The EastWest Institute (EWI) will convene “Afghanistan Reconnected,” an Abu Dhabi Process Meeting on Afghanistan’s investment potentials, in New Delhi at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s (FICCI) Federation House, on November 19-20, 2013. The conference will address key challenges and opportunities for investment in Afghanistan after the 2014 withdrawal of international forces. High-level representatives, including Afghanistan’s Finance Minister Dr. Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal and India’s former Foreign Minister Kanwal Sibal, will attend. Key participants from India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, as well as from U.A.E., Turkey, the United States, the EU, Central Asia, Iran and China will also be in attendance.

“This will be an opportunity for top people in the region and beyond to focus on the tremendous task Afghanistan has before it,” says Ambassador Beate Maeder-Metcalf, EWI’s Vice President who leads the Regional Security program. “The good news is that the opportunities may be as big as the challenges.”

FICCI has played a key role in the Abu Dhabi Process economic cooperation initiative and offered to host EWI’s regional investment conference in November. The first meeting of the series, held in April 2013 in Istanbul, centered on infrastructure issues. The second meeting, held in September in Islamabad, focused on regional energy trade and transit.

Questions to be covered in this meeting include: Can investment in Afghanistan’s untapped natural resources and in mining provide the much needed economic stability after the withdrawal of international forces in 2014? Could Afghanistan’s role as the transit route for trade and energy between Southwest Asia and the Far East, Central Asia and the continent’s  booming Southern region improve  economic prospects with win-win potentials for the whole region?

The November 19-20 conference on investment will be again conducted under the Chatham House Rule with the participation of selected media. TV footage is possible at the opening session. Media interactions with participants are welcome. EWI will be happy to assist you in contacting participants before or during the event.

Contact: Mohammad Shinwari, Program Associate, Regional Security at Mohammad.naeem_shinwari@ewi.info; Office: +32 (0) 27434622, Mobile: +32 (0) 474213861.