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“Government of India is committed to support the Afghan civil employees through its technical facilities as this country tried its best in the last one decade for training of Afghans,” says Deputy Chief of Mission
By Akhtar M. Nikzad-KABUL: Embassy of India in Kabul celebrated the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITCE) Day and offered information about India’s competence in field of technical innovation and economical cooperation for regional and inter-regional countries.
The deputy chief of mission Embassy of India, Viraj Singh, said in the ceremony that India is one of the counterpart countries that every year offers around 500 slots under the civil ITEC program and cover 200 slots under ITEC defense program to Afghanistan.
He said that apart from these annual slots, the government of India also organizes specialized training programs for Afghan government officials on specific request by Afghan government.
Singh said the Indian government conducted short and long term training programs for Afghan employees had significant impacts over professional knowledge of the participants.
Speaking about the ITEC programs, he pointed out that, ITEC is the flagship program of the Indian government’s capacity building efforts not only because of its magnitude and wide geographical coverage but also for innovative forms of technical cooperation.
“These programs have generated immense goodwill and substantive cooperation among the developing countries,” he said.
General Director of Independent Administration Reform and Civil Services Commission, Farhad Usmani, told Afghanistan Times that each year India provides short term capacity building courses for 500-700 civil employees through the ITEC programs.
He said the capacity building programs include: accounting, audit, banking, IT, telecommunication, management and English language courses.
He termed the ITEC capacity building programs vital for boosting professional knowledge of Afghan government employees.
The Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation program was instituted by decision of Indian Cabinet on September 15, 1964 as a bilateral program of assistance of the government of India.
The object of this scheme is to train middle-level public officials of the Afghan government ministries, departments and governmental organizations.
During the Indian prime minister’s visit to Afghanistan in August 2005, the number of slots for Afghanistan was increased from 200 to 500. Around 215 training courses are offered in various fields
