DaimlerChrysler and Georgetown University Partner to Connect Afghan and American Students at Washington, DC Forum

    WASHINGTON, Jan. 27 -- Six college students from Afghanistan
will join 14 American and Afghan-American students for a week long
DaimlerChrysler-sponsored forum at Georgetown University to discuss issues
critical to the reconstruction of Afghanistan.  DaimlerChrysler and Georgetown
University jointly created the forum, "Blueprint for the Future, Connecting
Afghan, Afghan-American and American College Students," following a series of
their own separate Afghanistan-related activities.
    Georgetown University will host the student forum and the on-campus
activities, including a variety of classes and student dialogues.
DaimlerChrysler is underwriting the forum, and assisting with meetings for the
students at the State Department, The White House and the Senate.
    The program was initially developed by DaimlerChrysler following a series
of the corporation's Afghanistan-related events in the U.S. and Germany,
including an Afghan student conference in Berlin.  The forum agenda and
activities build upon the work done at Georgetown's Afghanistan-America Summit
on Recovery and Reconstruction in July.
    The Afghan, Afghan-American and American students will work on a
"blueprint" document on key issues Afghanistan faces in its redevelopment
efforts, such as trade and commerce; education; health; and women, family and
society.
    Along with the formal university agenda, the students will go on visits to
various government offices, the Kennedy Center, the National Mall and a
Georgetown University basketball game.
    According to DaimlerChrysler Senior Vice President Rob Liberatore, "This
forum is geared toward providing top students from both countries an
opportunity to work together on ideas to rebuild Afghanistan and to prepare
themselves for future leadership roles in public policy and foreign affairs.
Our goal is for relationships to be built between the students that can be of
value to both nations in the coming years."
    Haron Amin, deputy chief of mission at the Embassy of Afghanistan in
Washington, D.C. said these Afghan students are "the future architects of
change in Afghanistan."
    DaimlerChrysler has been an active participant in Afghanistan-
related projects since the reconstruction effort began in 2002.  Activities
have included the student conferences, the donation of vehicles for the
government of Afghanistan, including the Afghanistan Embassy in Washington,
D.C., the training of automotive mechanics in Afghanistan and financial
support for a number of support organizations, including the U.S. State
Departments' U.S. - Afghan Women's Council.
    Rob Liberatore concluded, "In November 2001, DaimlerChrysler Management
Board Chairman, Juergen Schrempp, called upon businesses and governments to
invest in the future of Afghanistan, in the same way that the U.S., through
the Marshall Plan, had invested in the reconstruction of Germany in the 1950s.
This student program is one example of how that investment must not be only in
bricks and mortar, but also in the education of its future leaders."