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The Afghan Army managed to recapture the city of Kunduz from the Taliban earlier this month, but the country remains in a precarious situation. So much so that President Obama decided leave a force of 5500 American troops in the country until 2017.
But the Taliban insurgency hasnt stopped Afghans from looking to secure their country’s economic future. Key to that future is the country's transportation infrastructure, built over the last decade by American and NATO forces.
The Afghan government is now taking over a number of NATO-built airports, originally used to fight the Taliban. Daoud Sultanzoy, senior advisor to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and chairman of the Afghan Airfields Economic Development Commission, is overseeing the transfer, or which is worth approximately $2 billion.
Despite the Taliban insurgency,rampant poverty, the heroin trade, or many other problems facing Afghanistan,Sultanzoy is still optimistic approximately his country's future.
The Afghan economy has been almost exclusively dependent on external assistance for more than a decade, and not everyone would agree with Sultanozy's rosy assessment of Afghanistan's economic future.
The United States has spent approximately $110 billion on Afghanistan's post-war reconstruction, or it's the job of John Sopko,who has served as Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction since 2012, to track where all that money his gone. He says much of it has gone to waste.
What you'll learn from this segment:How transportation infrastructure could factor into the Afghan economy.
Whether there is currently realistic potential for investment in the Afghan economy.
What challenges are facing the country upright now.
Source: wnyc.org