KATHMANDU: Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel has departed to New Delhi of India on a three-day visit, on Sunday.

Finance Minister held a press conference at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) today.

Minister Paudel is scheduled to meet with Foreign Minister of India, Sushma Swaraj, today itself.  He said he will be requesting for speedy normalisation of supply of essential commodities, including fuel, to the country.

He also informed that he is scheduled to meet his Indian counterpart Arun Jaitley on Monday. In his meeting, he will be proposing some reconstruction projects to Jaitley to start the reconstruction drive.

The Indian government had pledged support of $1 billion for rebuilding the infrastructure that was ravaged by the devastating earthquakes of April and May at the International Conference on Nepal's Reconstruction (ICNR) held on June 25, last year. Of which, 25 per cent of the pledged amount will be provided as grant for the country’s reconstruction drive.

The government of India had announced concessional line of credit facility worth $1 billion when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on a visit to Nepal for the first time in August 2014. Projects that will be able to utilise this line of credit facility are yet to be discussed and the Nepali delegation has also prepared a list of some projects that could utilise the line of credit facility.

In his visit, Finance Minister Paudel will discuss economic and development issues centered around the Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli's upcoming visit to India.

We, however, recognise that relations between the two countries must be based on mutual benefit and cooperation, he added.

Minister Paudel is accompanied by Finance Secretary Lokdarshan Regmi and Foreign Secretary Shanker Das Bairagi.

(With inputs from Rastriya Samachar Samiti)

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