Re-Creating Afghanistan
The Trials of Building a Business

 Listen to Renée Montagne's report.

 View a photo gallery on efforts to rebuild Kabul.

Metalwork factory owner Masood Amenzota hopes to help rebuild his homeland. Photo: Tom Bullock, NPR News View enlargement

"Sometimes I think I will sell all the equipment and leave, and part of me tells me to wait here -- things might get better. And so I will see what happens." Afghan businessman Masood Amenzota

Construction continues on an office building in Kabul. Amenzota hopes to employ 120 workers or more to install doors and windows on such projects. Photo: Tom Bullock, NPR News

Aug. 22, 2002 -- Record numbers of refugees have streamed back into Afghanistan following the fall of the Taliban. More than 2 million Afghans are expected to have returned home by this autumn, and many are looking to set up businesses.

As part of NPR's series "Re-Creating Afghanistan," Morning Edition guest host Renée Montagne profiles one of them: Masood Amenzota, who is struggling to establish a metalworking factory near Kabul. With the materials he produces -- including frames for windows and doors and natural-gas pipes for homes and businesses -- he hopes to help rebuild his country, much of which is ruins following decades of war.

But first Amenzota must overcome obstacles: former warlords collect multiple tax levies on materials he imports as the items pass through their territories; underpaid government bureaucrats demand bribes to set up electricity or telephone service for his business; and obtaining a business permit involves a long series of delays.

To house his factory, Amenzota pays $10,000 per month to lease an old cinderblock warehouse on the outskirts of Kabul. That's the going rate for a big intact building near the city, he says.

Amenzota says he never thought he would own a business in Afghanistan. For 23 years he had been in exile, running businesses in Turkey, Syria and, until last spring, Iran.

"After the United States intervened and the Taliban collapsed, I was very hopeful and optimistic and decided to come back to my country," Amenzota says.

He was not alone. Ragnhild Ek, the spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Kabul, says officials didn't expect to see so many refugees coming home with so much to offer.

Most of the businesses brought back by refugees are small enterprises, Ek says. They're opening grocery stores, selling radios and CDs, driving taxis. Hairdressers might use a bucket to wash customers' hair, "but it's a hairdresser's salon," Ek says. "These things are growing by the week."


In Depth

 Listen to a July 25, 2002, Morning Edition report on efforts to attract foreign investment in Afghanistan.

 Search for more NPR stories on Afghanistan.


Other Resources

• Learn more about Afghanistan development at this U.N. site.

• Read about World Bank projects in Afghanistan.

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