The project seems, at the least, ill-advised: establishing Afghanistan’s first ever stock exchange amid the uncertainties of security and the suffocating presence of official corruption. But that is exactly what two young Afghans want to do. Ahmad Bassam and his partner Sanzar Kakar, both with years of banking experience in the US — with Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch, respectively — hope to have a viable bourse operating by 2014, about the same time U.S. troops pull out of the country.
“Once the foreign forces withdraw, the country will still need an economy,” Bassam says, explaining his rationale for the stock exchange. “And we want to help bring the structures in place that will get us away from donor-dependence.” He and Kakar claim to be in conversation with NASDAQ to bring the U.S. exchange on board as their technology partner.
No comments:
Post a Comment