Investment Will Bring Security to Afghanistan

Investment Will Bring Security to Afghanistan

When Hamid Karzai greets donors in Paris on June 12, the Afghan president will officially unveil Afghanistan's first national development strategy. A focal point of the package is its price tag—$50 billion—a hefty sum for a country with a tenuous record managing its own redevelopment effort. But Mahmoud Saikal, Afghanistan's former deputy foreign minister and an adviser on the national strategy, says the international community must look past concerns about corruption and insecurity and invest in his country's future. "If we invest more in Afghanistan, chances are we will bring security," he says. "The two go hand in hand." Saikal says the national development strategy, two years in the making, will serve as Afghanistan's blueprint to guide itself from decades of war and conflict.