By IINA,
Kabul : Afghanistan hopes a donors’ meeting, slated for June in Paris, will fetch $50 billion in aid to implement a five-year development plan, Finance Minister Anwarul haq Ahadi said yesterday. The plan, called the National Development Strategy (ANDS), was presented to donors at an “aid effectiveness” conference here. Based on a year of wide-ranging consultations, it will be assessed by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, Ahadi was quoted by AFP as telling reporters after the meeting.
The finalized strategy would become the basis of requests from donors at the June conference, he said. “For this strategy, the Afghan government has asked the world for 50 billion dollars in aid for five years,” he said. The ANDS was a comprehensive plan, the minister said. “All walks of government are included: security, good governance, financial growth, important issues such as counter narcotics, capacity building, and equal rights of women….” One of the biggest projects in the strategy was for the production of electricity, which reaches only about 10 percent of Afghans. There were also plans to build thousands of kilometers of roads as well as more dams and irrigation systems, the minister said.