Minister of Finance speech in Oversight and Coordination Body (OCB)

6th Full Level Meeting

January 24, 2016

GoA Strategic Vision for Warsaw Summit

Thank you Madam Ambassador Lyons. I would like to now add a few comments on what are our commitments and what is our vision for the Warsaw Summit.

Aims:

We are committed to the aim of financing our own security through our own resources. In the Chicago Conference, back in 2012, we set out our aim to finance our security expenditures by 2024. I am going to reiterate that commitment today, that this Government will increasingly takeover the responsibility to finance its own security. This Government will provide the means to ensure the basic requirement for the future of our people – that their safety is ensured and confidence is restored.

We want to restate our pledge to strengthening our democracy, the rule of law, and respect for human rights. Security is not only a necessity in itself but also improves every aspect of a prosperous life, improvingeconomic growth and prosperity as well as physical well-being. We have worked, through the new Jobs for Peace program, to target both of these areas at once: providing work for our young people to ensure they have a stake in the development of the country, and to build skills and provide a legitimate source of income for them.

Achievements:

Thanks to the support and sacrifice of all your nations, we continue to makeprogressin the past year – improving revenue collection by 20% and exceeding the IMF target by Afs 8 billion which shows a huge improvement on previous years. This continuous improvement is a necessary requirement if we are to finance our security and development requirements ourselves. We have set up a national procurement authority, to provide greater oversight of Government purchases, and we have set up national planning and budget formulation councils – with the aim of bringing a policy direction to our budget.

From now on, when we say we aim to improve security spending, we have the systems in place to ensure our allocations match our intentions. During the budget process we go to the lowest possible budget line to ensure cost is reduced, saving is made, and value for money is in place.And, as a sign of the trust in the Government systems, the US has decided to put funds directly on-budget in order to support our national development goals– we will demonstrate that this trust is well placed through the years ahead.

We have recovered economic activity from a slowdown during the 2014 election and transition, and we have started building the groundwork for a post-international forces economy; our economy has been built around and relied upon the presence of donors, now we must show that we can build a sustainable future, around our agriculture sector, around our extractive industries and other resources and connected to our neighbors near and far.

Going Forward:

So, how can we achieve our aims? Financing our own security requires substantial resources.

To manage this, we are committed to continue the pace of revenue growth, and in order to do so we will make a concerted effort to tackle corruption, and ensure sustainable growth. We cannot afford the effects of another slowdown, and our people cannot afford the hurt to their livelihoods of a period of economic uncertainty.

In order to promote both components of revenue growth, good governance and sustainable economic growth, we will:

  • Build collaboration on strategic communication of the Government of Afghanistanwithour allies to ensure that Afghan citizens understand the impact of government initiatives andprograms.
  • Ensure the improvement in governance, compliance, and enforcement to bring systemic changes across Ministerial functions with a particular focus on security ministries for more efficient processes.
  • Fulfill the implementation of the ‘my tax paid for…’ program to educate citizens on why tax payment is important and how it impacts their lives.
  • Work on the development of Special Economic Zones to increase investment and job opportunities utilizing unused and costly army bases.
  • Ensure the implementation of ASYCUDA WORLD across 6 major customs locations, to ensure accurate report on our largest streams of revenues.
  • Strengthen the Customs enforcement unit to address leakages in the system.
  • Establish the Afghan Financial Crime Court to meet the challenges with the internationalization of money laundering, the transfer of stolen assets to other jurisdictions, and to address the limitations in our legal system when dealing with financial contracts, banking laws and compliance.
  • Under Jobs for Peace, we have committed to a large scale housing development program for the military personnel intended to create employment and improve retention.
  • Establish a BSA Executive Steering Committee to help support mutual commitments made under the BSA.

We want to ensure a more affordable, sustainable, and effective ANDSF; in order to achieve this, we are committed to finance civilianization ofthe common function departments at the security ministries, and push for gender integration across the sector.

We will move ahead on the President’s effort to turn Afghanistan into a regional transit hub: with the CASA-1000, TAPI and TUTAP programs and our work in CAREC supporting power and energy transit. This will provide not only some economic and security sustainability – linking countries to each other – but also a source of revenue to finance our budget.

The other side to sustainability is in the affordability of our expenditures: we aim to make our security services efficient and effective. We will ensure the armed forces are kept at a sustainable level, and divest assets that we no longer need – if we are not using a base we will find a way to make better use of it. We will promote further transparency in the sector, ensuring resources are properly used, and leakages do not occur; and we will reduce the costs of the management of our assets and their maintenance through proper registration.

Expectations from Warsaw:

I want today to pay tribute to all our partners for their sacrifices in blood and treasure to make Afghanistan a safer place. I want to pay a special tribute to the men and women in uniform and their families who have lost their sons in daughters serving in Afghanistan over the past 14 years.Afghanistan has remained the key frontline in the global war on terrorism for the past few years with new threats emerging.Afghans lives and livelihoods have been impacted by the war; including sustaining casualties to our security forces at the front line and in our urban and rural centers. Our economy is reeling from the war and the uncertainty it causes. Our businesses are severely impacted. Our young are taking great personal risks to reach the relative safety of Europe.

Afghan security forces have assumed full security responsibilities in the wake of the withdrawal of international forces. They have done a commendable job but it has come with a high cost of lives lost. Last year recorded the highest militaryand civilian casualties.

While our partnership on both the development and security has achieved remarkable milestones over the past 14 years – the challenges facing Afghanistan are daunting. Afghanistan remains a victim of the terrorism including emerging challenges such as Daesh and regional tensions that have profound impact on the security in Afghanistan. Security is the single most important factor in economic development, growth, provision of basic health and education services to the population, and development of trade and private sector that creates bulk of jobs and economic growth.

We thank you for your continued and sustained support to make Afghanistan a better, safer place.

Thank you