China rejects halting business with Afghan banks

KABUL (Pajhwok): China has rejected as utterly groundless media reports that said its banks had halted dollar transactions with most Afghan commercial banks.

Da Afghanistan Bank chief Noorullah Dilawari last month told a foreign news agency that Chinese banks had halted dollar transactions with most Afghan banks, making it difficult for businesses to pay for imports.

“China is a major country that was handling those bank transfers, and now they have told the banks they can’t do it,” Dilawari told Reuters news agency.

But the Chinese Embassy in Kabul in a statement quoted Counsellor Chen Shijie as saying that Chinese and Afghan banks had normal business ties.

“China attaches great importance to developing its relationship with Afghanistan and is willing, as always, to work together with the Afghan side to promote the bilateral cooperation in all fields,” Shijie was quoted as saying in the statement.

The Wolesi Jirga is currently debating draft laws on money laundering and terrorist financing and has announced to make a decision on the bills on Wednesday.

Some Western countries have told Afghanistan its banks would be put on an international blacklist if it did not pass the anti-money laundering law.

FATF, an international body that sets standards on how countries combat money laundering, is due to decide at its meeting on June 22 on whether to blacklist Afghanistan.

The task force has previously told Afghanistan to pass laws meeting global standards against money laundering and terrorist financing or face the blacklist.

pr/ma

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