The government has decided to hold international donors’ conference in Kathmandu on June 25.
The cabinet meeting today, apart from fixing the date, formed a committee led by finance minister Dr Ram Sharan Mahat to hold the national conference of donor agencies.
The government aims to mobilise financial aid for the reconstruction of the damaged infrastructure from the devastating earthquake of April 25 and resettlement of the survivors.
Advised by the Japanese deputy prime minister and finance minister Taro Aso, the international donors’s conference is expected to raise Rs 200 billion for the National Reconstruction Fund set up by the government, earlier. The government has already transferred Rs 20 billion in the fund from internal resources.
According to a new estimation, the reconstruction cost will go well over Rs 1 trillion depending on the gravity of damage in public infrastructures including schools, police post, health post and government buildings across the country.
Earlier, many nations including Japan and India had shown interest to hold the conferencing their countries to help Nepal but the government is holding the conference on June 25, Mahat said, adding that another conference could be held in Japan after a month.
The government decided to hold the conference itself in Kathmandu also to smoothen the budget preparation for the next fiscal year 2015-16. The pledge from June 25 international donors’ conference will be included in the budget for the next fiscal year that is aimed to focus in reconstruction.
However, donor communities’ delimma and lack of effective need assessments for reconstruction works will hit budget preparation for the next fiscal year.
The government is working on Post-Disaster Need Assessment (PDNA) led by National Planning Commission (NPC). Not only the international donor’s conference but the Finance Ministry also plans to prepare the budget for the next fiscal year based on PDNA reports. The PDNA works will be completed by June 15 before June 25 international donors’ conference.
Meanwhile, today’s cabinet meeting also decided to withdraw Disaster Management Bill pending at the Legislature-Parliament and draft an ordinance with additional amendments. The ordinance aims to bring out a legal system so as to ensure the coordination among governmental bodies in the wake of the recent crisis following the disaster and will incorporate suggestions from various sectors. A total of Rs 8.40 billion relief amount has already been distributed so far to the quake-hit people through the Home Ministry.

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