“It is the consensus among the private sector that with something in the order of $10 billion of non-military expenditures over the last three years, the impact on the Afghan economy has been less than it should be,” the Afghanistan International Chamber of Commerce (AICC) said in an April 3 press release. In private, AICC officials say NGOs squandered or even “stole” the money.

In its press release, the Chamber acknowledged that, at first, “the private sector lacked the capacity and the transparency to absorb these large amounts [of money]” but “the reality is that the donor nations… did not have a proactive policy of support for the private sector.”

The AICC wants this to change and seeks more attention for the private sector – so that Afghanistan can develop further on its own when aid money will stop coming, says AICC chairman Hafizi Azarakhs.

It was no surprise the Chamber came with its plea on April 3, because the next day a major donor conference, the Afghanistan Development Forum, started in Kabul. Here, it got the support of the Afghan government. President Hamid Karzai also accused NGOs of squandering the aid money given to Afghanistan – which the NGOs understandably denied.

The country’s budget is financed for over 90 percent by foreign donors, who therefore have the last say over how the money is spent. And fearing government corruption and incompetence, much has been handled through the NGO community. This not only didn’t encourage the private sector to grow; NGOs also don’t pay taxes and other duties and are therefore of little help to boost the government’s income. And their favorable status has led many enterprising Afghans to set themselves up as NGO to profit from its tax-exempt status – while doing business as a private company. This is another of the grudges of bona fide enterprises against NGOs.

The UK and the World Bank in the end supported Karzai’s plea that the private sector deserves more support. However, apart from growing poppies, there is little going on in the Afghan private sector outside construction. Hardly a factory has survived 25 years of war unscathed.

But still, there is one exception at least. With Italian support, one promising enterprise – an olive farm with a factory producing olive oil – is being re-developed near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan. In the 1960s, the Soviets built the farm with 20,000 hectares of irrigated land. All produce up till 1989 went to the Soviet Union, says Giuliano Masini who oversees the refurbishing project. Then, the farm was abandoned. But in 2003 the factory – still owned by the Afghan ministry of agriculture – was restored with Italian help. Since then, attention has shifted to recover the plantation, of which 300 hectares are used for production again.

A total 135 people are currently employed at the plant; 300 people are permanently working on the plantation (there are also seasonal laborers). This year, a first five tons of olive oil “made in Afghanistan” were produced by the restored factory. They had the oil tested in Italy where it was pronounced “top quality,” says Masini. And the olive oil was a success: it was quickly sold out in the shops of Kabul.

When the whole plantation is fit again for production, hundreds of tons of olive oil can be produced. The plan, says Masini, is “to go East” with the production. Instead of trying to break into the over-saturated European market, he wants to concentrate on Pakistan and India.

And since the Jalalabad enterprise has the only olive oil factory and the biggest plantation in this whole region, Masini believes it has a bright future. Here, then, is a sustainable enterprise that could help Afghanistan stand on its own feet when the aid money dries up.