Kabul, Berlin to co-fund Afghan printing house

KABUL and Germany on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on co-funding the construction and operation of an Afghan State Printing House (ASPH) for printing national ID cards and other official documents.

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Finance and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of their respective governments signed the memorandum of understanding.

The Ministry of Finance statement said that the memorandum outlines a plan to produce identity cards and other documents according to international security standards. The printing facility will be built at a state-owned site in Jangalak and is expected to start manufacturing in late 2016.

The technology and equipment will be provided by Germany’s federal printing corporation, the Bundesdruckerei, which prints identity cards and passports. To ensure that construction management meets standards of security and quality, the German Government will also provide a team of international and national technicians.

Abdul Razaq Vahidi, Deputy Minister for Administration at the Ministry of Finance said: “It is vital that Afghanistan produces identity and security documents that meet international security standards. We look forward to working with our German friends to establish a suitable, secure, state-owned printing facility that will improve the reliability of security-related documents.”

Wolf Plesmann, head of portfolio at GIZ working in partnership with the Ministry of Finance, added: “This new project is a significant step towards strengthening Afghan public administration with the help of German know-how.”

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