By Xinhua,
Paris : An international donors’ conference raised more than 21 billion U.S. dollars here on Thursday to support Afghanistan’s five-year development plan, meeting expectations of the Afghan government.
When announcing the figure at the end of the conference, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner described the result as “a success because we were expecting in our dreams 17 billion dollars.”
The tally met the goal of the Afghan government, which hoped for 15 billion to 20 billion dollars from the one-day conference, which brought together ministers and high-level officials from more than 80 countries and international organizations.
The United States is on the top of the donor’s list with 10.2 billion dollars, followed by the Asian Development Bank with 1.3 billion, the World Bank with 1.1 billion, Britain with 600 million pounds (1.2 billion dollars), and the European Union with 500 million euros (775 million dollars).
Host France pledged 107 million euros (165 million dollars) from the year 2008 to 2010.
Aside from the new pledges, the international community had promised 25 billion dollars since 2002, but only 15 billion has been disbursed.
A donors’ conference in 2006 in London secured pledges of 10.5 billion dollars.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai asked for 50 billion dollars in aid to fund his country’s reconstruction, development and the fight against poverty, corruption and Taliban insurgency in the following five years.
“The current development process that is marred by confusion and parallel structures undermines institution building,” Karzai said.
“While Afghanistan needs large amounts of aid, precisely how aid is spent is just as important,” he added.
Karzai said “opium is about survival” for farmers and gave them alternatives to growing opium poppies and trafficking drugs “is crucial to Afghanistan’s future.”
He predicted that the war against the Taliban could not end soon and his country could achievement peace by 2020.
Aside from fundraising, participants of the conference also urged for improved coordination of the aid.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged for better management of the fund and intensified combat of corruption in Afghanistan.
Kai Eide, new special representative of the UN secretary-general for Afghanistan, urged the Afghan government to demonstrate “greater determination to improve the quality of administration, pursue — secure — greater accountability and to combat corruption more vigorously.”
“It is a very fragile success and it must be consolidated,” said Eide referring to the progress Afghanistan made in recent years.
He also vowed to better coordination of an aid in the Asian country, where corruption, drugs, and Taliban insurgents have posed great challenges to the government and international peace-keepers.