Saturday August 26, 2017
Kabul (BNA) President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani presided over the cabinet meeting here on Wednesday, a presidential statement said. At the outset, the president spoke over the US new strategy on Afghanistan, thanking US people and government for their commitments and support of Afghanistan in war on terror.
According to the president, the new strategy underlines the main factors behind the war in Afghanistan and its roots in the region, which clearly shows the ongoing war was not and Afghan one. Pointing to Afghan government’s key role of ensuring national goals, the president said the four-year security plan would be fully implemented. “Afghanistan has tried much to establish good relations with regional countries and expect one country, we have very good relations with other countries.
Our successes have been due to our unity and together we could turn the theoretical reformation plans to practical one,” the president told the cabinet meeting. Meanwhile, Chief Executive Dr. Abdullah Abdullah welcomed the new US strategy, calling it an opportunity for Afghanistan and the region. He also asked for joint fight against the corruption, asking the politicians of the country to have serious attentions for the created opportunities, considering the current situation of the country. The cabinet meeting later followed the agenda with Minister of Finance presenting the expenditure of the 8 months of the current fiscal year’s budget, saying 147.32 million Afs was spent from the ordinary budget and 670 million USD has been spent from the development budget. Meanwhile, he also briefed the session on changes of the national budget, saying based on which (2113000 Afs) has been amended into ordinary budget and the total ordinary budget contains (268414332398 Afs).
Minister of Finance also said that (15640730000 Afs) has been decreased in the development budget and based on the mid-year assessment of the budget, the development budget contains (147194100311 Afs). He also forecasted amount of (104332218000 Afs) as the deficit in development budget. The cabinet meeting approved (415608432709 Afs) as the mid-year national budget which (268414332387 Afs) is the ordinary budget while (147194100311 Afs) is the development budget. The minister of justice presented the draft on regulatory board of the copy right law into 4 chapter and 16 articles which was approved by the cabinet. He also presented the draft on amendments into the law of mass media activities, which the cabinet tasked the ministries of information and culture, telecommunication and information technology and ministry of justice to once again review the amendments on frequency fees as well as the license and present back the draft in the upcoming cabinet meeting. Meanwhile Minister of Energy and Water briefed the session on construction of Shurabak damn in Badakhshan, signing of the contract with Turkish company, funding of the project, capacity of generating electricity, offer of German company, decrease of the contract amount, beginning of the project as well as challenges before the project.
The cabinet tasked an inter-ministerial committee with ministries of energy and water, foreign affairs, urban development, justice and the Breshna Sherkat as the members and the ministry of finance on the chair review the challenges and discuss the problems with German company and report back to the cabinet. The acting minister of information and culture also briefed the session on Japan’s Tokyo museum request of restoring and displaying of three artifacts discovered from the Mis-e-Aynak archaeological site, which the cabinet approved the request. Following, deputy economic minister of foreign affairs presented the MoU between the National Environment Protection Agency (NEPA) of Afghanistan and the United Nation World Food Program, with the cabinet tasking NEPA, ministries of agriculture and energy and water to review the MoU and present it back the high council on water and land.
Meanwhile the deputy economic minister of foreign affairs also presented the five international agreements which was approved by the cabinet meeting.
