KABUL - President Ashraf Ghani on Thursday said the country’s current 3 percent economic growth rate was not encouraging and that in order to curb poverty this rate needs to increase.
Afghanistan’s economic growth rate must be at least around 9 percent to tackle poverty, said Ghani at the National Public Procurement Conference in Kabul.
He said one third of the population goes to sleep at night without having had food.
The National Public Procurement Conference also focused on a range of other issues such as reforms, war on corruption and expanding transparency in procurement programs.
According to the president, a roadmap has been outlined to boost the procurement process and that the national procurement authority has been successful in its efforts.
Ghani claimed that all decisions made by the NPA are based on transparency and all contracts are studied carefully.
Ghani said that in the contracts, special focus is paid to domestic production and the products are purchased directly from the manufacturers. Because of this more than 19 companies have been revived.
Meanwhile, CEO Abdullah Abdullah said that the reforms which were put into effect in the procurement process in the country have led to more transparency and less wastage of resources and better participation by the private sector.
To speed up the process of procurement of projects, there is a need for cooperation between the National Procurement Authority (NPA) and the procurement departments of the ministries and other government institutions, said Abdullah. (Tolo news)