New Coca-Cola plant opens in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan President Hamid Karzai presided over the official opening of a new Coca-Cola plant in Kabul on Sunday, more than 10 years after the previous Coke facility in the capital was destroyed during a deadly civil war.

Karzai praised the plant’s developer, Habibullah Gulzar, for investing $25 million to build the facility, which has provided 350 jobs and can annually produce 15 million, 24-bottle cases of the soft drink.

“This is another step forward for economic growth, self-sufficiency and better living standards for Afghanistan,” Karzai said during an inauguration speech at the plant in Kabul’s eastern suburbs.

The Afghan president said he hoped the new Coke plant would serve as a catalyst for further private investment to boost his country’s ailing economy, which is heavily reliant on foreign aid.

A smaller Coca-Cola production facility in Kabul’s western suburbs was destroyed during the 1992-96 civil war, which killed more than 50,000 people in the capital.

The Associated Press Afghan children play on a destroyed machine of an old CocaCola production company in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday.