Roundup: President vows to take Afghanistan towards self-sufficiency as donor nations meeting opens

Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani on Saturday vowed to fight corruption, promote economic growth and takes his militancy-plagued country towards self- sufficiency.

He made the promise in his opening remarks at the Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) of donor nations opened in the Afghan capital here amid tight security.

In his remarks, Ghani said that his government has fought against corruption and would continue to fight against the menace till ensuring good governance in the war-ravaged country.

"We have planned to introduce structural reforms that will take Afghanistan from an economy that was built on the consumption of foreign aid to one that is built around rising productivity through commercial investment, creating job opportunities, alleviating poverty and boosting trade and investment," the president said in his speech at the conference.

At the conference attended by delegates from some 60 countries, the international community's pledge to Afghanistan would be reviewed, Afghan officials say.

The one-day conference is the continuation of the high-level meetings held every year to follow up the new phase of international community's partnership initiated at the Tokyo Conference in 2012, based on principles of mutuality and accountability.

During conference the participants would review Afghanistan's achievements and its progress in implementing the pledges made at the Tokyo conference which included fighting corruption and ensuring good governance.

This is the first high-level meeting of donor nations since the formation of the new Afghan government in September 2014. The government presented its reform plan on Realizing Self-Reliance at the London Conference on Afghanistan held on Dec. 4, 2014.

Giving an overview of achievements of the national unity government since its formation, Ghani said that Afghanistan today has a complete government, a government of national unity which has already started reforms in different fields including judiciary and elections system, and will hopefully move Afghanistan from a donor-reliant economy into one of self- sufficiency.

The government of national unity, president Ghani said, would spare no efforts to improve human rights and the status of women in society, boost local products and bring to end the culture of impunity of corrupted government officials in the country.

Speaking at the conference the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan and head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) Nicholas Haysom, besides describing security as the main challenge in Afghanistan stressed for the continuation of international community's support to the conflict-hit country.

The government of national unity is committed to building a peaceful, stable and prosperous Afghanistan, Afghan Minister for Finance Eklil Hakimi said in his speech at SOM meeting. Endi