00:11:59:05
(Air Hostess,)
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, we are arriving shortly at Mazari Sharif Airport, please fasten your seatbelts and observe the no smoking sign.
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00:12:07:08
Narrator
Welcome to the world’s most unlikely budget airline. This is Kam Air, Afghanistan’s latest foray into capitalism.. Now ferrying an army of passengers between the country’s major cities for as little as twenty dollars as well as nearby international destinations on a fleet of 737’s. Despite a major crash last year, business is booming for the airline because flights are cheaper than the tortuous day long land journeys on Afghanistan’s highways. Kam Air’s planning to expand operations to Frankfurt and London.
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00:12:41:04
Narrator
The calm in Kam Air is this man, Zamarai Kamgar, Afghanistan’s take on Stelios. Here in the city of Mazari Sharif at one of his many palaces you can now see Afghanistan’s famous rugged terrain or at least a concrete replica of Mr Kamgar’s favourite mountain view is this building in the garden complete with his favourite fauna from the Hindu Kush, a private neverland for Afghanistan.
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00:13:06:24
V/O for Zamarai Kamgar
The World should see the other side of Afghanistan, we also like nice things. We appreciate beauty and art.
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00:13:14:00
Narrator
For thirty years Mr Kamgar has stocked and traded loyalties, making money under every regime from the Russians to the Taliban and now to Mr Carsai’s progress to the government.
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00:13:25:24
V/O for Zamarai Kamgar
We are Afghans, we are free thinkers, we don’t want to be attached to any ideology that’s imposed on us. Politics is not our trade, but any government that comes to power has to deal with us, we are entrepreneurs.
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00:13:40:17
Narrator
Every corporate mogul needs a shiny HQ, from here it’s his gleaning new building in Kabul. Mr Kamgar runs a business empire stretching from construction to importing luxuries. He started up Kam Air immediately after the fall of the Taliban in 2002. His planes alongside the government run Ariana, the first commercial flights here in a decade. His latest project a gas refinery in the North will be the first to purify imported Uzback gas from a new pipeline also built by him.
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00:14:11:07
V/O Zamarai Kamgar
The government doesn’t really like the private sector, sometimes they feel they want to destroy us and control everything themselves, but the harder they try the more stubborn we become. For example, the transport minister, one day out of the blue, decided to stop all of flights without any explanation, even though we’d been flying internationally for months. But I’ve overcome all that. I started this airline with just one man, now, I control the whole sector.
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00:14:45:22
Narrator
Maintaining his influence is a full time job. Tonight the fake mountain range plays host for a feast for three and a half thousand people attending the funeral of a relative. All the good burgas Mazari Sharif have have turned up to pay respect to Mr Kamgar’s family. Mazari Sharif itself is home to this country’s most religious holy site, the ancient tomb of Ali Mosque. The hundred dollar bills are flowing here too, Afghanistan’s aviation boom, ensuring that even the Imams are well looked after.
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00:15:17:13
US female marine
Mr Kamgar just fed us a very beautiful Afghan lunch, thank you very much.
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00:15:23:23
Narrator
Even the occupying forces are obliged to show their respect, the US marine core here to other thanks for help in building a new fire station for their main northern base in neighbouring Balkh.
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00:15:38:18
Narrator
Afghanistan’s war ravaged infrastructure has only been hap-hazardly rebuilt by the Kabul government. Filling this gap has been entrepreneurs like Mr Kamgar, paying for no less than thirteen bridges on the main Salem highway. So why is it down to him and not the government? Critics claim that billions of dollars of international aid meant to rebuild the economy and infrastructure have simply vanished, fuelling popular distrust and resentment at the Kabul government, so bad have things become that one former minister says that the country is mired in corruption.
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00:16:13:19
V/O of former minister
Today there is a mafia structure ruling Afghanistan which operates behind closed doors, with only its decisions made public. Many in the government itself don’t know how the decisions are reached. The structure of this mafia cancer include major government ministers, influential Afghans from inside and outside the country as well as the key figures of the major foreign embassies and UN offices operating here. They’ve know each other for thirty years and have defined this mafia structure over that time.
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00:16:44:09
Narrator
One of those the former minister accuses is president Karzi’s current deputy defence minister General Dostum, seen here in what’s known as a brotherhood ceremony with US special forces. As leader of the alliance, he helped the Americans topple the Taliban, and they returned the favour. Critics say Mr Kamgar helped fund this notorious warlord for many years, but Kamgar says he can’t choose Afghanistan’s rulers and needs to keep his business going.
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00:17:17:03
V/O Mr Zamarai Kamgar
This accusations are nothing new. We were first confronted by them by the Taliban, they confiscated all my properties. But we proved them wrong and got it all back, even those guys didn’t dare keep anything. First we had Dostum then there was the Taliban, now president Karzi, tomorrow it will be another person, but whoever rules Afghanistan, they need us, and we need them.
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00:17:43:13
Narrator
Remarkably Afghanistan is ranked by the World’s bank as one of the easiest countries in the world to start a business. Better even than hi-tech Japan or Finland. But it’s also ranked in the bottom ten percent of actually being able to do business. For now, Afghanistan’s first private airline is more the exception rather than the rule, so it’s not just the nations new cricket team that needs sky high ambitions if this country is going to take off economically. <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->