Wednesday, December 26, 2018
Kabul (BNA) President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani attended and spoke in the ‘5th Urban National Conference’ inauguration ceremony held in Salam Khana Palace, his office said in a statement on Tuesday.
At the outset, a number of participants representing Kandahar, Kabul, Nangarhar, Balkh and Herat provinces shared their views and suggestions with the president on tackling urban problems, according to the statement.
Thanking the participants for sharing their views and suggestions, the president called their views key to figure out the urban problems.
A democrat government thinks the people problems its own problems as well, the president added.
A big part of the problems have been created by the administrations that resulted in intensification of lands’ usurpation, the president went on to say.
The president added the administrations do both create the problems and can also find solutions for them.
He clarified that reforms have been started in administrations and its promptly ongoing. The conference aims to see the citizens’ problems by their own eyes and to find solutions for them, the president continued.
The president added the citizens, government and municipalities’ views on cities’ being consumable should be changed and the cities should be turned into economic movement point.
He instructed the ministry of urban development and lands to classify the zones at its earliest to increase the private sector’s investment attraction.
He called having legal ownership document the right of each citizen, adding the experiences have shown investments would increase when the traditional documents are changed into legal ones.
Calling water, power and security the basis of cities, the president said no attention has been paid on cities’ water supply networks and canalization in the past, but today, water supply networks’ plan is being implemented in many cities of the country.
He added Afghanistan’s power network would change into a national unique network by the next two years.
Lands’ usurpation is unacceptable and the usurpers have under footed the Afghan security forces’ bloods, he added.
He added we would put an end to lands usurpation.
At the end, the president thanked the ministry of urban development and lands for holding the conference and instructed that the citizens’ problems and view should be unified and classified to find solutions for them.
‘Acting minister of urban development and lands, Jawad Paikar, municipalities’ deputy of local organs directorate Abdul Baqi Popal, Kabul’s acting mayor Ahmad Shuaib Rahim and head of Afghanistan’s chamber of commerce and industries Manizh also spoke and shared their achievements during the conference.
