Afghanistan''s economy is expected to grow at 4.9 percent a year between now and 2025, the World Bank said Sunday, though with good management the figure could rise to 6.7 percent.
The war-torn country, beset by a decade-long Taliban insurgency and rampant corruption, is one of the world''s poorest, with more than a third of the population living below the poverty line in 2008.
With Nato combat troops due to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, there are fears of a consequent meltdown in the graft-plagued economy.
Even with sustained growth of six percent a year, it will take a generation to double Afghanistan''s GDP per capita - currently a meagre $528 - the World Bank said.
Ahead of a major international conference in Tokyo on Afghanistan''s economic future, World Bank country director Bob Saum said the coming decade offered "high hopes, expectations and great opportunities" for Afghanistan.
Proper management of agriculture and the resource sector could boost growth from the current forecast of 4.9 percent average annual rate to 6.7 percent, he said.
Afghanistan is believed to have mineral reserves worth as much as $3 trillion which could theoretically generate billions of dollars in tax revenue.
Afghanistan goes to next week''s Tokyo conference looking to secure $4 billion a year in pledges from international donors to make up a financial shortfall from 2014 when the country begins to stand on its own feet.
Saum warned that more work was needed to reassure donors their money would be put to proper use.
"To give the people of Afghanistan and the international community confidence in the way development funds are spent and results are achieved, the government must continue to address the challenges of security... governance including corruption and macroeconomic management," he told reporters.
Afghan Finance Minister Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal said Kabul would use the Tokyo conference to set out in detail the government''s fight against corruption and where more work was needed.
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