(MENAFN- Wadsam) The Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU)
reveals how Nimroz, one of Afghanistan's under-researched provinces, has
transformed into one of Afghanistan's primary hubs for international trade in
its recent working papers, 'Catapults,
Pickups and Tankers: Cross Border Production and Trade and How it Shapes the
Political Economy of the Borderland of Nimroz'.
The report was launched virtually today with attendance
from representatives of a number of national and international organisation.
'We are thrilled to bring key analysis on Nimroz
borderlands into the research map, perhaps for the first time, as
this area is significantly under researched,' said Dr. Orzala Nemat AREU
Director.
The paper focuses on how, in the past two decades, Nimroz
province has transformed into one of Afghanistan's primary hubs for
international trade, trailing only Nangarhar, Herat, and Balkh in terms of the
value of customs duties the government collects.
Dr David Mansfield, AREU's leading expert on opium and
rural livelihoods has written this paper with the financial support of Global
Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) under the Drugs and (dis) order project. 'Drugs
and (dis) order: building sustainable peacetime economies in the aftermath
of war' is a four-year Global Challenges Research Fund project generating
new evidence on how to transform illicit drug economies into peace economies in
Afghanistan, Colombia and Myanmar.
Mansfield said, 'This research documents just
how dramatically the province of Nimroz has changed over the last decade, and
why.'
'Nimroz has become a critical economic hub for
Afghanistan with trading links that expand well beyond neighbouring Iran and
Pakistan. As such, Nimroz and the revenues and rents earned from the trade
routed through the province, is of growing geopolitical significance and will
have a bearing on any future political settlement,' he added.
The paper argues that the level of the illicit trade in
the tri-border area and the population of Nimroz's links with those in Pakistan
and Iran have further increased the economic and strategic significance of the
province. The size of Ziranj, the provincial capital, has doubled between 2008
and 2019 and attracted businesses and traders from Farah and Helmand provinces
and this reflects the role of Nimroz as a regional economic hub for the
southwest, and a relative security environment, even for those with
wealth.
Click here to see the full report.
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