While the West's efforts in Afghanistan largely amount to military operations or aid handouts, Chinese entrepreneurs are piling in there in the hope of making money, the South China Morning Post reports.

China is well known for doing business with many countries on the African continent, including those still considered by the West as predominantly aid cases, rather than business opportunities. In Asia, China has already wooed Myanmar. Now, it's Afghanistan's turn.

"Around 1,000 businessmen from China are currently in the country (and) not just in Kabul," a Chinese diplomat is quoted as saying by the South China Morning Post.

They are involved in sectors such as construction, telecoms, trading, building supplies and restaurants. One Chinese company is working on a telecommunications network that will connect Afghanistan's provinces and link the country itself to some of its neighbours.

Anyone proposing this "national information highway" a few years back "might have been accused of hallucinating on some of the country's vast stocks of export-quality opium", the paper comments. But for China, it seems nothing is impossible, even in a country as insecure as Afghanistan.

In the words of Jin Xin, a Chinese businessman in Kabul: "After 25 years of war, everything has to be reconstructed in Afghanistan. Chinese businessmen recognise the opportunities here and want to contribute to the rebuilding." And it's not only businesses - the Chinese government has also been involved. Apart from $150 million dollars in aid, China has been providing direct assistance to different Afghan ministries, ranging from defence and agriculture to education and culture. "Our policy is clear. We believe that a stable, developed Afghanistan is in the interests of China," the paper quotes an unnamed diplomat as saying.

But there's another big incentive too.

Afghanistan has vast potential for copper mining, a resource that "many feel could dramatically transform Afghanistan", according to the paper.

However, the country has a long way to go yet, especially in the south, where violence has confined aid agencies to major cities, Christian Science Monitor reports.

NATO commanders acknowledge there's no military solution and say improved governance and reconstruction are crucial. The United States and Britain have increased aid to the south, and the Afghan government has expanded its reconstruction and development offices in Kandahar. But finding Afghan aid agencies willing to work in outlying districts is hard, especially in areas where international troops inspect aid work. "When they monitor the projects themselves, they come with tanks, with weapons, and this affects our staff badly," says Abdul Salaam Siddiqi, deputy director of the Voluntary Association for the Rehabilitation of Afghanistan.

In order to be effective, aid agencies need to engage with the local population but that's nearly impossible when their staff are clad in body armour and travel in Humvees, the Monitor says.

"It is a strange time. There is Western interest in putting money in here, but little idea of how to move forward or who might do it," it quotes Rangina Hamidi, an aid worker with Afghans for Civil Society, as saying. Ironically, the large amount of aid pouring into the south may be exacerbating problems elsewhere, according to a report by the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief. The disproportionate amount of assistance delivered to insecure areas overlooks the massive development needs in comparatively stable regions. The report says this imbalance can create incentives for provinces to create insecurity in order to attract resources.

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