United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is investing Rs 68 billion in Nepal in five years.
UNDP residnet coordinator Jamie McGoldrick today informed finance minister Dr Ram Sharan Mahat that the multilateral development partner has approved a five-year (2013-2017) development strategy for Nepal. “Under the five-year strategy, the UNDP is investing on various projects across Nepal,” he said, asking to make visa procedure simpler for the staff of development partners as in recent past there has been some visa related complications.
McGoldrick also informed the finance minister that UN assistant secretary general, UNDP assistant administrator and director of Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific Haoliang Xu is visiting Nepal on May 14-17 to take stock of the latest development. “Xu – during his four-day visit – will also take stock of UNDP’s help needed for Nepal after the second Constituent Assembly (CA) election,” McGoldrick added. “Apart from first hand evaluation of the UNDP’s work in Nepal, the high-level visit will help UNDP to access Nepal need for future.”
Thanking UNDP for its long term aid to Nepal, Mahat, on the occasion, assured that there will be no more visa related problems for development partners in future.
Informing McGoldrick about Nepal’s goal to graduate from the current Least Developed Country (LDC) status to developing country status by 2022, he said that the country needs foreign investment and also more help from the development partners to achieve the higher economic growth. “Nepal is also on the way to meet Millennium Development Goal (MDG),” he added.
Mahat also informed that the country has started second generation reform to help accelerate economic growth.