Opening Remarks: Afghanistan High-level Strategic Forum, Brussels, Belgium.

March17, 2003

It was less than a year ago, Kabul bursting in springtime with new hope, that a group similar to this met – Afghanistan's then interim authorities and donors.

I treasure my memory of that day. Too often, governments are too keen to have the World Bank or other donors organize and chair these meetings. The World Bank has been declining to do so in recent years, to make space for real, hands-on, government leadership, and also to create space for donors' genuine ownership and buy-in to that leadership. In Kabul last spring, I couldn't have chaired even if I had wanted to. The chair was most emphatically occupied, articulating an emerging national vision, strategies, and an immediate way forward, and inviting the world's ownership.

And so it remains today.

Fiercely determined Afghan leadership characterizes the very relationship we have with the people of Afghanistan at the grass roots and with their government in Kabul. For Afghanistan's development partners, this leadership is no trivial matter. It challenges us on technical excellence, relevance, and speed of our service, as it ought. It demands us to work holistically across sectors and across agencies as a strong team, as we should.

I dare say we are privileged to have this good leadership that manages us, asks us first and foremost for our best-practice knowledge in shaping their policies and programmes, and invites us to buy into what is truly Afghanistan's own. Put crudely, we might all be "getting a piece of the action" – because indeed there is so much to do – but we are "getting it" on Afghan terms. Country's leadership and donors' ownership – this, is how it should be.

Looking back, it is remarkable how much Afghanistan has achieved in just one year. Last April, we were already impressed by a strong national budget and the emerging shape of a development vision. Today, we see a clear vision and development strategy, to be executed with wholesome policies, twelve national programmes and an integrated national budget for Afghanistan's Solar Year 1382.

Afghanistan has begun to build basic institutions of a modern state, rooted in the nation's historical and cultural heritage. It has demonstrated fiscal discipline, and has resisted borrowing to finance the deficit. It has introduced a new currency and stabilized a fragmented chaos. It has tabled a commendable banking law as a matter of national priority. It has organized us, the donors, to honor selectivity through twelve national programmes. And, it envisages the implementation of many of these programmes in the hands of players outside the government, where such work should be.

Most significant is the palpable fact that the Afghan entrepreneurial spirit is showing its might once again in industry, commerce and farming. Last April, I recall for instance, streets of Kabul were decidedly empty. Today, I do not recognize the place, teeming with commercial activities.

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A recent circular from the Finance Minister informed us all of the principles of budget and government decision making. It seldom gets more accountable and transparent than this. Afghanistan has in place the fundamentals, frameworks and principles, and admirable they are indeed. But, let us not lose sight of reality and what needs to be done beyond the fundamentals, frameworks and principles.

As we sit here today, we are aware of dangers still ahead for Afghanistan. Not least of which is consequences of world events that could eclipse this once Number One priority for all. How fickle we would be, in the event.

For my part, I commit the World Bank to the long haul with the sovereign people of Afghanistan. If real commitment and successful reconstruction cannot be demonstrated for and by these people of admirable leadership and self-determination, where else on earth will it be possible? If we do not stay the course with Afghanistan, with whom will we stay that course? It is now, or never.

And now or never, too, for the Transitional Administration of Afghanistan, with just 15 months or so left on its calendar. There are hard decisions to be made, reform benchmarks to be set, and visible progress to be harvested, so that the people of Afghanistan can feel tangible benefits of their country's emergence from conflict. And, even more importantly, so that all women and men of Afghanistan can harbour that precious hope in their hearts, however intangible it may seem, for their own – and their children's – future.

Among many, I count the following as priority issues that demand the government's sustained attention:

1. Domestic revenue mobilization;
2. Fierce fiscal discipline, as though your life depends on it because it does;
3. Clarity on the role of the state, particularly concerning state-owned enterprises;
4. Getting out of the way of the private sector, quickly and credibly; and
5. Stabilizing public sector employment now, and beginning a journey to build a civil service that is proud of its professional excellence and strong values in serving the people.