Afghanistan not to face financial crisis in 2014

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Afghan Finance Minister Hazrat Omar Zakhelwal has dispelled the impression that Afghanistan will plunge into a major financial crisis after the foreign military pullout in 2014. He said the government is working hard to find alternatives to compensate for any reduction in the foreign aid to Afghanistan after 2014. "The withdrawal of the foreign forces in 2014 will 100 per cent have an impact, but no crisis will take place as some people outside the country claim. Some are expressing concern that the people will sell their homes and land, but such a situation will not happen. Be assured that 2014 and 2015 will also come and our situation in that time will be better than now," Zakhelwal told Tolo News Channel. "The way the aid is spent must change so that it can have a greater level of impact. The significance of the aid money spent outside the government budget is very low. Therefore, any reduction in the aid money will be compensated for to an extent by increasing the effectiveness of the aid. Secondly, we have very much tightened limitations in the government’s ordinary budget spending. We must bring the spending under control. Thirdly, we must pay more attention to our mining sector to increase our revenue. Fortunately, the interest of major companies of the world has very much increased in our major mines and this can help increase our internal revenue. We will meanwhile pay attention to the investments that could help us rely on ourselves. Some alternatives will, God willing, come," he added. The minister said that his government was pinning its hopes on the next international’s donor conference on Afghanistan in Tokyo in July this year to fund Afghanistan for many years after 2014. The minister said: "The importance of this summit lies in getting the long-term commitment of the international community for their long-term aid to our development and ordinary spending after the reduction of the international forces in Afghanistan in 2014. We hope that the continuation of aid will not be dependent on their military presence here. To become sure, the Tokyo summit will be held so that they make written and specific commitment for us on this." "After the Kabul conference, we worked on development programmes. At the Bonn Conference, we announced our programmes until 2025, and in the Tokyo conference, we will make our programmes more specific and specify project costs. We will make it clear how much revenue we will have during this period and the gap between our revenue and our necessary development and ordinary spending." Asked how much the Afghan government would be able to meet its commitments such as establishing good governance and fighting administrative corruption in order to receive the foreign aid, the minister said: "To be realistic, the Afghan government has met the majority of its commitments. In the Kabul and London conferences, we made 35 commitments, and we have met nearly 30 of the commitments. Afghanistan’s financial management is one of our major achievements and it is the increase in our revenue. Transparency in the mining contracts and reforms in the Ministry of Agriculture such as land management is one of our major achievements. These are the achievements. These are reforms that at the same time reduce corruption. Our revenue has increased from 150 to 200 per cent in the past two or three years which shows that we have done something for this."