Afghanistan

Donors offer billions in aid for Afghanistan

Article published on the 2008-06-12 Latest update 2008-06-13 10:42 TU

Afghan President Hamid Karzai (l) with French President Nicolas Sarkozy at Elysee Palace for Afghan summit
(Credit: Reuters)

About 20 billion dollars have been pledged at Thursday’s conference on Afghanistan in Paris. French Foreign Affairs Minister Bernard Kouchner announced the figure as the conference closed, although there seemed to be some uncertainty whether the exact figure was 19.95 billion dollars or over 21 billion.

Addressing the conference, Afghan President Hamid Karzai claimed that there had been substantial improvements since the 2001 US-led invasion which toppled the Taliban.

“Today our people are more educated, happier, better-off and more optimistic about the future,” he said.

“We have built thousands of schools and we are constructing many more where millions of youngsters prepare for the responsibilities of tomorrow.”

But the conference could not ignore the many problems still facing the country. It provides 93 per cent of the world’s opium, while many of its people live on less than a dollar a day.

The government’s Afghan National Development Strategy (ANDS) promises to raise living standards and, with enthusiastic support from Kouchner and other conference participants, promises to encourage the the private sector and privatise state assets.

“We are committed to an economy free of narcotics that provides decent living conditions and provides social protection for all our people, based on a strong private sector, a free market economy and equal opportunities,” said Karzai.

Afghan Finance Minister Anwar ul-Haq Ahady told RFI that the donor-countries have not laid out a plan to end graft.

“I think that we have not received specific recommendations from the international community or from among the Afghans specifically what measures to adopt," he said.

The conference buzzword was “Afghanisation”, meaning that Afghans would take increasing responsibility for fighting the Taliban and running their country.

That is partly a response to complaints about NGOs, taking some aid money back out of the country in the form of salaries to foreign aid workers and contracts to foreign firms.