Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Kabul (BNA) As President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, I’ve pursued the people’s visions related to transmission of electricity from central Asia during the past few days. I consider partnership of various communities of the society as positive and optimistic in development issues showing that our people have reached high perception of their country’s basic needs and are asking balanced development particularly in our deprived areas as Bamyan, Kunar, Nooristan, Paktika, Ghor, Zabul, Daikundi, Badghis, Nimroz and all other parts of the country, which are the basic priorities for me as president to resolve.
The cabinet’s decision declared last week related to the project was in fact the continuation of steps taken during the past years and the government’s leaders on that time had approved it in accordance with the agreement signed with Asian Development Bank. The project determined to be started early and completed till 2016 had been postponed for a couple of years. During that time, it was needed that the price of lost time should have been paid considering development calculations.
Due to the fact that our financial resources are unfortunately meager and our dependency to funding resources now cause that our options in national projects are limited and depended to conditions mostly delivered with particular economic visions. Therefore, we should have made use of the last opportunity and deadline and taken final steps for execution of the national project so that we could not lost a big development opportunity. I want to repeat that our commitment to balanced development as transmission of electricity to honorable residents of Bamyan and other central areas of the country is remained on its place. We have adopted necessary measures needed for acceleration of the process. Thus, the government postponed final approval of the project six months ago for further review and consultations so that electricity issue of Bamyan and other areas would be basically resolved.
During the past few days, I have pursued visions of those participating in this discussion. I have tasked my colleagues to closely review the issue with individuals, civil society leaders, political leaders and active groups who have repeatedly asked for talks and discussion and I sent them the other day official invitation letter to discuss and consult the project and find jointly solution. As a nation and government and in threshold of two key conferences to be held for support of Afghanistan by our international partners in Warsaw and Brussels, we need to show our international allies that we are able to make decisions in certain national projects and reach necessary solution through discussion and consultation.
This is the only way for the success of our nation towards balanced development and continuation of our international partners’ support. Related to transmission of electricity from central Asia to Afghanistan, various visions have been delivered by political leaders, civil organizations, social activists and experts. In order that the visions are completely echoed and big development steps are executed, I am tasking a national commission whose members are appointed in consultation with representatives of people and political and civil activists to deliver the government the complete and coordinated vision by reviewing all documents and relevant steps related to the project so that clear decisions are adopted in this regard. My request is that doors of talks are always remained open and we should prefer professional reasons rather than sentiments. I am appreciating all those who are honestly making effort for development and reconstruction of our country and wishing them further successes. Long live Afghanistan
