Conference for bolstering links with Afghanistan opens

A regional conference aimed at tapping new economic opportunities afforded by Afghanistan and regional cooperation is under way in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek. "Afghanistan's further security, stability and economic progress very much depends on the regional cooperation with Central Asia, Iran and Pakistan. That's the major concept of doing this in Kyrgyzstan rather then anywhere else," Ercan Murat, the country director of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Afghanistan, told IRIN from Bishkek. "[This is] the first conference of this type, which basically tries to assist Afghanistan in opening its links and cooperation, trade and infrastructure with Central Asian countries," Jerzy Skuratowicz, UNDP resident representative in Kyrgyzstan, told IRIN, also from the Kyrgyz capital. The conference for Afghanistan's Regional Economic Cooperation: Central Asia, Iran and Pakistan, supported by UNDP in Bishkek and Kabul, brings together government officials and top business leaders from Afghanistan, five Central Asian states, Iran and Pakistan for a three-day event, starting on Monday, to bolster trade, transit and investment in and with Afghanistan, a UNDP statement said. The significance of the conference was to reintroduce the new Afghanistan into Central Asia after decades of separation, Murat explained. "This is the beginning of a long series of progress [efforts] that will eventually re-establish the partnership which Afghanistan always had in this part of the world," the UNDP official added. "We expect that it [conference] will start the beginning of the dialogue between all the countries and parties," Skuratowicz noted. The conference delegates are also expected to identify necessary reforms to secure regional involvement in Afghanistan's reconstruction and development projects. The first two days of the conference are set to focus on practical issues to encourage trade and transport, and improve the region's transit infrastructure, while the final day is expected to convene a gathering of cabinet ministers from the region. It will be opened by Askar Akaev, the president of Kyrgyzstan and host of the conference; Ashraf Ghani, Afghanistan's minister of finance; and Mark Malloch Brown, the Administrator of the UNDP. "Afghanistan lacks power, and Pakistan needs more power - and Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have hydroelectric power on offer. Pakistan needs cotton: Uzbekistan and Afghanistan seek new markets for their crops. Central Asia, like Afghanistan, seeks investment, and Iran and Pakistan have a burgeoning financial services sector," Ghani said in his article published by International Herald Tribune on Monday, illustrating the prospects for economic cooperation in the region. Meanwhile, the conference is to consider concrete initiatives to stimulate not only economic cooperation but also economic integration, with special attention being given to those initiatives that can support Afghanistan's reconstruction.