Kathmandu, July 5

Finance Secretary Rajan Khanal and German Ambassador to Nepal Roland Schäfer today signed a financial cooperation agreement of Euro 24.3 million on behalf of their respective governments. The total volume of bilateral technical and financial cooperation from Germany since cooperation began in 1959 amounts to around Euro 979.6 million of grant assistance, according to a press release issued by the German Embassy.

The grant assistance committed by the Federal Government of Germany in September 2018 will be used for the promotion of solar energy in rural areas, improvement of mother and child care in urban areas and sustainable economic development in rural and semi-urban areas.

Under these programmes, German Development Bank KfW, on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, is implementing promotion of solar energy in rural areas to support solar energy technologies such as solar pumping systems for drinking water and for irrigation, solar systems for public institutions like schools, health centres and government offices.

The bank is also implementing a project related to ‘improvement of mother and child care in urban areas including in Kathmandu-based Paropakar Maternity and Women’s Hospital. The project will construct and rehabilitate the extension of health facilities for up to four satellite centres. These satellite centres will provide both in-patient and out-patient services to women and children closer to their residencies.

Sustainable economic development project in rural and semi-urban areas is the continuation of earlier support to improve access to target-group oriented loans, predominantly in rural and semi-urban Nepal and in particular for loan sizes which go beyond microfinance but remain below traditional corporate finance.

Both governments expressed their commitments to ensuring a successful and timely implementation of these key projects, according to the press release.