{"book":"adl0981","page":9,"text":"The importation of equipment and\nheavy machinery has increased the\nGovernment's need for foreign currency\nand made it necessary to secure help both\ninternally and from larger States. The\nrecently passed Foreign Capital Invest-\nment Law invited fresh foreign capital\ninto the country for use in various fields.\n\nIn the field of mines the salt and lapis\nlazuli mines have been worked for many\nyears. Coal is now being mined in\nAfghanistan. What has recently attracted\nthe attention of the Ministry of Mines,\nhowever, is the search for oil, since\nexperimental oil wells drilled in the\nnorthern parts of the country have proved\nthe existence of substantial quantities of\noil in Afghanistan. The Ministry has\nrecently undertaken a general survey of\nthe country's mines and the preparation\nof a geological charting of Afghanistan.\n\nSince its inception the Ministry of\nAgriculture has undertaken to extend\nforest land and encourage reafforestation;\nto foster improved breeds of cattle and\ndomestic fowl; to prepare experimental\nfarms and to bring in and introduce\nsimple agricultural equipment and\nartificial fertilisers. It has also perse-\nveringly fought plant and animal diseases\nin all parts of the country. Various\nplants such as cotton, jute, flax, beets,\netc., too have been introduced into\ndifferent regions, thus furthering indus-\ntrial development. The Helmand Valley\nDevelopment Project is one of the\ngreatest agricultural projects to date, for\nwhen it is completed around half a\nmillion jiribs (250,000 acres) of land in\nsouth-west Afghanistan, now barren, will\ncome under cultivation; whereupon this\npart of the country will resume its historic\nimportance. A considerable number of\nnomads have already settled in the\nHelmand Valley.\n\nThe Ministry of Public Works, with a\nview to encouraging agriculture, trade\n\nand industry, has been responsible for the\nconstruction and repair of roads, dams\nand canals. Several modern river dams\nhave been built, a result of the expansion\nof trade between Afghanistan and her\nnorthern neighbour, the Soviet Union.\n\nThe same forward-moving trends can\nbe seen in other means of communication.\nThe number of wireless sets and tele-\nphones imported annually is going up,\nand to-day Afghanistan can contact\npractically any country in the world\nwithin a matter of minutes. The\ninauguration of the Afghan Ariana Air-\nlines was another important step forward\nin the transport of cargoes both human\nand material. Where east-west air traffic\nis concerned moreover, the country\nbenefits from its unique position in the\nheart of Asia. The economy involved in\nthe use of this short route has led the\nGovernment to approve the building of\nan international airport at Kandahar.\nWhen it is finished, this airport will be\nable to accept jet aircraft and serve a\ngreat purpose in international communi-\ncations. Through this and the Kabul\nAirport—also modern and nearing com-\npletion—Afghanistan will be connected\nby air with all parts of the world.\n\nTo-day there are a number of transport\ncompanies serving the nation and some\nnew banks have been founded. The\nAgricultural and Cottage Industries\nBank, the Commercial Bank and the\nIndustrial Cassette are examples of these.\nThe Government's Monopolies Depart-\nment is another organisation which plays\na significant part in the country's\neconomic undertakings. By monopolising\nthe import of sugar, petroleum and motor\nvehicles it has carefully organised their\ndistribution and kept prices from soaring.\nTo prevent a serious shortage of wheat\nand a rise in the cost of this most impor-\ntant crop, the Government has built two\nlarge, modern silos. These improvements\n\n6","chars":3639,"image":"https://storage.googleapis.com/adl-page-images/adl0981/00009.jpg","first_page":1,"last_page":109,"title":"Afghan progress in the third year of the plan","permalink":"https://afghanpress.org/book/adl0981/9","canvas":"https://afghanpress.org/iiif/adl0981/canvas/9","source":"https://afghanistandl.nyu.edu/books/adl0981/","source_pdf":"https://afghanistandl.nyu.edu/pdf/adl0981_download.pdf","rights":{"image":{"statement":"Public domain. NYU states: \"All works presented on this website are, unless otherwise indicated, in the public domain. The images available on this website may be freely reproduced, distributed and transmitted by anyone for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial.\"","uri":"http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/","holder":"New York University Libraries","source":"https://afghanistandl.nyu.edu/about.html","delivery":"Images are served from a copy mirrored by this project, not from NYU's servers, under the reproduction terms above.","endorsement":"This is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by New York University."},"text":{"statement":"Machine-generated transcription, dedicated to the public domain under CC0 1.0. No warranty of accuracy: see the provenance block on every page.","uri":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/","holder":"Steps Ventures"}},"provenance":{"text_produced_by":"gemini-3.1-pro-preview","thinking_level":"low","read_completed":"2026-08-09","per_page_confidence":null,"per_page_confidence_note":"Not recorded during the corpus run. No calibrated per-page score exists, and none is estimated here.","human_reviewed":false,"accuracy_context":"Roughly two thirds of characters agree with a modern printed edition of the same text. Much of the disagreement is editorial, not misreading. Treat the transcription as a finding aid and read the page image before quoting.","primary_source":"The page image. The text is an index into it."}}