Friends In Need
FINANCE Minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat
addressed the 35th annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Shanghai, China
the other day. In his address, Dr. Mahat mentioned the Nepalese government’s efforts
to strengthen and empower the democratic institutions so as to tackle the social, economic
and political issues, and other major obstacles that stood in the path of the
country’s development process. He also apprised the ADB officials and the delegates
about the extent of destruction of physical infrastructure by the terrorists which,
according to him, has been estimated at US $ 250 million. In fact, the magnitude of the
destruction of the development infrastructure is a great setback for a resource-crunched
country like Nepal, which heavily has to rely on foreign assistance for its development
activities. The rehabilitation costs to restore the damaged public facilities and services
are estimated to be more than $ 100 million, which Nepal cannot afford on its own.
Realising this very fact, Minister Dr. Mahat, in his address urged the Bank and the
international community to bring the situation under control so that normal development
activities and programmes in Nepal could continue in full swing. However, he expressed his
satisfaction over the stable price situation, controlled budgetary deficit and foreign
exchange reserve.
Certainly following the increasing activities
of the Maoists terrorists, the situation of the overall economic and development
activities in the country is bleak. Expenditure in the security sector has increased in a
dramatic manner. Almost all the development activities, especially in the rural areas have
been completely halted. Economic problems are compounded and are getting more complex.
Revenue targets have become unattainable. Economic output, export, import, tourism,
investment and overall economic outlook have received setbacks. Tourism has declined by
over 5o per cent, industrial output has sharply fallen and the increasing security cost
has pushed up the government’s regular expenditure far beyond the previous estimates.
The Finance Minister did not forget to mention all these shortcomings of the Nepalese
economy at the important international economic forum like the annual meeting of the ADB.
Undoubtedly, ADB has been one of the major development partners of Nepal since long. Now
Nepal is under crisis and expects more support from the Bank to overcome the crisis and to
bring the country’s economy in the right track. This is certainly an ideal time for
all well-wishes of Nepal to extend full cooperation the crisis ridden country and prove
that they are friends indeed at this time of need.
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