Planning for Kabul Conference Underway

06/04/2010

Kabul - The Afghan government has launched consultancy to set a work plan for an upcoming international conference in Kabul to be held in two months. In a meeting with representatives of the private sector on Sunday, the business people urged the government to focus on expanding security, infrastructure building, tackling corruption and law reformation in the international conference. Senior officials of the Afghan government would listen to civil society organizations and academicians in the next several days to set a proper agenda to be discussed in the Kabul conference. In January, representatives from seventy countries in a major international conference in London pledged to gather in Kabul and reaffirm their support from Afghanistan. The international community agreed on setting out benchmarks for economic development, infrastructure building, rule of law and human rights in this country.
		The Afghan Minister of Finance, Hazrat Omar Zakhelwal, told private sector representatives that Kabul conference would be an opportunity to discuss London benchmarks in details. Mr Zakhelwal said the consultancy has been launched as the government wanted to include opinions of different groups of the society to form a comprehensive and generally accepted plan. An accurate strategy was need for Afghanistan as international donations would not survive forever, the minister said. The CEO of Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce, Mohammad Qurban Haqjo, said the private sector and investors urge the government to have a "stable" policy. He described security a major challenge to the Afghan entrepreneurs, adding serious steps should been taken in the conference in Kabul.Mr. Haqjo said the conference should not be a symbolic gathering, but a meeting with certain goals.

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