Kathmandu, September 16, 2005

The World Bank (WB) today expressed its interest to fund the second phase of the Higher Secondary Education Project provided the concerned authority drafts a project design which convinces the multilateral donor agency. The World Bank said it is ready to provide a grant of $60 million for the Higher Secondary Education Project II which aims at catering to the need of higher education reforms in the country. “Nepal needs to top-notch university system to compete with international university and to produce competitive educated skilled manpower,” said Ken Ohashi, country director at World Bank during a consultation workshop on Higher Education Project-II organised by UGC. He assured that WB would allot its budget for the higher education if the project design prepared by the authority concerned convinces the Bank, because education is the only tool to produce much-needed skilled manpower for the development of the country.  “Universities should be independent and the campuses, too, should have autonomy for the better results,” said Ohashi. Radha Krishna Mainali, Minister for Education and Sports said discussions are undergoing to phase-out the Proficiency Certificate Level and merge it into the 10+2 to strengthen the higher education system in the country. “There is a need of reformation in the higher education and our major focus is on the decentralisation,” said Mainali.

ADBL needs to change mgmt style, says Rana

Kathmandu, September 16, 2005

Finance minister Madhukar SJB Rana today stressed that the management style of the Agricultural Development Bank Ltd (ADBL) has to be changed to boost the performance of the bank and improve its service delivery system.  Rana was addressing a workshop for executive officers on “Programme Implementation Strategy Formulation” which kicked off today at Thimi, Bhaktapur. The role of ADBL in rural financing is very significant for which the bank needs to pay greater heed to improve its performance, he said. As the bank is a major financial institution for farmers across the country, its services should be efficient and friendly to lift poor people out of economic hardships, said Rana. Managers should also play effective roles to make the bank’s performance more productive, he suggested. He informed that a government act is coming to help improve the performance of all institutions with specific job descriptions. He suggested that ADBL should become more effective and it has to have a ‘code of conduct’. Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), Bijay Nath Bhattarai said to improve the activities of the bank successfully, it has to expand support services and technologically update itself.