KABUL - President Ashraf Ghani on Sunday questioned the standard of constructions and investment of billions of dollars in Kabul over the past decade.

Addressing the second National Conference on Urban Development in Kabul, Ghani said that 70 percent of the constructions in Kabul were non-standard.

He called on private sector to determine their role in the constructions at this conference attended by senior government officials including the Minister of Urban Development Sayed Sadat Naderi.

During his speech, Ghani urged the Afghan companies to learn effective construction from the Chinese who he said will build 10,000 apartments in only $80 million USD in Kabul.

In addition, he called on civil society to contribute to the conference with their new ideas.

He linked cities' development to cooperation by the citizens.

Touching on land grabbing, Ghani promised to end the usurpation of land. He however linked effectiveness of the program to public support.

On agriculture, he complained that enough work have not been done over the past years.

According to Ghani, Afghanistan annually imports about $4 billion USD worth agricultural products, while, he said Afghanistan can meet this requirement by investing only $1.5 billion USD on the sector.

He thanked the international partners of Afghanistan for contributing to the construction of war-hit country.

Ghani complained however that billions of dollars were lost due to lack of capacity to utilize the funds over the past 14 years. (Tolonews)