The Canadian government on Friday laid out 21 goals it hopes to achieve in Afghanistan, before its mission ends in 2011.
The 21 goals, which are called benchmarks, will allow officials to quantitatively measure the progress being made in Afghanistan before 2011, David Mulroney, the deputy minister of Canada's Afghanistan Task Force, told reporters in Ottawa.
The benchmarks focus on six priorities that Canada has identified for the mission, including improving security, providing humanitarian assistance, enhancing the Afghan-Pakistan border, developing institutions to handle elections and other needs, fostering reconciliation between feuding Afghan groups and improving Afghan access to jobs, education and essential services like water.
The goals include building 50 schools in Kandahar and training at least four Afghan army battalions to work nearly autonomously in the volatile southern province, among others.
Mulroney said that progress reports will be issued four times a year to update the government on how Canada is doing with its benchmarks.
"It's a blueprint for what Canada has to do, what Canada needs to do to achieve the vision we have for Kandahar in 2011," he said.
Canada now has 2,500 soldiers based in southern Afghanistan. Their major task is to help with reconstruction and training of Afghan troops and police during the next two years.
Source: Xinhua
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