Thank you very much.
Everyone is impatient. We want to make as much progress as possible. Afghans are impatient at all levels as well.
I think it is really important to know that in 2001 Afghanistan, in many respects, was worse than poor. When you are one of the poorest countries on the planet in per capita income terms and you have gone through 30 years of conflict and oppression that have destroyed all of your assets, then you have a triple jeopardy that you're coming back from. You're coming back from poverty, conflict, and destruction at the same time.
We have seen some very good progress in some areas. We talked a little about education, about some of the health programs in which basic coverage has gone from 8% to over 80%, and about micro-financing reaching half a million Afghans. This has been a phenomenal story.
There is so much more to be done and so far still to go, given the starting point, that we have to be very clear about what we can and cannot accomplish. This is where I believe the six priorities we've talked about come into play. They focus on the fundamentals: stronger security, basic services to citizens, humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable, building national institutions, Afghan-Pakistan border relations, and political reconciliation. By providing a direct and sharp focus on the priorities that matter going forward and enabling Canada to concentrate its efforts across military, civilian, government, and Canadian partner alliances to be able to make further progress in the areas that need to be looked at, we believe we can make further progress building on what's been done so far.