October 12, 2002	Saturday	Sha'aban 5, 1423

KABUL, Oct 11: Afghanistan’s finance minister said on Friday 4.5 billion dollars of aid pledged to the country earlier this year was far from enough put it back on its feet.

Speaking on the eve of a weekend meeting of donors, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai said international commitments to Bosnia or East Timor had been far larger than those made to Kabul at a meeting in Tokyo in January.

“What has been pledged provides the foundation of a relationship between the donors and the government and the people of Afghanistan,” he told a news conference.

“The 4.5 billion dollars in comparison to any other country is just an initial investment in our future. It will by no means suffice, because the vision of the future that we have is of a prosperous, stable state.”

Ahmadzai said Afghanistan currently ranked 169th out of 174 countries in terms of human development indicators.

“We have some of the worst health indicators in the world,” he said. “The life expectancy of a child is amazingly low; the rate of death of women giving birth is amazingly high.”

“We are determined to change those indicators and we are looking for partnership within the international community to enable us to implement the strategies we have devised.”—Reuters