The Ministry of Mines and Petroleum has 18 small mines in seven provinces of the country are now open for bidding.

Shahabuddin Delawar, acting minister of Mines and Petroleum said that investment in mines can provide work opportunities and progress in the country, and to provide smuggling they supervise the extraction process.

“After today we have three supervisors in every mine, one of them from intelligence, one from that province, and the third one from the mine,” said Shahabuddin Delawar.

According to Delawar In the next five years, Afghanistan will be at the top of countries economically.

“We can say that Afghanistan will be at the top of the countries economically, if this system, and this transparency, this sincerity, remains,” said Shahabuddin Delawar.

Meanwhile, some participants in the bidding process asked the Islamic Emirate to provide an investment field for insider companies in big projects.

“It's unhealthy competition, these foreigners who come did not see the area or did not check it properly, they offer very high (returns to the de facto authorities)...and we have to pledge very high in response, and that's a problem for us,” said Abdul Ghani Nowruz, an investor.

“We call on the Islamic Emirate to give all contracts to insider companies if they have the capacity,” said Elyas Hotak, an Investor.

18 mines in Helmand, Faryab, Kabul, Kandahar, Logar, Uruzgan, and Paktia will be handed over to domestic investors for five years.