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Hedayat Amin Arsala هدايت امين ارسلا |
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| Nationality | Afghan |
| Ethnicity | Pashtun |
| Citizenship | Afghanistan |
| Education | PHD in Economics |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Years active | 1969 to Present |
| Employer | Government of Afghanistan |
| Home town | Kabul |
| Political party | National Islamic Front of Afghanistan |
Hedayat Amin Arsala (Pashto: هدايت امين ارسلا), is an economist and a prominent politician in Afghanistan. Mr. Arsala was most recently the Vice President of Afghanistan and subsequently the Senior Minister to President Hamid Karzai.
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An ethnic Pashtun, Arsala grew up in Kabul, Afghanistan, where he attended high school. He completed his BA and MA in Economics, also focusing on international relations, at Southern Illinois University (SIU) in the United States of America. He also completed the course work and qualifying exams for a PhD in Economics at George Washington University, in Washington DC. In May 2008, SIU conferred an honorary doctorate on Arsala for his distinguished service to Afghanistan.
In 1969, Hedayat Amin-Arsala was the first Afghan to join the World Bank (WB) through the Young Professional Program. He served there for 18 years in several economic and senior operational posts. Active in the resistance against the Soviet occupation since 1979, he left the WB in 1987 to participate full-time in the Afghan struggle.[1] He was a founding member of the National Islamic Front of Afghanistan (NIFA), led by Pir Sayed Ahmad Gailani, and a member of the Supreme Council of Mujahideen Unity (formed in February 1980). He served as the Finance Minister in the Afghan Interim Government (AIG) in exile from 1989-1992.
When the Soviets withdrew and there was a subsequent regime change in Afghanistan, Arsala was appointed as the Foreign Minister of the newly-formed Mujahideen coalition government in early 1993.
He withdrew from that post in 1995 due to infighting and political disagreement amongst some Mujahideen groups. With the rise of the Taliban, Arsala- with some compatriots- launched a peace campaign which called for a broad-based interim Government through a Loya Jirga. This peace movement, later known as ‘The Rome Group’, and its key members, including Arsala, were key participants in the Bonn deliberations after 11 September 2001. The Bonn Conference resulted in the famous Bonn Agreement and the formation of the Interim Afghan Administration. Mr Hamid Karzai was appointed Chairman and Mr. Arsala was appointed as Vice Chairman and the first Minister of Finance in post-Taliban Afghanistan.[2] The Bonn Conference also provided a roadmap for subsequent political developments. In June 2002, the Transitional Government of Afghanistan was formed. The Emergency Loya Jirga of Afghanistan elected Mr Hamid Karzai as President, and Mr. Arsala was appointed as Vice President of Afghanistan.
As Vice-President (VP), Arsala simultaneously headed the Independent Administrative Reform and Civil Service Commission. He also chaired the Economic Coordination Council and the National Census Committee. He was a member of the National Security Council, and at times, in Mr Karzai’s absence, Acting President. After 2.5 years as VP, Arsala was appointed Senior Advisor to the President as well as the Minister for Commerce and Industry. In 2006, he became the Senior Minister of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and in the latter part of 2008, he simultaneously became the Chairman of the Government Coordination Committee (GCC) and served as the Co-Chair of the Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board.
In early 2002, Arsala also co-chaired the first international Afghanistan aid and development conference in Tokyo and later in the same year, led the first international aid conference in Afghanistan. Arsala has pioneered many innovative civil service initiatives aimed at improving the public sector and effective governance within Afghanistan. He created the first Independent Administration Reform and Civil Service Commission to reform government institutions and introduced the system of civil service appointments and promotion on the basis of merit, not patronage or nepotism. A champion of public sector reform and private sector growth, as Minister of Commerce and Industry, Arsala also introduced a number of important improvements to remove barriers to the private sector and champion increased investment:
During Arsala’s tenure, exports increased from US$300 million to US$500 million. He represented Afghanistan at several international conferences including those of Heads of State and Governments.
Amin Arsala is married and has three children. He also has five grandchildren.
Hedayat Amin Arsala is a prominent Afghan Economist and Politician. He was Vice-President in the transitional administration of Afghanistan from December 22 2001 to December 7, 2004. He subsequently was elected Minister of Commerce and was recently appointed the Senior Minister to President Karzai. He is one of the leading moderates among the members of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's cabinet. In 2006, Mr. Arsala was nominated by Afghanistan to replace Kofi Annan as the Secretary General of the United Nations.
Mr. Arsala recently announced his candidcay for President of Afghanistan in the upcoming elections in August 2009.
Mr. Arsala, an ethnic Pashtun descending from the Jabar Khel tribe (which has close ties to the late King Zahir Shah), grew up in Kabul and attended high school there. He came to the United States for college and completed his studies for a doctorate in economics at George Washington University. Between 1969 and 1987, Mr. Arsala worked for the World Bank, starting with their young professionals program and later holding various economic and senior operational posts. Early in his career in the United States, Amin Arsala was a foreign language trainer for three consecutive Peace Corps training programs.
He is married with 3 children and has 4 grandchildren.
In 1987, Mr. Arsala left the World Bank and returned to Afghanistan to join the Afghan resistance to overthrow the Soviet occupation. Since then he has been among a handful of influential and professionally trained Afghans developing self-government for the people of Afghanistan. During that liberation effort, he served as Senior Advisor and as a member of the Supreme Council of Afghan Unity of Mujahideen.
For three years beginning in 1989, he served as Minister of Finance of the Afghan Interim Government in exile.
In 1993, the former King of Afghanistan, Mohammed Zahir Shah, appointed Amin Arsala Foreign Minister and later made him a senior member of the Executive Council of the Loya Jirga, the traditional council of Pashtun tribal leaders who were to determine the shape of a new government for the nation. He played a key role in the Intra-Afghan Bonn Conference that produced a political roadmap after the fall of the Taliban regime and was appointed Vice Chairman and Minister of Finance of the Interim Administration.
When the Loya Jirga met in June 2002 to create a transitional government that would prepare the nation for popular elections, Hamid Karzai was chosen as president and, among his cabinet, Amin Arsala was named vice president. In that office, he worked as head of the Independent Administration Reform and Civil Service Commission, the National Census Commission, the Coordination Council and was a member of the Afghan National Security Council.
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