EU extends support of Rs 45bn

KATHMANDU:

The government and the European Union (EU) today formally sealed a deal that allows Nepal to receive financial support to the tune of Rs 45 billion from the European Union between 2014 and 2020.

An agreement to this regard was signed by Finance Secretary Suman Prasad Sharma and Ambassador of the EU Delegation to Nepal Rensje Teerink in the presence of Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat and European Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs at the Ministry of Finance.

The 360-million-euro (approximately Rs 44.8 billion) EU-Nepal Cooperation Programme 2014-2020 aims to boost rural development and job creation, foster quality education and strengthen democratic governance.

The amount pledged by the EU for the period between 2014 and 2020 is triple than that of 114 million euros pledged for 2007-2013 cycle.

“The EU has tripled its aid to Nepal to support the political transition process and enhance relations,” a statement issued jointly by the EU and the Nepal government quotes Piebalgs as saying.

Piebalgs also pledged additional EU support of 500,000 euros for flood victims in the next six months, as he stressed on the need to focus on resilience building so that natural disasters ‘take less lives of people’.

Finance Minister Mahat, on the other hand, said Nepal would need support of foreign donor agencies, including the EU, in the years to come as the country has embarked on the journey to put itself in the league of developing nations by 2022.

Source: THT