The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Monday said the bank will provide a $2 billion grant to Afghanistan in the next three years to help the country undertake programs in the field of agriculture, natural resources, power generation, transportation and infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Office of Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah has hailed the move an important step towards boosting Afghanistan’s infrastructure. 

Shanny Campbell, Deputy Country Director of the ADB for Afghanistan has said that next year, the bank will provide $887 million in aid to Afghanistan, of the amount, $20 million will be invested in reducing the impact of natural disasters.

“So, for our programs for the next three years, we will need investment of about two billion dollars, which is what we are committing to. About 1.3 billion dollars is actually ADB’s own funds and we willmanage the Afghanistan infrastructure trust fund for the government. So, the ministry of finance is actually a partner in that trust fund and we co-host them,” said Campbell.

“At a sideline of the Geneva Conference, the chief executive officer met with the deputy chairman of Asian Development Bank and at the meeting, the chief executive officer hailed the support of Asian Development Bank, and deputy chairman of Asian Development Bank gave the assurance for $2 billion to be spent on infrastructure in Afghanistan,” said CEO Abdullah Abdullah’s deputy spokesman Omid Maisam. 

Based on the ADB statistics, since 2002, the bank has provided over $4 billion of aid to Afghanistan with the majority of money spent on key projects.