Amirzai Sangin, son of Amirgul Gulshakhel was born in Urgun, Paktika province on 6th June 1949. Mr. Sangin attended primary school in Urgun and secondary school in Gardiz and high school in the Telecommunication Training College, Kabul.
In 1969 Mr. Sangin went to the United Kingdom for higher studies and In 1973 he obtained his engineering degree in Telecommunications and Electronics from South London College, London.
Mr. Sangin started working as lecturer in the Telecommunications Training College, Kabul from 1975 till 1978 and between 1978 till 1980 he served as the General Director of the Telecommunications Training College.
As a result of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, Amirzai Sangin left Afghanistan in 1980, and become political refugee in Sweden. In 1982 he joined Swedish Telecom. He worked with the communications project of King Khaled International Airport, Saudi Arabia as project team member from 1982 to 1985. For the next five years, up to 1990, he was involved in the design, development and implementation of mobile networks in Sweden. During 1990-2001, Mr. Sangin, a founding member of Swedish Telia International; took part as a leading team member in international bids, winning 8 GSM licenses in Estonia, Lativia, Russia, Hungary, Italy, Namibia and India.
While in Sweden, Mr. Sangin was also an active member of the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan, which has played a major role in helping Afghanistan in the education, agriculture and medical sectors during the last two and a half decades.
Mr Amirzai Sangin returned to Afghanistan soon after 9/11 . He headed the evaluation committee for the award of the first GSM license in 2002 in the Ministry of Communications. In February 2003 he was appointed as the Senior Advisor to the Minister of Communications. As the Senior Advisor he was responsible for the development of the Telecom and ICT policy and the Telecom Law, coordination of efforts for issuance of new licenses, preparation of the annual development plans for 2003 and 2004, preparation of proposals and presentation for donors and consultative groups, overseeing the process of tenders and contracts for the development projects and finalization of major financial and cooperation agreements with international donor agencies and Governments.
Mr Sangin was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the government owned telecommunication company Afghan Telecom in July 2004. As the CEO of Afghan Telcom, his role has been vital in the establishment of the company, passing the decree and the By Laws, building the organization, developing new processes and procedures, and the implementation of the technical development plans.
Mr. Sangin was appointed as Minister of Communications and Information Technology in December 2004 and has been in this post for the last 8 years. During this period, under the visionary leadership of Mr. Sangin, there has been tremendous progress in the Telecommunication sector. The telecom sector has attracted the biggest Foreign Direct Investment totaling to $ 2 billion and annual revenues to the treasury are over $200 million. The telecom sector has created over 100,000 well-paid jobs. Telecom services cover over 85% of the population and there are over 18 million phone users in the country. Broadband digital networks, DSL, 3G and Wimax are being implemented in major cities and should reach more than 50% of population by end of 2014. Most parts of the country as well as neighboring countries are connected via optical fibre networks. As a result of this progress, the telecom sector today plays vital role in the lives of the Afghan people and in the economic development of Afghanistan.
