KABUL - India and Afghanistan have signed 57 project proposals for which financial approvals have been received from the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, the Indian Embassy in Kabul said.
Since 2002, India has committed $2 billion to socio-economic rebuilding of the Afghan state and society in accordance with development priorities of the government and the people of Afghanistan.
As part of India’s bilateral and demand-driven development partnership with Afghanistan, the Small Development Projects (SDP) scheme was launched in 2006 to address the socio-economic and development needs of rural communities in Afghanistan, the embassy said in a statement.
The Afghan Ministry of Economy was designated as the coordinating body for the scheme on the Afghan side. Phases I and II of the SDP scheme had an outlay of $20 million.
In November 2012, India and Afghanistan signed an MoU earmarking an additional id="mce_marker"00 million for Phase III of the SDP scheme.
The projects are to be identified by provincial authorities, mainly governors, and the project proposal is prepared/fine-tuned by the relevant line ministry.
On Wednesday, the Embassy of India, the Afghan Ministry of Economy and the relevant line ministry signed 51 project proposals approved under Phase III of the SDP scheme.
The proposals pertain to the public health sector in Afghanistan and involve the construction of Basic Health Clinics (BHCs) and Community Health Clinics (CHCs) in 17 provinces of Afghanistan.
The provinces are Badakhshan, Bamyan, Balkh, Dai Kundi, Faryab, Ghazni, Helmand, Kapisa, Laghman, Nimroz, Uruzgan, Paktika, Panjsher, Sar-i-Pul, Samangan, Takhar and Zabul.
Of the six project proposals, four are related to education sector (construction of schools) in Badakhshan, Nimroz and Paktika. The other two projects are related to the agriculture sector in Kandahar.
In July 2013, 60 MoUs pertaining to SDP Phase III projects were signed. With the signing of MoUs for another 51 SDP Phase III projects, the total value of approved projects under SDP Phase III scheme stands at USD 24.704 million.
The Embassy of India said it looked forward to early completing these projects sanctioned under Phases I,II and III of the SDP scheme.
The projects reflected India’s clear and abiding commitment to assisting Afghanistan on its road to recovery by working closely with the Afghan government and its rural communities, the Indian embassy said.
“We hope that these projects will contribute to the strengthening of communities impacted by them. We wish to thank the Ministry of Economy, several line ministries and the provincial governors we have been working closely with on the implementation of the SDP scheme.” (Pajhwok)