Minister of Economy Mohammad Jalil Shams of Afghanistan

between the two regions would not take place without Afghanistan.

Mr Shams said the Wakhan route was unviable because there was no road access, it remained closed for six months in winter, financially uneconomical because of its length and mountainous terrain and was very vulnerable to sabotage.

Shams said the government was making efforts to attract investors, but traders did not want to invest money due to insecurity in the country.

Afghanistan’s deputy minister administration Jalil Shams said his country was ready to support electricity export from the central Asian republics to Pakistan and to have a transmission line pass through Afghanistan because transit trade between the two regions would not take place without Afghanistan.

Minister Jalil Shams has served in the academic, private and government sectors.

Shams was educated in three countries - Afghanistan, Egypt and Germany.

Additionally, Ms, Shams received a Doctorate in Economics from Bochum University, Germany in 1973.

transmission line pass through Afghanistan because transit trade between the two regions would not take place without Afghanistan.

But the blunt honesty of Minister Mohammad Jalil Shams had a sobering effect on an otherwise pleasant day in Kabul: Taliban insurgents and narcotics were this year's bumper crops, he said, and if all goes well it will take at least a decade or two to win back public confidence eroded by a corrupt government that has failed to make good on promises of security and basic services.