http://jeremisuri.net/archives/661 Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:17:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://jeremisuri.net/archives/661/comment-page-1#comment-142 Jeremi Suri Wed, 23 Jun 2010 13:26:36 +0000 http://jeremisuri.net/?p=661#comment-142 Excellent points, Doug. As you say, Afghan mineral wealth could contribute to the creation of a modern work force. This will require broad domestic investment in education, social welfare, and representative governance at many levels. This is a tall order, but it deserves serious attention right now. Excellent points, Doug. As you say, Afghan mineral wealth could contribute to the creation of a modern work force. This will require broad domestic investment in education, social welfare, and representative governance at many levels. This is a tall order, but it deserves serious attention right now.

]]> http://jeremisuri.net/archives/661/comment-page-1#comment-141 Doug Yang Wed, 23 Jun 2010 06:08:13 +0000 http://jeremisuri.net/?p=661#comment-141 I think you have hit some of the fundamental questions that will have to be addressed in the immediate future. Just the announcement itself has the potential to elicit further popular impatience and suspicion of local officials. There is a real chance for positive development and industrialization, but only if Afghan talent is utilized and preserved. The least desirable outcome would be a war-torn nation diminished of its natural and human capital. Successfully conducting a long-term extraction plan must involve local talent, but it also requires Afghanistan to use this new mineral wealth as a means and not as an end. President Karzai and his government must prevent the commodities industry from overwhelming the provincial and national politic, and it is within Afghanistan's interest to withhold foreign companies from outsourcing skilled labor positions from which Afghanistan might be able to construct a modern labor force. I think you have hit some of the fundamental questions that will have to be addressed in the immediate future. Just the announcement itself has the potential to elicit further popular impatience and suspicion of local officials. There is a real chance for positive development and industrialization, but only if Afghan talent is utilized and preserved. The least desirable outcome would be a war-torn nation diminished of its natural and human capital. Successfully conducting a long-term extraction plan must involve local talent, but it also requires Afghanistan to use this new mineral wealth as a means and not as an end. President Karzai and his government must prevent the commodities industry from overwhelming the provincial and national politic, and it is within Afghanistan’s interest to withhold foreign companies from outsourcing skilled labor positions from which Afghanistan might be able to construct a modern labor force.

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