KABUL - President Ashraf Ghani has said Afghanistan is going to stand on its own feet during the transformation period (2015-2024) when the country’s reliance on international aid would decrease.

The president, who inaugurated an international conference of “high-ranking officials” on Friday night at the Presidential Palace, shed light on Afghanistan’s progress with regard to its pledges at the London Conference and briefed the participants about the country’s development and economic plans for the transformation decade.

A statement from the Presidential Palace said President Ghani declared that the agenda the Afghan government had presented at the London Conference was not a document only but a manifesto that reflected Afghanistan’s policies about its reanimation.

He said Afghanistan’s contact and reintegration with regional economies offered the landlocked country an opportunity to regain its historic role of being the Asia’s roundabout, something that would create jobs, trader markets and reduce imports.

Ghani said international partners should realise Afghanistan’s security, political and economic dependency and insisted that his government was eager to bring about changes to the country’s infrastructures.

The president said reviving the country’s agriculture remained his government’s top priority and in this regard he had diverted great potentials to developing the rural sector, improving land administration, irrigation and resolving problems farmers faced in selling their agricultural products.

The president said the subject of disputes over land ownerships would be handed over to a special land administration department from the judiciary in order to make the country’s lands dispute-free and set in motion people’s economic growth.

“A considerable percentage of Afghanistan’s populations are youth, so this is important to invest on our manpower,” the president said. He said Afghanistan could benefit from development experiences of Korea, Japan, China and Taiwan.

These countries started their investments from meager productions and used them for strengthening their interior sectors and increasing exports and ultimately emerged as competitors in the world’s market, he said.

About the private sector’s development, the president said problems being faced by local and foreign firms, which served as centres of production and jobs creation, should be resolved in consultations with the private sector.

On efforts at bringing peace and stability, the president said he and Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah were committed to their efforts in this regard.

He said they would continue to demand peace and that he believed Afghanistan and Pakistan would reach a desired state wherein they would develop their economies for the wellbeing of their people and peace.

The president said by the end of the transformation decade, Afghanistan’s reliance on international aid would reduce and Afghanistan would be a member of an alliance that would advocate democracy and human rights and secure its future through trade and investment. (Pajhwok)