Honourable Prime Minister Tony Blair, Honourable Secretary General Kofi Annan, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

Allow me to express the gratitude of the people of Afghanistan to the United Kingdom for hosting this important conference, and for the warm and generous hospitality we have received. Thank you Prime Minister Blair for your words today, and for your unwavering support of Afghanistan over the past four years. As the co-host of the conference, I join the Prime Minister in welcoming the countries and international organisations represented here today, and thank you for the dedicated support extended to my country at our time of need.

Four years on from the Bonn Conference, the people of Afghanistan have made great strides towards peace, stability and democracy. We owe our successes to the resilience and unfailing determination of the Afghan people as well as the generous support of the international community. Together we have achieved much. Today Afghanistan has a constitution, an elected President and an elected Parliament. We are proud that women make up more than a quarter of seats in our National Assembly. Where four years ago, education was in a state of total collapse, today more than six million girls and boys are attending schools. Our national economy is growing steadily and, over the past four years, we have enjoyed a total real GDP growth of 85 percent, while the rate of inflation has been kept at around 10 percent.

We have taken major steps to reconstitute our military and police forces. Whereas four years ago Afghanistan was a haven for international terrorism, today our country is a full participant in the global fight against terrorism. Four years ago, the Bonn Agreement presented us with a formidable set of objectives. Today, I am pleased that we successfully conclude the Bonn Process and open a new chapter of Afghanistan’s rebuilding and partnership with the international community.

However, in spite of the achievements, we have a long road ahead and significant challenges still to meet. We have re-established our institutions of governance and justice, but these need to develop to serve the interests of the Afghan people.

Our resurgent economy will need many more years to grow at substantial levels before it can uplift the majority of our people from poverty.

And above all challenges, terrorism and narcotics represent the gravest of threats. Terrorism no longer rules Afghanistan, but it continues to be a threat to our people’s security and welfare. It is not the security and independence of Afghanistan alone that is threatened by terrorism; this menace is the enemy of peace and of humanity, and is responsible for the massacre of innocent people across the world. Any weakness in our resolve to fight terrorism will only embolden it and result in greater human loss.

The threat of narcotics must be fought through law enforcement and through alternative economic opportunities. This fight will prove arduous and unremitting. In the past year we reduced the land under poppy cultivation by 21%, mainly through voluntary self-restraint, and we are determined to take further steps to completely eliminate this menace. We expect the international community to co-operate with us realistically, not only to help us root out narcotics, but to do so without causing undue economic hardship and instability.

Ladies and gentlemen, to overcome the challenges that remain in the security, economic and state-building, Afghanistan has prepared a national development strategy which will be presented to you today.

Through this strategy, and with continued assistance from the international community, we will work to address the priorities that we have set ourselves over the next five years.

We understand that lasting peace and security in Afghanistan will ultimately depend on building effective and capable institutions of governance. Through developing institutional capacities of the state, we will enforce the rule of law and ensure the protection of the rights of our people. We will expedite administrative and judicial reforms, remove red-tape, create an efficient and transparent administration, and fight corruption and nepotism. Building a modern state capable of delivering services to its people is dependent upon a skilled and educated workforce.

We request the international community to pay special attention to assistance to the development of our human capital.

To improve our economy, we will focus on strengthening our country’s infrastructure with particular focus on energy – especially electricity, road networks and water. We will create an enabling environment for business to grow and for our farmers to produce and market. We aim to expand our domestic revenue base, focusing on customs, mining, utilizing state assets and other sources of growth. While seeking international aid to rebuild our economic infrastructure and provide for our energy needs, we will encourage foreign direct investment and private sector investors to seize opportunities available in Afghanistan.

We will also promote our macro-economic stability by seeking debt-relief from our international creditors through the Paris Club arrangement.

On the security front, fighting terrorism, in close conjunction with the active military presence in Afghanistan of the international community is our priority. We are pleased with the expansion of NATO forces in Afghanistan, and hope their role will be consistent with the demands of security and stability in Afghanistan. We hope you will continue and increase your support in equipping and training our national army, police and other security forces. The size, quality and mobility of our military and security forces must be raised in proportion to the level of the challenge faced by our country.

We will also consolidate the success of our disarmament, demobilization and reintegrating programme by continuing the disarmament of illegal armed groups that are still present in Afghanistan.

Ladies and gentlemen, to support the implementation of our national development strategy, we are pleased that the international community is joining us in the Afghanistan Compact today. Through the Compact, we the people of Afghanistan renew our pledge to build on the successes of the Bonn Process and lead our nation’s economic, social and political development. The international community and Afghanistan are mutually committed to meeting the benchmarks set out in the Compact.

As we strengthen our capacity to deliver services and manage our development process, we expect the international community to provide a greater portion of its contribution to the Afghan Government.

The government of Afghanistan is fully committed to reach the goals of the Compact by implementing the ANDS. We thank the international community for its confidence and continued support. I wish to thank the United Nations for their active role in our political development and state-building efforts, Germany for being host of the 2001 Bonn and the 2004 Berlin conferences, and Japan for hosting the 2002 Tokyo Conference. I also thank each and every nation and organization present here today that has supported Afghanistan in so many ways.

You have given so generously, and your assistance has given strength and renewed resolve to our people; your soldiers are bringing security to our homes. As a nation, we are grateful for what you have done for us.

I take this opportunity to remember your soldiers and workers who laid down their precious lives, alongside the Afghans, while serving Afghanistan. The Afghan people honour their memory.

Today the people of Afghanistan are proud that, with your help, we have been able to regain our place in the family of nations as an integral and dignified member. Ladies and gentlemen, a stable, peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan is not a blessing for the Afghans alone; it is for all of us.

On behalf of the Afghan people, I pledge today that we will be a dependable asset to the security of the region and of the world.

Thank you and may God bless you.

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