Mediaboss Marketing

The Problem

Afghanistans economy is primarily an agriculture-based economy with most of its population being occupied in agriculture(a sign of an underdeveloped economy).

Historically Afghanistans economy was rather a prospering economy due to it being a doorway between ancient India and ancient Persia, in modern times, the economy of Afghanistan saw some development in times King Amanullah Khan and Sardar Daud Khan.

Afghanistans main exports areagricultural products and Gemstones, and main imports are machinery andtextiles, such exports and imports are a sign of an underdeveloped country.

Afghanistan is rich in natural untappedresources, having been called the Saudi Arabia of Lithium(19), and many othersemi-precious and rare earth minerals, these being discovered, Afghanistan is probably home tomany many undiscovered natural resources.

Economic projects such as the Helmand valley authority, TAPI, CASA and a less successful agricultural reform are among some of the big economic plans implemented in Afghanistan, thus showing that Afghanistan has a severe need for multiple economic plans to be implemented.

Afghanistan has great potential for tourism due to its vast historical sites and artifacts.

Afghanistans economy has been in crisismode since the Saur revolution and is among the least developed countries

That all said, the biggest challenge in Afghanistans economy is finding a sustainable, stable and capable source of growth.

The Situation

The current global economy is dominatedby multinational companies, the reason more than 50% of the worlds money restsin less than one percent of the population is because of these companies, I would like to give a few examples

More than half of Netherlands GDP comes from Royal Dutch Shell (23), its economy basically consists of big companies such as Shell, ING group of Banks, Philips, Unilever and many others, its interesting because almost all of these companies rely on foreign markets rather than the internal market due to the small population, although Netherland has almost 25% of Europes natural gas resources, Shells revenue comes mostly from doing its trading in other countries, same goes for its multinational banking companies and others, meaning although they lack in resources and population yet still the Netherlands is the 16th biggest economy (nominal GDP) in the world.

Israels economy is noteworthy, despite having no resources except the recently discovered diamond deposits its the second most developed country in the middle east next to Qatar which has enormous reserves of Oil, Israel, with 82% of its workforce occupied in services, it currently has the second-largest amount of startup companies after the US (4) and 3rd in the world for the most NASDAQ listed companies after the US and China. (5)

The Solution

Objective: To find a sustainable source of economic growth in theform of revenue from enterprises and companies in different sectors of theeconomy

Step by StepSolution

Walmart (13), currently with a workforce of 2.3 million and yearly revenue of more than 500 billion US dollars, is a chain of hypermarkets, such hypermarkets have a greater chance of success due to the success of many small superstores in different provinces of Afghanistan, These hypermarkets should be made in the 5 main provinces and are sure to be successful if it accompanies the right marketing tactics.

The Main electronic device would be Mobile Phones, Tablets and Computers,if possible made in Afghanistan, if not assembled in Afghanistan, otherelectronic devices such as televisions and other home appliances orentertainment use electronics and other electronic devices should be producedwhich require light industry but are either absent in Afghanistan or notorganized enough to be considered a player in the market.

TV channel: the lack of a quality TV channel is something that should be fixed the only TV channel that earns all of its budgets by itself and doesnt require foreign help is Tolo(18), but due to its polarizing ideas, the need for a proper and quality channel is seen dearly.

TV serial and Movies: something that has been present in the foreign for a long time such 21st-century fox and other entertainment corporations, a lack of such companies is the reason Afghan culture is being infiltrated with Indian and Turkish cultures, such endeavors if executed correctly would result in turning Afghanistan into a cultural hub.

Radio: ruralareas mostly only have access to Radio, so focusing on this would be quiteimportant.

Otherentertainment: Parks, Toys and many more, an empty market for these should bethe reason for its success.

These companies would have a rather smaller market inAfghanistan but would be a source for profit if expanded to internationalmarkets.

In all these mentioned sectors the government should form a company that is organized and all these products are coordinated by competent leadership, the benefit of such would be that these products in whatever form would be organized and the goal of the government which is expansion would be easy to implement.

Such imitation or copying of global companies will haveanother advantage and that is the reduced amount of spending on research.

The need for expansion is almost absolute, Afghanistan has a rather small market, hence if these companies are not quickly yet timely expanded are not certain to make a big profit, expanding companies would make sure these companies are not stricken by war or other situations.

Afghanistans resources are yet bot accessible and the market small, expanding businesses to neighboring markets is the only choice, internationally most companies or at least many have their foreign markets as their source of revenue such Shell(24) and One Plus(25), and this is one more reason this plan will help Afghanistans economy.

If these 3 things are respected, then Afghanistanseconomy will grow at an unprecedented rate.

