Uzbek traders learn to do business with Taliban

Published November 2, 2021
A Taliban border security guard (L) stands as Uzbek security guards check a truck at the Afghanistan-Uzbekistan Friendship Bridge in Hairatan, Afghanistan, Oct 27. — AFP
A Taliban border security guard (L) stands as Uzbek security guards check a truck at the Afghanistan-Uzbekistan Friendship Bridge in Hairatan, Afghanistan, Oct 27. — AFP

TERMEZ (Uzbekistan): As lorries arrive in bursts of dust at a logistics hub in Uzbekistan’s southern city of Termez, squatting drivers share complaints about how trade has suffered since the Taliban seized power next-door.

“Before, our journey there and back took three days, now we are there for a week,” said Rafik Khujakov, an Uzbek who makes regular deliveries of beans to the Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif and brings back potatoes.

“Their people don’t know how to work the computers!” Khujakov said the Taliban had cracked down on border corruption, but companies and drivers were losing money because of lengthy delays.

“They check and recheck each other. It has become very difficult,” he moaned, in a refrain echoed by several other traders at the hub.

More than two months after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, border traders in southern Uzbekistan are nevertheless discovering that it is possible -- if complicated -- to do business with the religious hardliners.

Landlocked Uzbekistan, which once hosted US-led coalition forces that toppled the Taliban, has taken a business-first approach to the group, as firms in the ex-Soviet Central Asian republic seek a path to ports in Pakistan and Iran.

Central to that effort is the Termez Cargo Centre, a logistics hub opened five years ago to coordinate cross-border trade, mainly to Mazar-i-Sharif, 60 kilometres away in northern Afghanistan.

Trade with Afghanistan was always difficult, but business owners in Termez said the Taliban takeover has presented a new series of challenges.

One company owner told AFP his costs had grown because his drivers — all Afghan nationals with visas for Uzbekistan — refuse to travel beyond the Afghan border crossing at Hairatan, fearing they will not be able to return.

This means his company must pay different drivers on the other side for onward journeys, explained the businessman, who gave only his first name Ahmad because of concerns for relatives living in Afghanistan.

“I see nothing good in this group coming to power,” said Ahmad, an Afghanistan-born Russian citizen.

On the Afghan side of the “Friendship Bridge” that spans the width of the Amu Darya river, the Taliban government’s head of customs at Hairatan denied claims of delays.

“There is no such thing. All businessmen are satisfied... They are happier than under the previous government. The goods move through customs more quickly,” Abdul Sattar Rashid said.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2021

Opinion

Editorial

State Bank’s caution
Updated 12 Mar, 2025

State Bank’s caution

Easing monetary policy will be difficult for SBP without large, sustainable foreign capital inflows and structural tax reforms.
Syria massacre
12 Mar, 2025

Syria massacre

THERE were valid fears of sectarian and religious bloodshed when anti-Assad militants triumphantly marched into...
Too little, too late
12 Mar, 2025

Too little, too late

WHEN desperation reaches a point that a father has to end his life to save his daughter’s, the state has failed ...
Maulana’s message
Updated 11 Mar, 2025

Maulana’s message

The problem now is that most jihadi fighters, ideologues refuse to end their "struggle" on advice of state or mainstream clerics.
President’s speech
11 Mar, 2025

President’s speech

PRESIDENT Asif Zardari, addressing Monday’s joint session of parliament to mark the start of a new parliamentary...
Indian takeover
11 Mar, 2025

Indian takeover

BY the time the Champions Trophy final ended, the only indicators that the tournament had been hosted by Pakistan...