Think Railways

In his speech at Council on Foreign Relations, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani underlined the country's key priority to invest in developing its railway infrastructure in order to facilitate freight transport from Central Asia to China and to transport its mineral resources - iron, copper, and gold.

"Just one of our cities is linked (by rail) to our neighboring country, but now our attempt is to link to China and all our neighbors. The bulk of what we are going to produce in the next ten years is very heavy. Without rail there is no possibility of create the economies of scale. Our first breakthrough in terms of transit is coming via Central Asia - Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey", he commented.

In three years from now, the country's ambitious plan is for rail freight to reach Europe in just five days, and to have 70% of imports and exports carried out via the Caspian Sea.