Afghanistan’s top donors to pledge $9bn

The News International ^ | March 12 2004

[knighthawk]

BERLIN: Afghanistan’s top donors are to pledge some nine billion dollars to the war-torn country over the next four years at an international conference in Berlin this month, Germany’s daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported on Thursday.

The newspaper, citing sources at the German Overseas Development Ministry, said that the United States, Japan, Germany and Britain would maintain their current levels of aid for Afghanistan between 2005 and 2008, which taken together would ensure nine billion dollars in support.

Afghan Finance Minister, Ashraf Ghani complained on Tuesday on a visit to Tokyo that his country would need 27.5 billion dollars to rebuild itself over the next seven years and that previous pledges "vastly underestimated" its needs.

Ghani said the 4.5 billion dollars in pledges Afghanistan received at the Tokyo donors’ conference in January 2002 had failed to lift the country out of poverty after the ouster of the Taliban.

Overseas Development Minister, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said on Thursday in a statement that Germany would pledge 320 million euros (393 million dollars) to Afghanistan through 2008 at the two-day Berlin conference starting March 31. The sum would maintain the 80 million euros a year Germany had earmarked for the country at the Tokyo donors’ conference.

"For reconstruction in Afghanistan to be a success, the country needs our ongoing support," Wieczorek-Zeul said. "That is why I will make a reliable commitment at the Afghanistan conference in Berlin."

Germany is Afghanistan’s third-largest donor behind the United States and Japan. Some 50 delegations are expected for the Berlin conference, the third such gathering in Germany, aimed at cementing the country’s progress ahead of elections this summer.

"A signal must go out from the conference in Berlin that the international community supports all efforts by Afghanistan to develop a reliable, democratic and tolerant state," Wieczorek-Zeul said.

Afghanistan’s first free elections were the interim goal of the political plan outlined at the first conference in Germany in December 2001, after the Taliban had been driven from power.

Wieczorek-Zeul said the German funds would be used toward encouraging investment and trade, improving the water supply and roads, and financing training programs for Afghan women. She said Germany expected a clear commitment from the Afghan delegation in Berlin to continue the reform process and would stress the importance of fighting the drug trade in Afghanistan, known as the world’s biggest producer of opium.

According to UN estimates cited by the Sueddeutsche, half of Afghanistan’s gross domestic product of 4.4 billion dollars stems from narcotics, funds then used by warlords for their private armies.

"The international community must fight the malignant tumor of drug cultivation even harder the in future," Wieczorek-Zeul told the paper in an interview.

[knighthawk]

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