"Afghanistan during the last two decades has been totally destroyed and one of the big losses which is hard to overcome is that we have stayed so far behind in technology, education and development," Telecommunications Minister Mahsoon Stanikzai said.

The minister was speaking at the graduation ceremony for six women and 11 men at Kabul University.

"Destroyed buildings will be reconstructed, roads will be asphalted very soon but what is difficult and time consuming is to reconstruct minds, humans and technology.

"The way that countries have come along in years we have to get along much faster and sooner since we are two decades behind the world of modern technology."

Kabul University's Networking Academy was jointly launched in October by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and US computer networking hardware giant Cisco Systems.

"This graduating class will mark history for Afghanistan," said UNDP country director Ercan Murat.

"They are the first highly trained computer specialists in Afghanistan who were trained here in their own country. They now have the tools to make a difference at home."

Graduating students echoed his views.

"The war has affected all sectors of Afghan life and we hope that we, the young generation, can compensate the loss, and we hope that we can bring our country up to standard with today's technology," said Arzya, one of the women graduates.

Following 23 years of war and the strict rule of the Taliban, who banned Internet use, Afghanistan has a long way to go, with only a small proportion of the population having access to the worldwide web.

Afghanistan last month officially took its first step in cyberspace, gaining control of the .af domain for Afghan websites.

SPACE.WIRE