Publish dateSunday 9 July 2017 - 14:07
Story Code : 146074
JCMB’s 20th meeting to discuss Afghan gains on Sunday
Afghanistan will lay out recent successes in moving on the road to self-sufficiency in a conference in Kabul tomorrow, 9th of July, a statement from the Government Media and Information Center (GMIC) said on Saturday.

AVA- Co-chaired by Finance Minister Eklil Hakimi, and Mr. Tadamichi Yamamoto, United Nations Special Envoy for Afghanistan at presence of President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, and ambassadors of donor countries, the Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board (JCMB)’s meeting is scheduled to take place on Sunday.

The achievements to be discussed at the JCMB meeting included the recent removal of Afghanistan’s banking sector from the ‘grey list’ of the international Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the statment said.

The statement quoted the FATF as calling this achievement ‘an important signal to the international community’, highlighting the huge achievements, efforts and continuing hard work aimed at implementing the greatly strengthened systems to combat money laundering and terrorist financing in Afghanistan.

The statement further echoed the FATF as saying: “This will significantly improve the ability of the private sector to raise money, and further contribute to economic growth, now predicted to be three percent.”

Other highlights included the release of funds on time by both the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). These funds were only released after Afghanistan had fulfilled time-sensitive deadlines.

The IMF had also approved $6.2 million for Afghanistan, bringing total disbursements under the arrangement to $12.4 million. The approval came following the completion of the first review of the arrangement under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) in May 2017, it stated.

These developments would be discussed in the meeting of JCMB, a body that brought together senior Afghan leaders with members of the international fraternity, the statement said, adding the board would look at progress made on mutual benchmarks agreed at the Brussels summit in October 2016.

One other key success in the economic sector was that revenue increased more quickly than the target for another year.  In 2016, revenue collection improved by 26% compared to 2015, including one-off revenue, it said.

“Last year the country exceeded the IMF target by nine billion afs. About 34 billion afs has already been collected in the first quarter of 2017. As our domestic revenues increase, we have confidence that this year we will exceed our commitments”, the GMIC statement declared.

The Afghan government would also discuss the commitments achieved or in progress regarding the electoral reform, economic reform, economic and political women empowerment, Land Management Law revision and reforms, transparency and accountability of mine extraction, streamlining procedures for an enabling investment climate in the country, it expressed.

 JCMB was established in accordance with an agreement between the Afghan Government and the international community for overall strategic coordination on implementation of the Afghanistan Compact endorsed at the London Conference in 2006.  JCMB provides a platform for strategic coordination, joint policy formulation and problem solving in Afghanistan. It ensures the mutual accountability of the government and its development partners.

The National Unity Government (NUG) leadership and high ranking government officials, special representative of UN Secretary General to Afghanistan, U.S, UK, German ambassadors and other international community’s representative will participate at the meeting.

Afghanistan government will reaffirm its commitment toward fighting corruption, promoting transparency and accountability, judicial reform and government revenue collection system at this JCMB meeting.

Source : Afghan Voice Agency(AVA)
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