KABUL - Afghanistan’s Taliban-led administration is to sign a contract with a Chinese company to extract oil from the Amu Darya basin in the country’s north, the acting mining minister said on Thursday.
It also underscores neighbouring China’s economic involvement in the region, even though the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria militant group has targeted its citizens in Afghanistan. The Chinese company will invest US$150 million a year in Afghanistan under the contract, the spokesperson for the Taliban-run administration, Mr Zabihullah Mujahid, said on Twitter.The Taliban-run administration will have a 20 per cent partnership in the project, which can be increased to 75 per cent, he added.