Islamic Republic of Afghanistan - Enhanced Integrated Framework ...

• Increased Agricultural Production andProductivity: Public and private sectorpartnerships strengthen horticulture industry.Increased livestock production andproductivity will improve food securityand incomes that will lead to a reduction ofillicit agriculture and a decline in livestockimports. Agriculture diversificationthrough various value-added activities, research,extension, access to credit, marketdevelopment, establishing/strengtheningfarmers’ organization, private sector development,trainings, will improve the ruraleconomy. (See ANDS Volume Two formore details)• Provision, and maintenance of Agricultureand Rural Infrastructure: Successfulcrop production requires: technical irrigationmanagement (e.g., availability of irrigationwater supply, improving water efficiencyand productivity, building effectiveand efficient irrigation and village basedirrigation infrastructures, utilize modern irrigationtechnologies and human resourcewater management (e.g., organizing andstrengthening mirabs, farmers associations,irrigation associations, decentralization ofirrigation management at basin and subbasinlevels, water allocation. etc.).TRANSPORTRole of the Sector in ANDSThe ANDS strategic vision and goal for thetransport sector is to have a safe, integratedtransportation network that ensures connectivityand that enables low-cost and reliablemovement of people and goods domestically aswell as to and from foreign destinations. Thiswill give impetus to economic growth and employmentgeneration and help integrate Afghanistaninto the global economy. A high priorityis to have in place an efficient and viableroad transportation network for achieving economicgrowth and poverty reduction, particularlyin rural areas.In the 1960s and 1970s, a large portion of the‘ring road’ and connecting roads to neighboringcountries were constructed. This networkwas subsequently largely destroyed duringthree decades of war and political strife. TheGovernment has continued to give high priorityto completing the rehabilitation and extensionof this system over the past six years. Dueto the significant impact of the road system oneconomic activity and the impact on povertyreduction, this will continue to be a high priorityunder the ANDS strategy.The Transport Sector Strategy will achieve thefollowing targets established in the AfghanistanCompact. (i) Roads: Afghanistan will havea fully upgraded and maintained ring road, aswell as roads connecting the ring road toneighboring countries by end-2008 and a fiscallysustainable system for road maintenance;(ii) Air Transport: By end-2010, Kabul InternationalAirport and Herat Airport will achievefull International Civil Aviation Organizationcompliance; Mazar-i-Sharif, Jalalabad andKandahar will be upgraded with runway repairs,air navigation, fire and rescue and communicationsequipment; seven other domesticairports will be upgraded to facilitate domesticair transportation; and air transport servicesand costs will be increasingly competitive withinternational market standards and rates. (iii)Regional Cooperation: By end-2010 Afghanistanand its neighbors will achieve lower transittimes through Afghanistan by means of cooperativeborder management and other multilateralor bilateral trade and transit agreements.Current situation in the sectorSince 2001, significant achievements have beenmade in the transport sector as donors contributedover $3.3 billion to rebuilding the transportsystem between 2002 and 2007. Some ofthe main achievements include:• An estimated 12,200 kilometers of roadshave been rehabilitated, improved, or builtincluding segments of the ring road system,national highways, provincial roadsand rural roads.• Kabul International Airport has been expandedand extensively rehabilitated.• Four major airports (at Herat, Mazar-i-Sharif, Jalalabad, and Kandahar) as well asseven other regional airports are eitherslated for, or currently undergoing, extensiverehabilitation and expansion.• In July 2007, trade and transit agreementswith Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan werereached. A transit agreement is currentlyEconomical and Social Development 93