Afghanistan is facing another invasion -- this time by a formidable army of western builders, engineers and architects.
As the UK and the US hunt for al-Qaeda's mountain hideouts, their businesses are eyeing the choicest reconstruction deals.
Billions of dollars in transport, power, agriculture and construction projects are up for grabs. And the UK is trying to stake its claim, with its Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) launching a special website this month "to signpost opportunities for British companies."
British business has been in Kabul since last November, in the shape of development experts Crown Agents. The company, which is based in Surrey south-west of London, originally set up to advise countries of the British Empire making the transition to independence, is disbursing US$370 million in aid committed by Britain. The word is that Afghanistan's transitional government is impressed. The World Bank may soon hire Crown Agents to advise it on the best ways to address the country's humanitarian needs.
But the big money is in building, digging and drilling, which will begin in earnest over the next year. Civil engineering firm Fitzpatrick Contractors has worked in nearby Kazakhstan and is one of a number of British companies keen to get into Afghanistan first.
"We have already started a dialogue with the mayor of Kabul on hospital facilities that will be needed in the city, and begun preparing outline designs," says Bernard Woodman, managing director of Fitzpatrick's international division.
Construction giant WS Atkins, which built temporary housing for refugees and the military in Kosovo, is also interested.
After 25 years of conflict, Afghanistan needs rebuilding almost from scratch. Half of its urban housing has been destroyed, and one-third of a population of 28 million people displaced. Only one Afghan in 10 has access to sanitation, and the country has just 3,000km of road, of which 1,700km needs rebuilding.
It also has the world's lowest electricity consumption, and telephones are virtually unknown. The UN is devising a program of reconstruction that will swallow an estimated US$10 billion by 2006.
Billions more is likely to come in ad hoc funding from individual governments and even the private sector, said the business development director of another major contractor, who declined to be named. "There is an enormous determination on the part of the US, Japan and European countries to see proper stability restored to Afghanistan. They don't want to see the same delays over funding which held up so many big infrastructure projects in Bosnia and Kosovo. Projects like that can't always rely on UN money alone, which tends to come in fits and starts."
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