Afghanistan is considered to be an open market economy as such was tried to be implied by the Karzai administration, the Idea mentioned above, from a far view would seem to contradict that and one might think it would be the butchery of laissez-faire, although mentioned before, I would like to mention again it would not be a violation of laissez-faire because these proposed companies are meant to be treated private, although the government would detain stocks so one could argue over it. Personally, if something could boost the economy as the proposed theory can, I dont think laissez-faire or any other model should be of importance, even if they are of importance, we have the example of the German state buying stocks in the national companies to prevent them by being bought by the Chinese(22).

This plan would create an economy that is neither damaged by wars or the enormous uneducated population and if correctly implemented would give the government an enormous amount of surplus budget, which could be used in fixing all problems of the state thus guiding Afghanistan to becoming a developed country.

Challenges andObstacles: The biggest challenge this plan will face is corruption and security

Corruption: To makesure this endeavor would be safe from corruption some steps should be taken:

Security:

Consider if even one of these companies, such as the restaurant chain makes 100th the revenue McDonald makes, it would give Afghanistan a sustainable and capable source of economic growth, let alone of multiple of these companies would become profitable, it would do wonders for the Afghan economy.

Answering Doubts and Questions:

Ans: The reason that I am quite sure that the companies would be a success is because of examples we have, Pakistans phone brand Qmobile, with that of bigger but almost a similar market regarding the status to Afghanistan, which although its growth was pushed back due to its alleged illegal importing of devices, yet still has an estimated revenue of 500 million dollars, its success was mentioned in the news outlet The Nation(10), quoted marketing strategy of Qmobile is the reason behind its success, Another example could be seen in the success of the Chinese company One Plus which due to its unique marketing strategy is among the top mobile device provider along with companies such as Apple and Samsung.

Local examples are the brand Alokozai, especially its soft drinks brand due to its local production, cheaper and due to the use of extra marketing, it has become the most consumed soft drinks/beverage in the country.

Ans: Finding staffwith experience in this field would be difficult to find locally, key technicalstaff should be brought from foreign countries with experience in the sectorthey will be employed and when and where Afghans are capable, they would leadthe company

Ans: most of these companies I proposed will be treated like startups, that dont require that much money to start. A Hypermarket with all resources would cost a maximum of 1 million dollars(26), an electronics company would cost up to (27) and banks would require even less.

Ans: Because this isnt a public enterprise, the only thing governmental is the funding and thats it, CEOs, staff and the whole organization would be independent of any kind of government intervention, CEO or other key staff might be given some shares so they would be motivated to make the company more profitable.

Ans: The basic answer would be no because once again the government would only be the funder and secondly even if that does happen, why should it matter? Germany recently bought shares in their own companies to make sure they stay in the country.

Ans: Resources are of less importance, most developed nations have almost no resources (eg South Korea) and secondly most of these examples that I have given dont require resources all such as a hypermarket chain or a banking sector.

Ans: That is thereason I keep mentioning expansion, companies like Shell, OnePlus and most ofthe international companies have international and foreign markets as theirbiggest source of revenue(24)(25).

Note:

In the end I would like to state that the success of each of these companies in interweaved with one another, for example, if retail services are successful, then the online service or E-commerce would also be successful, and so on.

Conclusion:

The implementation of such a plan where companies and enterprises, imitating international companies in different sectors of the economy, are made and expanded is surely to boost the economic growth to such a level where they need for foreign aid would not be needed and Afghanistan would be out of poverty and the status of being an underdeveloped country.

Consider if even one of these companies, such as the restaurant chain makes 100th the revenue McDonald makes, it would give Afghanistan a sustainable and capable source of economic growth, let alone of multiple of these companies would become profitable, it would do wonders for the Afghan economy.

References

23.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell

24. https://www.statista.com/statistics/279424/royal-dutch-shells-revenue-by-region/

25.https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.economictimes.com/news/company/corporate-trends/oneplus-wants-to-make-more-in-india/amp_articleshow/62922704.cms

26.https://www.reddit.com/r/theydidthemath/comments/35zkf1/request_how_much_does_everything_inside_a/

27. https://www.quora.com/Id-like-to-start-a-smartphone-company-Where-do-I-start-and-how-much-would-it-cost-me

28. https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/afghanistan/overview

Matiullah Shenwari is a student of the Nangarhar University in Afghanistan. Matiullah has a keen interest in the economic and security situation of Afghanistan, he frequently writes articles about Afghanistan, you can contact him on Matiullahsh1313@gmail.com

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Proposed Theory for the Economic Growth of Afghanistan - The Khaama Press News Agency