KABUL - President Ashraf Ghani said on Thursday at the National Land Conference in Kabul that Afghanistan's socioeconomic stability and future development was directly linked with focused management of land and water resources.

Addressing delegates he pledging to establish a new committee to deal with the issue in future.

For the effective implementation of mega economic projects, a supreme council of land and water will be formed to handle the issue, Ghani said, adding that sufficient authority will be awarded to the new body to conduct its job effectively.

"People must cooperate with the government while acquiring land so that important economic projects are implemented on time," he said.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of finance (MoF) has said that problems which exist with regards to the Land Acquisition Act have undermined the development budget spending process in the country, saying that the issue must be resolved soon.

"One of the reasons which prevents the ministries from spending their development budgets is because of problems with the Land Acquisition Act, therefore, we need to resolve the problem," Mohammad Shafi Qarizada, deputy head of the treasury department of MoF said.

"Besides implementing amendments on the Land Acquisition Act, Afghanistan Independent Land Authority should also take the initiative and introduce a particular body to find solutions to the problems on land acquisition," Minister of Public Works, Mahmoud Baligh said.

Referring to issues currently facing people regarding the matter, officials from Afghanistan Independent Land Authority said that with the approval of the new Land Acquisition Act, the problems will be resolved.

"The previous law cannot address the needs of the people. For this reason, Afghanistan Independent Land Authority proposed a new draft law which has been prepared in line with international standards. Approval of the new law will help in settling the issues in land acquisition," Jawad Paikar, head of Afghanistan Independent Land Authority said.

It appears that in recent years, the implementation of development projects in various regions of the country have faced issues due to problems relating to the Land Acquisition Act.

Economic commentators have urged that the implementation of the law is critical in order to overcome current problems. (Tolonews)