KABUL (SW): Finance Minister Eklili Hakimi on Monday told the Wolesi Jirga (lower house) as many as 182 development projects worth $ 5.5 billion are set to be launched this year.
Briefing the house about the Ministry of Finance (MoF)’s activities, the minister said utilization of development budget has improved in comparison to the previous years. Hakimi said a joint working group is working on feasibilities for multi-purpose dam development projects. He added work on five such projects has been halted on technical basis.
The minister said Uzbekistan has agreed to provide machinery on lease for six old garment factories, and work on this project would begin in six months. “There are a total of 182 new public welfare and private projects worth $ 5.5 billion that have either commenced or would be launched soon”, he said. The minister said understanding has been reached with Turkmenistan to transport gas via Afghan transport companies to Pakistan until Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (TAPI) gas pipe line gets functional.
He added the Ministry of Finance has devolved the budget unit to each corresponding public office in a bid to save time on the long bureaucratic process. Hakimi said the MoF now only supervises the utilization of budget. He added utilization of expenditure and development budgets have improved.
The minister claimed the Afghan government has met 70 per cent of the commitments it pledged at the Brussels Conference. Additionally, Minister of Finance also gave information about regional cooperation, activities and role of public private partnership (PPP), reforms in customs and revenue sources and preventing state’s land squatter.
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