Ottawa – His Excellency Ehsan Zia, Afghanistan’s Minister of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, is on a week-long working visit to Canada, which will take him to Ottawa, Quebec City, Calgary and Vancouver.
On Thursday, Minister Zia, accompanied by Afghan Ambassador to Canada, Omar Samad, spoke at an academic roundtable at Carleton University. He then met with CIDA officials at the Ministry of International Cooperation in Hull.
During a luncheon with CIDA staff, he expressed Afghanistan’s appreciation for Canada’s comprehensive multi-prong approach - in some cases through direct funding of national development programs - that has helped millions of empoverished Afghans, strengthened governance and laid the foundation for rebuilding efforts across the country since 2002.
“We are at a critical juncture, which requires a strong push on the development side of our efforts to realize more positive changes in the lives of the Afghan people, while we continue to address the security threats,” he said.
The minister credited Canada and several other donors for providing generous aid to fund several community based development programmes, among them the National Solidarity Programme (NSP), the National Area Based Development Programme (NABDP) and Microfinance Investment Support Facility for Afghanistan (MISFA).
Minister Zia reiterated the need to strengthen Afghan professional capacities and increase the channeling of aid through the government to enable the functioning of state institutions. At the National Press Club in Ottawa, he also highlighted Afghanistan’s needs to expand NSP, especially in insecure areas, accelerate work on irrigation projects, promote rural industry programmes, and expand microfinance to reach more people.
The Minister also attended a dinner in his honor Thursday by members of the Canada Afghanistan Business Council from Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa. He urged Afghan-Canadians and Canadian investors to take advantage of the business opportunities that exist today in many fields in most parts of Afghanistan.
Embassy of Afghanistan
Released on 1 December, 2006
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