 2007: the Accountability and Transparency Project, was implemented jointly by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). The revised Accountability and Transparency (ACT) project was signed between the government of Afghanistan and UNDP in April 2009. Today, Donor nations are circumventing direct funding through the Afghan government because of a continuing lack of transparency, and enough well designated national programs; they seek a reliable partner in Afghanistan who can bring transparency and proper management of large projects and project funds. Therefore, we are initiating a campaign for all Donor nations to allow Afghanistan designated development funds to be utilized and managed through Afghan Business Network, Inc.’s e-Transparency Solutions with the support of Afghanistan’s Ministry of Finance and “’Afghan Development Group’ Partners” (all of you who sign on to this resolution).
We also ask the U.S. Congress to pass a bipartisan resolution supporting the e-Transparency Solutions oversight and management of the Donor nations’ designated development funds for Afghanistan, with the support of Afghanistan’s Ministry of Finance and “’Afghan Development Group’ Partners”.
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ADDENDUM
TO
JULY 29 2010 AFGHAN BUSINESS SYMPOSIUM RESOLUTION STATEMENT
On July 29th 2010 New World Strategies Coalition, Inc., Afghan Business Network, Inc., and Afghan International Development Corp. organized and sponsored a Business Symposium and Peace Initiative for Afghanistan in Washington, D.C. The overall theme was that the Afghan people need to now stand on their own two feet with the help of the Afghan Diaspora. It is time to create solutions by Afghans for Afghans.
New World Strategies Coalition, Inc. (NWSC, Inc.) is a Non-Profit Mutual benefit Organization. It is a center for Integrative-Studies, and a center for Integrative- Action; a Native-Afghan think tank. Integrative-Studies ideas are created that evolve into concepts that can be turned over to our Integrative-Action division for implementation. The Integrative-Action division has partnered with the Afghan Business Network, Inc. and Afghan International Development Corporation to carry out business related initiatives.
The Afghan Business Network, Inc. (ABN, Inc.) is a non-profit 501c3 organization. It is a group of entrepreneurs, investors, mentors and service providers collaborating together to achieve objectives such as growing businesses from the ground up to aid the U.S. economy, and rebuilding the economy of Afghanistan with the assistance of Afghans in Diaspora. It specializes in: advising and coaching executives and business professionals to pause and examine where they are so as to move forward more effectively. It provides resources for executives and business professionals to help them leverage strengths, manage weaknesses and move through the difficulties that populate any organizational landscape. It thereby helps businesses and professionals become better community members. .
Afghan International Development Corporation (AID Corp.) is a for-profit, privately held stock, C Corporation, for those seeking a return on investment (ROI). It was the project-manager for the July 29th Symposium in Washington D.C.
New World Strategies Coalition, Inc, Afghan Business Network, Inc. and Afghan International Development Corporation are an informal collection of interests that is cooperating as an Afghan Development Group. However, all Afghan Development Group business initiatives will be managed by Afghan International Development Corporation and Afghan Development Group Partners (businesses and organizations that endorse the Resolution Statement).
Afghanistan has no stock exchange, nor is there any commercial investment fund. We intend to raise funds by several means, then manage, control, dispense and monitor those funds to produce businesses and jobs in Afghanistan (with training and oversight) for all, including the average person on the street. Our goal is to work directly with the people of Afghanistan in the rebuilding of their nation.
To achieve the objectives of this Resolution the Afghan Development Group is optimistically looking forward to receive cooperation from the Governments of Afghanistan and the United States of America.
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