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295 APPENDIX VII The five-year plan for Development of National Economy In August 1956, on the occasion of the Independence Celebrations, His Majesty the King of Afghanistan and Sardar Mohammad Daud, the Prime Minister, announced that as the result of long and careful studies and research carried out by specialists, a five-year plan with a view to secure a rapid growth of national economy was drawn up. This plan is of vital importance in the nation's history. It seeks to translate into practical action the aspirations and ideals of the 12 million people in the country and gives to each of them the opportunity of service in the common cause of eliminating poverty and ignorance and raising the standards of living. It is a plan of peaceful economic construction and cultural development and has been formulated with reference to the following principal objectives:— (a) a sizeable increase in national income so as to raise the level of living in the country; (b) tapping the natural resources of the country and making it self-sufficient in commodities for which it is best suited; (c) a large expansion of employment opportunity; and (d) attaining the largest measure of social justice and more even distribution of income and wealth. In this plan high priority has been given to expansion of agriculture and irrigation on which nearly 85% of the population depends. Industrial development along modern lines, as everybody knows, requires a great deal of capital but it absorbs comparatively little manpower. The Plan therefore attaches