Consent of MoFA a must to obtain foreign assistance: Prime minister

Kathmandu, June 4

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has instructed all government agencies to seek consent from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) before obtaining foreign assistance.

In a meeting of National Development Action Committee (NDAC), PM Oli directed all government agencies to mandatorily take consent of MoFA before obtaining foreign assistance and seek development assistance that can contribute to the production sector.

Until now, the International Economic Cooperation Coordination Division under the Ministry of Finance was responsible to deal with the development partners and obtain foreign assistance. “The general practice so far has been to seek the support of MoFA only if the ministries and government agencies had to correspond with the foreign governments,” a senior official at the Ministry of Finance said.

The NDAC meeting chaired by the prime minister had reviewed the progress made by national pride projects today. The meeting has taken a 10-point decision to expedite the development projects and address the supply-side constraints, as per Tirtha Dhakal, joint secretary at National Planning Commission (NPC).

The meeting has instructed every ministry to profile the problems based on the evidences; examine possibilities of resettlement of settlements that obstruct development projects and develop integrated settlements, as per NPC.

Similarly, the meeting has stressed on need for inter-ministerial coordination to resolve the hassles faced in accelerating development projects and facilitating investment. NDAC has decided to fix the priorities for modern industrialisation and support the private sector in priority areas, ban the import of the food products that are hazardous to health, according to NPC officials.

“The meeting has also instructed to change the modality, attitude and vision of development from the traditional way of planning.”