India, Afghanistan ink official statistics MoU

NEW DELHI (PAN and India signed on Monday a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on official statistics to promote technical cooperation between the two nations.

The MoU was inked in New Delhi between Abdul Rahman Ghafoori, head of Afghanistan’s Central Statistics Organisation, and India’s Statistics and Programme Implementation Minister Dr. M S Gill.

Hailing the MoU as a landmark achievement, Gill hoped it would go a long way in strengthening Afghanistan’s statistical capability besides opening up new opportunities of promoting technical cooperation in other areas of mutual interest. 

“It marks a new chapter in fostering mutual cooperation between the two countries to steer the implementation process for capacity building through skill transfer, particularly to strengthen CSO’s statistical capability in the context of developing a robust statistical system,” he added.

Under the agreement, India will, inter-alia, provide advisory services for supporting policy and strategy development and system improvement in accordance with identified needs of CSO, including medium- and short-term assignments.

“Both our countries share many commonalities and this partnership is a significant step towards building new relationship based on mutual trust and a consultative and transparent approach,” Gill said.

The MoU is part of an agreement signed by the governments of Afghanistan, India and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) last year to boost capacity building of Afghan ministries and departments through an initiative called National Institution Building Project.

This month’s visit of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Afghanistan has given a fillip to technical cooperation between the two countries. Last week, India and Afghanistan signed a pact on increased cooperation in information and broadcasting sectors.

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