Finance minister Dr Ramsharan Mahat returned home on Tuesday after attending the 35th annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Sanghai, China.

Listing the achievement of the meeting at a press conference held at the ministry of finance, minister Mahat said that the ADB would provide a credit assistance equivalent to two million US dollars to Nepal for a governmental expenditures improvement project.

Detailed action is being formulated in this regard, he said.

Donor agencies including OPEC and the Swiss Cooperative Forum also have assured Nepal of all possible cooperation, the finance minister said.

According to him, extensive discussions on the problems faced by Nepal because of terrorism were held at the meeting and sympathy was expressed for the loss to the financial sector. Donor agencies and countries were supportive of Nepal in combating terrorism.

The meeting also held serious discussions on regional economic cooperation and poverty alleviation.

A target has been set to reduce poverty by half in the Asia Pacific region by the year 2015.

Minister Mahat also held talks on matters of bilateral interest with the finance ministers of SAARC countries and representatives of donor agencies and nations on the sidelines of the meeting.

Responding to queries posed by journalists, Dr Mahat said that preparation of the l0th plan was in the final stages, the report of the governmental expenditures review committee would be implemented progressively and there was no thinking about posting more than one special class officer at the ministry.