On Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to recommence financing support to cash-strapped Afghanistan for reconstruction.

The Taliban’s central bank assets have been frozen and international financial institutions suspend access to funds, although humanitarian aid has continued.

Banks are running out of money; civil servants have not been paid and food prices have surged. The IMF said on Tuesday that Afghanistan’s economy was set to collapse up to 30 percent this year, possibly fueling a refugee crisis.

Wang, speaking via video-link to foreign ministers from Afghanistan’s neighbors said “Afghanistan is in need of revival on all fronts, and development is the top priority.”

He renewed a call for the US and other Western countries to lift unilateral sanctions on Afghanistan and for the World Health Organization to provide more vaccines and medical supplies to help Afghanistan fight COVID-19.

China has said it will send $30 million worth of emergency humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.

China has always called for the international community to engage, rather than isolate, the Taliban.

“My overall impression is that the Taliban is eager to have dialog and cooperation with the outside, and that they are serious about this,” Wang said.