August 18, 2003	Monday	Jumadi-us-Sani 19, 1424

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KABUL, Aug 17: Afghanistan is considering building its first railway in a bid to redirect Central Asian transit trade to Pakistan and South Asia, Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani said on Sunday.

“Pakistan and Afghanistan fully see eye-to-eye on the importance of deepening of economic ties and in particular we are both keen that the Central Asian trade is redirected through Afghanistan to Pakistan and Iran,” he told reporters after a visit to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Ghani said landlocked Afghanistan had a major opportunity to provide two-way trade between Central and South Asia.

“Uzbekistan’s cotton alone could become a significant item of trade between Pakistan and Uzbekistan and of course it would be passing through Afghanistan,” he said.

“As a result of this we have agreed to very quickly undertake a study of the feasibility of a railway from Chaman to Kandahar and also from Torkham to Jalalabad,” he said.

Afghan railways to the border towns of Torkham and Chaman would link up with the Pakistani rail network.

The work would be undertaken with the cooperation of the Asian Development Bank, which has been funding development of major road networks in Afghanistan and Central Asia.

Ghani said he had also discussed the question of Indian participation in oil and gas pipelines from Central Asia to South Asia during his Pakistan trip.

“We are firm believers in open trading regimes between South Asia and Central Asia and feel that an open trading regime is to the benefit of all and we very much hope that the difficulties between Pakistan and India can be ironed out.

“Particularly we would be delighted for India to participate in the oil and gas pipeline project,” he said.—AFP