Kathmandu, September 16:

Finance minister Madhukar SJB Rana today stressed that the management style of the Agricultural Development Bank Ltd (ADBL) has to be changed to boost the performance of the bank and improve its service delivery system.

Rana was addressing a workshop for executive officers on “Programme Implementation Strategy Formulation” which kicked off today at Thimi, Bhaktapur. The role of ADBL in rural financing is very significant for which the bank needs to pay greater heed to improve its performance, he said. As the bank is a major financial institution for farmers across the country, its services should be efficient and friendly to lift poor people out of economic hardships, said Rana. Managers should also play effective roles to make the bank’s performance more productive, he suggested.

He informed that a government act is coming to help improve the performance of all institutions with specific job descriptions. He suggested that ADBL should become more effective and it has to have a ‘code of conduct’. Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), Bijay Nath Bhattarai said to improve the activities of the bank successfully, it has to expand support services and technologically update itself. Bhattarai suggested all chief officers and managers to learn from past mistakes and move towards achieving set goals and objectives.

Bhattarai suggested ADBL to earmark a loan loss provision in the balance set and move effectively towards recovery of loans. He also suggested the management to prepare separate balance sheets for commercial banking.

Chairman of the bank, Prof Bijay KC expressed the view that the bank should move with a new spirit for coping challenges ahead. Peace and security are major issues that need to be addressed, Prof KC said. Team spirit is needed in the bank and, human resource development has to be focused more to boost ADBL’s productivity. General manager of the bank, Ram Chandra Maharjan mentioned that the bank is undergoing restructuring process especially in financial, organisational, staff and other components of the bank to improve the performance of the bank alongwith the operations of the bank’s activities as per the Banks and Financial Ordinance (BAFIO).

Mentioning about bank’s annual financial progress, Maharjan said that the bank increased its lending by 16.33 per cent that includes both development and commercial banking sectors. Maharjan also informed that the bank has been able to increase deposits by 6.12 per cent in the fiscal year 2004-05 amounting to Rs 27.85 billion. After the reform process, the bank has reduced its staff from 4,498 to 4,010 which has helped the bank to reduce regular expenses, he added.