KABUL, April 23: Afghanistan said on Saturday it would open its mobile phone market in 2006 to two new companies, allowing more competition in one of the few booming sectors in the war-shattered country. Investors will have from May 15 to July 16 to bid for licences to operate in Afghanistan, where few people have landlines but over 800,000 wealthier locals as well as diplomats and foreign aid workers have subscribed for mobile phones.

“It is expected these new licences will generate a large amount of revenue for the government in license fees,” Afghanistan’s ministry of communication said in a statement.

The new licenses will “attract more than $200 million in new foreign direct investment and create thousands of skilled, well-paying jobs,” it added.

Currently two major mobile companies operate in Afghanistan: Roshan, which is owned by the Aga Khan Development Network, and Afghan Wireless Communication Co, a joint venture between the government and New Jersey-based Telephone Systems International Inc.

The two mobile firms came to Afghanistan after a US-led military campaign overthrew the Taliban in late 2001 and have invested $250 million, covering 32 urban areas in the country, according to the statement.

—AFP