Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar said Wednesday that the Islamic Emirate prioritizes poverty reduction and job opportunities.

Addressing the National Conference on Microfinance Opportunities and Challenge”, Baradar stated that beneficiaries of microfinance initiatives include needy Afghans, traders, and small business owners, and that working with these groups is a shared goal of the IEA and the international community.

Participants at the conference included members of the cabinet, representatives from the UN, the EU, the World Bank country director to Afghanistan, ambassadors to Kabul, officials from international and domestic organizations, and a number of investors and businesspeople.

The Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology said on Wednesday that the costs of data, phone calls and internet packages will be cut by between 14 and 36 percent by all service providers.

Najibullah Haqqani, the acting minister, said at a press conference that a one-minute phone call between the same network will cost 1.30 afghanis, and between different networks it will cost 1.40 afghanis per minute, down from 1.85.

One GB of data, valid for a month, will be set at 95 afghanis, down from 110 afghanis. This is a 14% drop in price, he said.

He also said text messages between subscribers on the same network will cost 1.30 afghanis per message.

Haqqani also stated that 800 new mobile phone sites, including towers, have been established in remote areas and 1,000 inactive sites have been reactivated.

In addition, Afghanistan Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (ATRA) said of the 26 million SIM cards in use, 14 million have been registered under the new administration.

US President Joe Biden says he was determined not to pass the responsibility of ending America’s longest war to yet another administration.

During a speech about the US withdrawal from Afghanistan at Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day, Biden said: “Four presidents faced the decision after we got [Osama] bin Laden whether to end our longest war in history in Afghanistan. I was determined not to leave it to a fifth.”

“For ten years I have carried a time-division that always says on the back, since 2000, we have lost 2,465 soldiers in Afghanistan, and 20,769 American soldiers have been wounded there,” he added.

The Islamic Emirate, however, said that the US failed in Afghanistan and was forced to leave the country.

US and NATO soldiers fought in Afghanistan for 20 years, but when they left this country, the government supported by them also fell, and the last soldier of the US forces left Afghanistan on August 31, 2021.