Press Release

A one-day international conference, titled “Afghanistan Economic Conference: New Beginning”, an initiative of the ministry of finance was held on 19/January/2022 at the Char Chinar Palace of Arg, Kabul, Afghanistan.

The conference was inaugurated by H.E Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, the Prime Minister of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, and attended by the cabinet members, Ambassadors of 16 friendly countries, the representative of 8 international organizations, the private sector, academic community, and the civil society.

H.E. Mowlawi Adulsalam Hanafi in his Keynote address presented the ‘Economic Vision and Interim Strategy of the Islamic Emirate for Afghanistan’ and Her Excellency Deborah Lyons, UNAMA SRSG delivered a special remark. The government also presented an overview of its key achievements over the past five months.

The core of the Economic Vision and Interim Strategy of the Islamic Emirate is the effective planning and harnessing of all available resources to put Afghanistan on the path to economic growth, development, and self-reliance, after extracting it from the current challenges.

The conference featured four panel discussions: Humanitarian plus, private sector and regional economic cooperation, the Afghanistan banking sector, and the Afghanistan agriculture and mining sectors.

The Panel on humanitarian plus discussed the criticality of humanitarian assistance, how should it complement the efforts of the Islamic Emirate to achieve the shared goal of the welfare of the people of Afghanistan, what needs to be done to extract maximum long-term value out of it. The Panel on the private sector and regional economic cooperation elaborated on how these two critical areas are necessary for economic development in the country as well as in the region and what should be done to facilitate it.

The banking sector Panel analyzed the current problems in this sector, how they can be solved and how this sector can be strengthened to contribute to the economic prosperity of Afghanistan. The last Panel on Agriculture and Mining sectors discussed how these two important sectors can be the drivers of economic growth and what should be done to realize their full potential.

In this conference, the United Nations, other international aid agencies, and the friendly countries have reassured the continuation of their humanitarian plus assistance to the people and government of Afghanistan.

The conference was conducted in a hybrid format (in-person and online).