– og alt for hurtigt. Frygt for økonomisk kollaps, når de internationale tropper forlader det fattige land i Centralasien om få år
Afghanistan could be left in the midst of a deep financial crisis when foreign troops leave the country in 2014, according to a US congressional study.
The study recommends that the US government restructure its aid programs in the country to focus on long-term, sustainable development.
The two-year study, released Wednesday, was carried out by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Democratic majority, and says that the US must make more effective use of the roughly 320 million US dollar (1,6 milliarder DKR) a month it spends in the form of aid in Afghanistan.
The report goes on to warn that the large influx of money into the country may drive inflationary salaries (as much as 10 times the salary for an average Afghan worker) and pervasive (føre til udbredt/omsiggribende) corruption in the short term.
In the long term, it may contribute to an economic collapse for Afghanistan if the country cannot afford to continue the programs that the US and other countries have started after international troops leave.
Pesident Barack Obama has requested 3,2 billion dollar for Afghanistan reconstruction projects in the coming fiscal year (beløbet overgår Danmarks samlede årlige bistand til alle verdens u-lande, red.).
The report argued that the foreign aid program must continue but “the goal should be to reduce some of the political pressure to spend money quickly, especially when the conditions are not right”.
All US development projects in Afghanistan should be reexamined, it adds, to determine whether they are “necessary, achievable, and sustainable”.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
