Disparity between Afghanistan and its neighboring countries from economic perspective:

The Afghan government has to use its natural resources, has to create jobs for its people and indeed Afghan Government has to change its status from a user to producer, otherwise the country will remain poor and the people will be in worse situation than they are.

Look at the economic status of Afghanistan and its neighboring countries based on exports, imports, oil-consumption and production, unemployment rate and dept-external (the total public and private debt owed) situation of each country:

Afghanistan:

Exports: $327 million (2007),
Imports: $ 4.85 billion (2007),
Oil-Consumption: 5,036 barrels/day (2006 est.),
Oil-Production: 0 barrels /day (2007 est.),
Unemployment rate: 40% (2008 est.),
Dept-external: $8 billion in bilateral debt, mostly to Russia; Afghanistan has $500 million in debt to multilateral development banks too (2004)

Pakistan:

Exports: $20.62 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.),

Imports: $35.38 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.),
Oil-Production: 68,670 bbl/day (2007 est.),
Oil-Consumption: 345,000 bbl/day (2006 est),
Unemployment rate: 7.4% plus substantial underemployment (2008 est.),
Dept-external: $43.23 billion (31 December 2008 est.)

Iran :

Exports: $106.4 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.),
Imports: $67.79 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.),
Oil-Production: 4.7 million bbl/day (2007 est.),
Oil-Consumption: 1.6 million bbl/day (2007 est.),
Unemployment rate: 12.5% according to the Iranian government (2008 est.),
Dept-external: $21.77 billion (31 December 2008 est.)

Tajikistan:

Exports: $1.4 billion f.o.b. (2008),
Imports: $3.2 billion f.o.b. (2008),
Oil-Production: 503 bbl/day (2008),
Oil-Consumption: 10,600 bbl/day (2008),
Unemployment rate: 2.3% (2008 est.),
Dept-external: $1.37 billion (31 December 2008)

Turkmenistan:

Exports: $9.887 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.),
Imports: $5.291 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.),
Oil-Production: 180,400 bbl/day (2007est.),
Oil-Consumption: 107,400 bbl/day (2006 est.),
Unemployment rate: 60% (2004 est.),
Dept-external: $1.4 billion note: some estimates put this figure as high as $5 billion (2004 est.)

Uzbekistan:

Exports: $9.96 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.),
Imports: $6.5 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.),
Oil-Production: 99,260 bbl/day (2007 est.),
Oil-Consumption: 157,100 bbl/day (2006 est.),
Unemployment rate: 0.9% officially by the Ministry of Labor, plus another 20% underemployed (2008 est.),
Dept-external: $4.052 billion (31 December 2008 est.)

China:

Exports: $1.465 trillion f.o.b. (2008 est.),
Imports: $1.156 trillion f.o.b. (2008 est.),
Oil-Production: 3.725 million bbl/day (2008 est.),
Oil-Consumption: 7.88 million bbl/day (2007 est.),
Unemployment rate: 4% officially in urban areas, (2008 est.),
Dept-external: $420.8 billion (31 December 2008 est.)

* Source of Information: Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of United States of America