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CNN Live At Daybreak

Tokyo Conference Generates $4.5 Billion for Afghanistan

Aired January 22, 2002 - 06:18   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the business of rebuilding Afghanistan. The world is opening its wallet to the war-ravaged nation. Donors, attending a conference on rebuilding -- rebuilding the country, rather, have pledged more than $4 billion.

CNN's Richard Roth filed this report moments ago from the conference site in Tokyo.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If you add it all up, more than 60 countries wrote checks for more than $4.5 billion to the new Afghanistan government.

CHRIS PATTEN, EUROPEAN COMMISSION: I think this has been a historic conference. And historic because it's demonstrated both the breadth and the depth of the international commitment to the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

ROTH (voice-over): After all the gloom that has surrounded Afghanistan for years and decades, with mounting international frustration, there was a sense here that something has been accomplished, though donors tend to keep their fingers crossed and their future donations rather guarded. But the Afghanistan government came away from this two-day conference with enough to start running a government.

HEDAYAT AMIN ARSALA, AFGHAN MINISTER FOR FINANCE: I can assure you we will do everything possible to utilize these resources in the most efficient way for the benefit of the people of Afghanistan.

ROTH: The governments and the countries that have donated money to Afghanistan have allotted stake in the future of that country. As the president of the World Bank put it -- James Wolfensohn -- "September 11th showed the world there is no invisible wall between us and them. If there ever was a wall, September 11th was that wall coming down."

PAUL O'NEILL TREASURY SECRETARY: We continue to prosecute the military war against terrorism and the financial war against terrorism and terrorists. And we view the rebuilding role in Afghanistan as the completing part of the war against terrorism in Afghanistan as a specific place.

ROTH: The first infusion of cash in Afghanistan is targeted at security infrastructure, such as roads and health systems.

KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: We are off to a good start, but we have many hurdles ahead of us. We have questions of security to worry about; we have questions of getting the right type of people for the reconstruction, whether Afghan or elsewhere. We have problems of organizing -- the Afghans organizing themselves in such a way that the warlords will not get in the way. We need to bring down banditry, and so we have lots of hurdles ahead of us. We are by no means there. It's a long process, but we've made a good start.

ROTH (on camera): Countries remain worried that their money will not reach intended people and projects. But the new interim leader of the Afghanistan government, Hamid Karzai, said he's willing to be a "Samurai warrior now against corruption."

Richard Roth, CNN, Tokyo.

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