Statement at the International Conference on Reconstruction Assistance to Afghanistan
| Statement by H. E. Masajuro Shiokawa, Minister of Finance of Japan |
| Ladies and Gentlemen, As Minister of Finance of Japan, which is the co-chair as well as the host country of this conference, I would like to extend a sincere welcome to all of you who are here today. As a nation that itself experienced a post-war reconstruction in the previous century and as a member of Asia, bearing in mind the preciousness of peace, Japan will continue to tackle with the challenges of the international community with enthusiasm and ownership to enable Afghanistan to achieve stability of people's livelihood and reconstruction as soon as possible. Japan faces very severe economic and financial difficulties at this time. As a result, we will reduce the amount of the overall budget with regard to ODA as well as other items. However, setting regional and sectoral priorities for aid and enhancing effectiveness of ODA implementation, we shall allocate sufficient budget to ensure contribution towards sustainable growth of the world economy including such matters as support for Afghanistan and its surrounding countries. As Prime Minister Koizumi mentioned a little while ago, Japan intends to contribute up to 500 million dollars in total for two and a half years to support Afghanistan. As part of such support, we intend to extend 100 million dollars in total to assist in the reconstruction of Afghanistan by utilizing resources in the trust fund Japan has established within the multilateral development banks, taking into consideration the multilateral development banks' wealth of knowledge. We regard it is as important for the people of Afghanistan to participate fully and have a sense of ownership in reconstruction. One important policy agenda for the Afghan Interim Authority in securing the stability of people's livelihood and reconstruction is to quickly develop a framework of a macro-economic policy and to devote itself to stabilizing the macro-economy. More specifically, it will be vital to strengthen treasury administration, including the establishment of an entity to implement tax collection, as well as to build the monetary sector, including the re-establishment and strengthening of a central bank system and integrated currency systems. I was deeply impressed by the resolve expressed by Chairman Karzai some time ago to pursue the process of reconciliation and reconstruction in keeping with the Bonn Agreement. I fully expect that at this conference the international community will express its firm intention to support the resolve and discuss to form concrete plans for the support sufficiently. Finally, I request your cooperation and hope this conference will be great success. |
[Japanese]
