New currency launched with UN support

From Monday Afghans will no longer be forced to go shopping with suitcases full of bank notes. Replacing the hopelesssly devalued currency, new notes - worth 1,000 old afghanis - have been launched in the capital Kabul, and will soon be available throughout the country. "We've targeted the money changers first, because they control such vast amounts of cash," Anwar ul Haq Ahadi, Governor of the Central Bank of Afghanistan, told IRIN from Kabul. Ahadi expressed confidence that the new money would help stabilise the nation's fragile economy and help attract foreign investment. But getting the new notes out to all 32 provinces in transport-strapped Afghanistan wont be easy. The United Nations Joint Logistic Centre (UNJLC) in Kabul has been helping the government manage the transition. While not wanting to go into detail for security reasons, a UNJLC source told IRIN that aircraft and road transport would be put at the interim administrations's disposal to assist in getting the new currency out to banks in isolated parts of the country. Further UN assistance has come from the Afghanistan Information Management Service (AIMS). AIMS has been providing mapping and information support and the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) has been assisting with procurement advice for the Afghan authorities. Kabul hopes to have the new afgani operational throughout the country within a month, and by early December old afghanis will no longer be legal tender. Until now many traders and shops have relied on the US dollar and Pakistani rupee rather than the rapidly-fluctuating afghani. "Ultimately, this milestone will only mean something if our economy recovers, but having proper money is going to help that process," Ahadi said.