Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai has secured international aid pledges worth more than $28bn

Ashraf Ghani, a former finance minister in the Afghan government, is an expert on the economies of developing nations and post-conflict reconstruction.

Focus on poverty eradication through creation of wealth and rights of citizenship have been at the heart of his developmental approach.

He has worked as an adviser to the United Nations and on World Bank projects in China, India and Russia, among others.

Mr Ghani, 57, holds a doctorate from Columbia University in the US, and has taught at some of the leading US universities.

He returned to Afghanistan in 2002 to serve as finance minister in the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.

In the two and a half years that he held the post, he secured international aid pledges worth more than $28bn. He also carried out a series of extensive reforms.

After Mr Karzai won the 2004 election, he asked to leave the government and was made chancellor of Kabul University.

He has extensive media experience as a commentator.

He told London's Financial Times newspaper recently that he was counting on the strength of his ideas to win the post. "In the public debate so far, I have yet to see a clear articulation of vision, an analysis of the central issues and a programme for change," he said.