Ghani also stressed the importance of security. He pointed to his country’s national army and police force—still in their infancy—as the source of such security in the future. However, he said the continued threat of terrorist cells operating in the country creates a serious impediment to economic growth.

“We have terrorist networks that must be destroyed to have peace,” he said.  

Focusing on the poor, Ghani asserted that Afghanistan has the lowest rate of energy consumption and the highest rate of child mortality in the world. He said that the Afghan government believes it can halve the rate of child mortality over the next five years. 

He also addressed the issue of education, especially for girls, and Ghani said that currently 40 percent of all enrolled students are female.

The future of Afghanistan’s economic development has international implications that Ghani said he feels are too significant to ignore. If the present situation fails to stabilize, he said that the international community will pay a higher price in the future than the cost of putting the country on the road to prosperity right now.

“[If Afghanistan’s new government fails] the international community would have lost a unique opportunity to illustrate that the clash of civilizations can be avoided,” Ghani said.

The speech was the keynote address of the ninth annual Harvard International Development Conference, entitled “Governance and Development in a Dynamic Global Environment,” which took place this past weekend.