Ashraf Ghani was a key figure in rebuilding Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban, and is a leading advocate for foreign investment (rather than foreign aid) as a tool for economic development and the eradication of poverty.
Why you should listen to him:
Before Afghanistan's President Karzai asked him, at the end of 2001, to become his adviser and then Finance Minister, Ashraf Ghani had spent years in academia studying state-building and social transformation, and a decade in executive positions at the World Bank trying to effect policy in these two fields. In just 30 months, he carried out radical and effective reforms (a new currency, new budget, new tariffs, etc.) and was instrumental in preparing for the elections of October 2004.
In 2006, he was a candidate to succeed Kofi Annan as Secretary General of the United Nations. He's currently the Chancellor of Kabul University, where he runs a program on state effectiveness. His message to the world: "Afghanistan should not be approached as a charity, but as an investment."
"Ghani's management skills, which sparked an economic revival in post-Taliban Afghanistan, earned him Asia's vote as the best finance minister on the continent."The New York Sun
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