Collective moves essential to solve economic problems

Kathmandu, Jan. 12

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Bishnu Prasad Paudel has said that a collective initiative is necessary to solve the problems that have appeared in the economies across the world.

Addressing the Finance Ministers' session under the Voice of South Summit 2023 virtually on Thursday, DPM Paudel said that after the COVID-19 pandemic, there are signs of global economic recession and it is the right time to take a collective initiative to deal with it.

Mentioning that human development and economic growth go hand in hand, he said, "Nepal is on the way to be upgraded from the Least Developed Country to a developing one by 2026. We are focused on advancing the agenda of a prosperous Nepal, a happy Nepali."

According to him, for the economic transformation, Nepal has prioritized sectors such as infrastructure, education, health services and social security, and to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in the period from 2016 to 2030, the country is facing a financial shortfall of Rs. 585 billion.

"Considering 2019 as the base year, it is 12.8 per cent of the GDP of Nepal. Since this is an estimate before the COVID-19 pandemic, there are chances that this shortage has further widened," said DPM Paudel to the finance ministers.

To address this gap, we have to combine various forms of financial resources as a useful tool, he said.

While mentioning that Nepal maintains cooperative relations with bilateral and multilateral development partners, he expressed his gratitude for their support in implementing Nepal's development plans and programmes.

Stating that Nepal is willing to benefit from South-South and triangular cooperation to expand the scope of development finance, he thanked the Government of India for its continuous support in economic and social development, read the statement issued by the DPM Paudel's secretariat.

The DPM informed that the government was working to expand access to financial services in Nepal and said that programmes have been implemented to encourage the use of electronic financial services.

Stating that Nepal's National Financial Inclusion Strategy is being prepared, he mentioned that India has achieved great success in financial inclusion and digitalisation so Nepal is willing to learn from the latter's success story and implement it accordingly in Nepal.

The finance ministers of 15 countries including Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Colombia participated in the summit.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 13 January 2022.