‘External finance crucial to achieve SDGs’

Kathmandu, April 20

Minister for Finance Yubaraj Khatiwada today said that external finance in different sectors of Nepal is must to fund different initiatives that the country has adopted to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and help Nepal graduate to a developing nation by 2022.

Addressing the one-day ‘Blended Finance Conference 2018’, which was organised by the Investment Board Nepal (IBN) today, Minister Khatiwada said, “We would like to crowd in private investment in all sectors to achieve development targets and overall economic growth of the country.”

IBN had organised the conference with an objective to channelise private sector investment into national priority projects for Nepal and overall development process through blended finance approach.

Minister Khatiwada also informed that the government will facilitate all private sector investment in the country and work together for the country’s holistic development.

Among others, Khatiwada highly recommended investments in the infrastructure sector of Nepal.

On the occasion, Govinda Nepal, former member of National Panning Commission (NPC), stressed on the need to carry out effective follow-up on the commitments made by foreign investors and formulation of effective investor-friendly policies to fulfil the demand-supply gap of financial resources and overall investment.

Similarly, Renaud Meyer, country director of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to Nepal, stressed on the need to consider blended finance as an integrated finance approach and long-term investment to finance in Nepal.