KATHMANDU, JUNE 27
The National Planning Commission (NPC) has initiated its work procedure to prepare the 16th five-year plan during the upcoming fiscal year 2023-24. The commission held a meeting with journalists today seeking their suggestions and queries regarding the formation and implementation of the commission's five-year plan.
Speaking at the meeting, Min Bahadur Shrestha, vice-chairman of NPC, emphasised the need to restructure the commission for effective monitoring and evaluation of the projects and informed that the commission is already taking necessary steps to do just that.
He also stressed on resolving the problems seen in project selection, construction, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and restructuring the commission in order to establish the NPC as a strong and effective body.
"Restructuring is necessary to solve the issues seen at present. The 16th five-year plan, which is being prepared, will give priority to digital database and e-governance," he said, adding that programmes to maximise the use of natural resources, create employment opportunities and reduce dependency on remittances will also be included in the upcoming plan.
Similarly, stating that the 14th five-year plan was successful in meeting its targets compared to previous five-year plans brought forward by the NPC, Shrestha blamed the spread of COVID-19 followed by the war between Russia and Ukraine amidst external and internal economic slowdown for the reasons behind a less-than-expected output from the 15th five-year plan that is set to draw to a close by the end of the current fiscal year.
"While the 15th five-year plan has received negative feedback in terms of meeting the targets set, we were also able to identify the issues seen in respective sectors as a result and have started brainstorming with experts and related stakeholders," he shared.
A version of this article appears in the print on June 28, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
