The UN, World Bank and Asian Development Bank jointly kicked off a three-day conference Tuesday in Islamabad on rebuilding war-torn Afghanistan. At the outset of "Preparing for Afghanistan's Reconstruction," Mieko Nishimizu, World Bank vice president for the South Asia Region, emphasised the importance of reducing poverty and improving the vitality of Afghanistan's society under Afghan leadership.
Yoshihiro Iwasaki, the ADB's director of the Programs Department, expressed the bank's readiness to play a key role in promoting the rehabilitation and reconstruction process in Afghanistan in collaboration with other international organizations.

More than 200 participants, about one-third of them Afghans, are expected to discuss agricultural recovery, demobilization, generating employment, deactivating mines, sanitation, education, the role of women and infrastructure.
"It is a comprehensive agenda with a view to sketching out the broadest possible perspective of the challenge which goes beyond mere reconstruction to the sustainable development of Afghanistan as a growing participant in the world community," the organizers said in a statement. Bureau Report