KATHMANDU, APRIL 18
Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, under-secretary-general of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific made her first official visit to Nepal from April 16 to 18.
In Kathmandu, Alisjahbana opened the Subregional Workshop on "Structural Transformation towards a Sustainable Graduation from Least Developed Country Category" organised by ESCAP and the UN Resident Coordinator's Office/ UN Country Team, which was hosted by the National Planning Commission of the Government of Nepal.
Nepal will graduate from least developed country status in 2026. Sustaining the growth momentum beyond graduation requires continuous structural transformation and strengthening of productive capacities.
As part of her visit to Nepal, Alisjahbana met and discussed Nepal's development challenges with Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and other ministers. Congratulating Nepal for its recent appointment as chair of the Global Coordination Bureau of Least Developed Countries, she highlighted ESCAP's cooperation with the Government of Nepal in supporting Nepal's smooth and sustainable graduation, particularly in the areas of structural transformation, sustainable transport, energy connectivity and clean (electric) cooking, disaster risk resilience, and statistics, and monitoring of Sustainable Development Goals.
Alisjahbana also met SAARC Secretary General Esala Ruwan Weerakoon and took the opportunity to examine cooperation between the secretariats of ESCAP and SAARC in South Asia.
UN Resident Coordinator Hanaa Singer Hamdy accompanied the meetings and reaffirmed the UN Country Team's support to Nepal in accelerating the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that will facilitate Nepal's smooth and sustainable graduation. She acknowledged the country had overcome unprecedented challenges and expressed appreciation for initiating the formulation of the Integrated National Financing Framework, which furthers government efforts to reorient financial resources to achieve its national goals.
A version of this article appears in the print on April 19, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
