Malaysia To Carry On Role In Afghanistan's Development

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 20 (Bernama)-- Malaysia looks forward to playing a meaningful role in Afghanistan's development for many more decades to come, said Representative of Malaysia Sadik Kethergany during the Open Debate on the situation in Afghanistan at the United Nations Security Council in New York yesterday. Sadik said a total of 399 Afghans have benefited from the Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme courses in areas such as diplomacy, public administration, judiciary, banking, engineering and customs administration. "The Malaysian Defence Cooperation Programme has also provided tactics and Arabic language training for several Afghan military officers," he added. "Furthermore, Malaysia facilitated joint capacity building initiatives under the Third Country Training Programme, such as the Malaysia-Australia Education project for Afghanistan which provided train the trainer courses for Afghan lecturers and teachers in Kuala Lumpur," he said. He emphasised that Malaysia strongly believed human capacity building was a critical aspect in nation building, and in the case of Afghanistan in reconstructing the country. "Human capacity building is the most practical way forward for Afghanistan to achieve greater and more sustainable growth and development," he said. He made an assurance that Malaysia would continue providing technical assistance to Afghanistan under various technical and capacity building programmes. --BERNAMA Malaysia