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The Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) has announced a substantial investment to initiate tourism, commercial and urban redevelopment in Afghanistan.The fund will establish a world-class hotel in the center of the country?s capital Kabul, Prince Amyn Aga Khan, the younger brother of His Highness the Aga Khan, has said.
Following meetings with President Hamid Karzai and senior government ministers, including Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and Minister of Justice Abdul Rahim Karimi, Prince Amyn made an extensive tour of the premises of the former Hotel Kabul, accompanied by the Minister of Civil Aviation and Tourism, Mr Mirwais Sidiq, and the Mayor of Kabul, Mr Mohamed Anwar Jekdelik.
?The Afghanistan government has invited us to address urgent development priorities in the nation?s tourism industry by creating facilities of an international stature that will have an immediate, positive impact on the local economy as well as on the urban and cultural landscape of Kabul,? said Prince Amyn, Director of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) and chairman of its executive committee.
?This project for an investment in Afghanistan?s hospitality sector,? he said, ?will also allow us to contribute to the training of skilled manpower, the reinvigoration of artisanal and craft industries, and upgrading of the urban fabric in a sensitive manner. Clearly, the revival of tourism will be of major importance to this project for its long term future success?.