Brussels, 27/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - The conference for donors to Afghanistan on 20 and 21 December in Brussels provided the forum, for the first time, to identify reconstruction needs, in the next five years, namely 9 million dollars, as well as reconstruction priorities (training on equality of opportunities, mine-clearing, urban housing, reconstruction of roads). Mark Walloch-Brown, from the United Nations Programme for Development, told the press that this was a provisional estimate. The conference, attended by the EU Council President Louis Michel, also identified projects for the coming thirty months, at a cost of 582 million dollars, destined in particular at getting schools back on their feet, health care, water distribution, energy production, setting up civil administration bodies and the fight against drugs.
The Brussels conference prepared the ground for the Tokyo conference on 21 and 22 January, during which concrete financial commitments will have to be made. (Voir aussi EUROPE du 21 décembre, p.13).