As Afghanistan looks for investment, China eyes stability --- Afghan President Ashraf Ghani arrived in China on Tuesday for four days of meetings aimed at strengthening ties between the two countries. The visit emphasizes Afghanistan’s need to shore up dwindling foreign investment and China’s interest in leveraging expanded economic cooperation with Kabul to ensure regional stability as NATO forces depart. -- On the first day of his first state visit since becoming Afghanistan’s new leader last month, Ghani met with his Chinese counterpart, President Xi Jinping, in a ceremony announcing closer economic and security cooperation. “We feel that our vision of Afghanistan as a hub of regional trade, transit and peace would be an illustration of your vision of East Asia and South Asia cooperation,” Ghani said. Xi, meanwhile, called for “a new era of cooperation in China-Afghanistan relations” to “take development to a new depth and breadth.” -- For Afghanistan, the visit highlights the nation’s stark economic picture and uncertain future. As the 13-year war de-escalates, Afghanistan’s economic growth is stalling at 1.5 percent, according to World Bank figures. With his China visit, Ghani, a former World Bank economist who made a career creating state-building institutions in poor countries, hopes to change that. At the heart of a stronger economic relationship is one of the world’s most valuable untapped mineral deposits, which include large quantities of copper, iron and ore. -- A recent U.S. geological survey estimated that Afghanistan’s untapped mineral wealth could exceed $1 trillion thanks to a massive deposit said to include copper, iron, cobalt, ore and other rare earth metals. An assessment by the Afghan government has put the number of estimated mineral wealth as high as $3 trillion. -- In 2007, two of China’s state-owned enterprises initiated a $3 billion deal to develop one of Afghanistan’s untapped mineral sites, a 5 million-ton copper deposit at Mes Aynak, about 20 miles outside Kabul. The project, undertaken by Metallurgical Company of China and the Jiangxi Copper Corporation, has been plagued delays. Last year, China removed its workers after attacks by the Taliban – a force Beijing does not want to see encouraging Muslim separatist groups its western Xinjiang region. -- But the deal remains the cornerstone of China’s investment in Afghanistan, and it is expected to play a major role in the expanded economic link between the two countries. Beijing and Kabul already have an energy partnership. In 2012, the China National Petroleum Company secured rights to develop oil fields in the Amu Darya basin, in Afghanistan’s north. -- Afghanistan, in turn, hopes to secure a transportation link between the two countries, which are separated by a 47-mile strip of sparsely populated land known as the Wakhan Corridor. -- Read More, http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/10/29/as-afghan-looks-forinvestmentchinaeyesbusinessstability.html