Singapore and Germany will collaborate for the first time to provide technical assistance to Afghanistan in civil aviation, according to a statement by Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday.

This collaboration aims to improve the safety of civilian air traffic in Afghanistan through capacity building of Afghan aviation personnel and is co-sponsored by the Singapore Cooperation Program (SCP) and the German Federal Foreign Office.

Two training programs in civil aviation management and airport terminal operations management, to be conducted in Singapore in September this year and January next year, will provide training for 40 officials from the Afghan Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation. Following a review of this year's programs, the initiative may be continued in 2010.

Singapore has been providing technical assistance to Afghanistan since 2002, when it pledged a technical assistance package (worth about 0.8 million U.S. dollars) at the International Conference on Reconstruction Assistance to Afghanistan in Tokyo.

To date, a total of 225 Afghan government officials have been trained in areas such as education, environment, urban transport planning, public administration and healthcare under the SCP. 　

Source: Xinhua