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Kathmandu Friday November 09, 2001 Kartik 24, 2058.
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Nepal to raise economic issues at UN
meet
Post Report
KATHMANDU, Nov 8 – Following the unprecedented terrorist
attacks in the United States on September 1 that left over five thousand dead, ‘terrorism’
is likely to feature as the main agenda of the protracted meet of the UN General Assembly
that begins Saturday in New York.
Finance Minister Dr Ram Sharan Mahat made the above statement
while talking to mediamen before leaving Kathmandu for New York to take part at the meet
in the Tribhuban International Airport here today.
"Terrorism in developing and least developed countries
is not uncommon and Nepal is no
exception. Following the history’s worse terrorist attack in the US recently, the UN
General Assembly is likely to do some serious talking over it," Dr Mahat said.
Furthermore, Nepal would lay special emphasis on human
rights, disarmament, protection of children and women empowerment, he said.
"Though terrorism is likely to be the main agenda that
Nepal too would be pursuing, others matters of economic concerns would also be
raised," said Dr Mahat, whose thrust probably would be to cushion the challenges of
Nepal’s accession to the global rules based trading system.
Among others, Dr Mahat said that Nepal would, at the UN meet,
press the developed countries for debt cancellation. "The developed economies have
waived debts of the Highly Indebted and Poor Countries (HIPC). We would request the
developed countries to grant the same facility to Nepal," he said.
"Because Nepal is faring comparatively better in debt
management doesn’t mean that it is not entitled to such a facility. The existing
bottlenecks in development endeavours is making it difficult for Nepal to service
debts," said FM Mahat.
Other areas where Nepal would lay emphasis on are duty free
access to markets of the developed countries to products from poor countries like Nepal,
increase in the Official Development Assistance, among others.
FM Mahat, on his return back, is also scheduled to visit
Finland and Norway. He informed journalists that issues of bilateral concerns with each
country would be discussed. "The effort during the visit would be to attract
investment in the various viable sectors in Nepal," he said, adding, "Other
areas of cooperation would also be explored." FM Mahat at the sidelines of the meet
is also scheduled to meet officials of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation,
European Union and Association for South East Asian Nations.
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