NSIA reveals last year’s major achievements

KABUL (Pajhwok): The National Statistics and Information Authority (NSIA) distributed nearly 2.5 million electronic ID cards last year and conducted five different surveys, officials said on Tuesday.

Speaking at an event as part of a program to interpret the achievements of government departments for one year, National Statistics and Information Authority officials today presented their department’s last year’s achievements.

Acting Director of the National Statistics and Information Agency Abdul Qahir Haji Idris told the meeting that over 2.4 million electronic ID cards were distributed last year, with women obtaining about 600,000 ID cards.

He added: “Over 16 million electronic ID cards have been distributed countrywide, of which 10 million were issued after the Islamic Emirate’s return to power.”

According to him, after distributing ID cards to about 100,000 people last year, other ID card-related services were also provided to people. These services include renewal, duplicate issuance, and correction of age and name.

According to him, their department completed 42 construction projects worth 37 million afghanis in Kabul, Helmand, Kunduz, Parwan, Nuristan, Daikundi, Faryab, Farah, Khost and a number of other provinces last year.

Maulvi Mohammad Nabi Nusrat, Deputy Director of Population Registration, told today’s meeting that last year, ID card services were provided to about 550,000 people in the Sarai Shamali Complex in Kabul and two million and 46,000 people in provinces, including distribution of new and duplicate paper ID cards, correction of names, birth certificates, and more.

He said that 242,000 of these newborns were boys and the remaining 200,000 were girls.

He added that five ‘Easy Service’ centers were opened in Kabul, Balkh, Herat, Helmand and Nangarhar last year to facilitate the distribution of electronic ID cards.

He said they registered 35,000 foreigners visiting Afghanistan last year.

Esmatullah Hakimi, deputy director of statistics at the agency, said Afghanistan exported goods worth 1.7 billion US dollars and imported goods worth 11.7 billion US dollars in 1403 solar year.

According to him, the most of the exports were dried figs, cotton, raisins, ginger and coal, most of which were exported to Pakistan, India, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Iran, and the most imported products were from Iran, Pakistan, China, the United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan.

He added: “The inflation rate has decreased by 4.2 percent this year.”

According to his information, over 1.4 million Afghan refugees returned to the country last year, mostly from Iran and Pakistan.

Hakimi said: “Last year, our agency successfully conducted five important surveys, including the village census survey of Logar province, the survey of the acquired area of Kajaki Dam, the survey of agricultural areas, the cotton production survey, and the national health survey.”

Abdul Matin Salik, acting director of the General Directorate of Geographic Information Registration, said that the survey of cultivated areas in 1403 solar year showed that three million jeribs of land (1.5 million acres) were cultivated in the country last year, of which 2.1 million hectares were irrigated and over 900,000 hectares were dry land.

According to his information, wheat was cultivated on 2.12m hectares, rice on 192,000 hectares, and cotton on 105000 hectares last year.

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