KATHMANDU, MARCH 19
Asian Development Bank (ADB) Director General for South Asia Kenichi Yokoyama concluded his four-day visit to Nepal today. During his visit, Yokoyama reaffirmed ADB's continued strong support to the government of Nepal's development agenda.
He served as country director for Nepal from 2012 to 2017.
"I am very happy to be back in Kathmandu and to meet with senior government officials to discuss ADB operations in the country, our partnerships, and key strategic directions.
ADB is committed to supporting Nepal in its green, resilient, and inclusive recovery from the pandemic to achieve high and sustainable economic growth, improve the lives of Nepali people and build resilience to climate change impact," said Yokoyama.
"The focus now should be on structural reforms and quality investments in infrastructure and human capital to further stimulate private sector investments, including foreign direct investments, while devolving services to the local level. These will raise productivity in agriculture, manufacturing, and services- prerequisites to achieving higher economic growth."
At his meeting with Finance Minister Janardan Sharma 'Prabhakar', Yokoyama applauded the government's efforts to control the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and manage its impact on public health, welfare, and the economy, as well as progress in vaccination programme, with more than 80 per cent of the target population receiving two doses.
He sought the continued leadership of the Ministry to accelerate timely, efficient, and quality implementation of the development programmes and reforms.
During his visit, Yokoyama also met with Minister of Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation Prem Bahadur Ale; Minister of Water Supply Umakanta Chaudhari; Minister of Urban Development Ram Kumari Jhakri; Minister of Energy, Water Resources, and Irrigation Pampha Bhusal; and Minister of Physical Infrastructure and Transport Renu Kumari Yadav. He also met secretaries of these ministries and other senior government officials, project staff, and development partners.
Yokoyama also visited the ADB-supported Kathmandu Valley Wastewater Management Project site. The $137 million project is helping to modernise and expand the wastewater treatment facilities and systems in the Kathmandu valley.
ADB's lending to Nepal rose from an annual average of around $300 million during 2015 to 2017 to about $600 million during 2018 to 2020.
Yokoyama said that ADB is aiming to maintain support, at $500 million to $600 million in concessional resources per year in the next three years, helping the government with its vision of a sustainable and more inclusive growth.
ADB provided a concessional loan of $250 million in May 2020 to the government for its COVID-19 pandemic response that focused on providing budgetary resources for containment and prevention, protection of economically vulnerable groups, and providing relief to small businesses.
ADB added a $165 million concessional loan in July 2021 to help the government procure about 15.9 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for about 6.8 million people.
A version of this article appears in the print on March 20, 2022, of The Himalayan Times
