Hedayat Amin Arsala is is one of the four vice-presidents and considered a key member of the transitional administration of Afghanistan. He is one of the leading moderates among the members of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's cabinet.

For many years, he worked for the World Bank. He oversaw its activities in many South Asian and South East Asian nations.

He participated in the anti-Soviet resistance in 1980s and was one of the leading members of the Rome peace group under the former Afghan monarch, Muhammad Zahir Shah.