June 6, 2002

Kathmandu: In a bid to expedite reforms, His Majesty’s Government has decided to proceed with an immediate action plan that presages the core elements of the Tenth Plan and advances its implementation given the urgency of providing outright relief to the people victimised by the terrorists.

The action plan is directed towards prioritising public and national resources, improving service delivery, enhancing transparency and accountability and consequently maximising the impact of development efforts in poverty alleviation. The action plan was presented at a meeting with the donor agencies and countries organised by the Ministry of Finance here today.

Finance secretary Dr. Bimal Koirala said that HMG is determined to improve its planning process and implementation approaches to achieve greater impact of development programmes.

The Tenth Plan is being prepared with greater emphasis on poverty alleviation strategy, he added.

HMG has accorded a credible Medium Term Expenditure Frameworks (MTEF) as an instrument to support its poverty reduction strategy, he said, adding that HMG is working on MTEF to define the budget for FY 2002/03.

HMG has felt a need for implementing realistic actions relating to prioritisation, implementation and accountability, he added.

HMG believes that such an action plan would pave the way for bringing all development partners on board for joint and concrete efforts to assist the government to expedite reforms, improve its public services to the poor in particular, and tackle the present fiscal crisis.

Minister of State for Finance Bharat Kumar Shaha, vice-chairman of National Planning Commission Dr. Narayan Khadka, the representatives from donor agencies and countries and officials of the Ministry of Finance were present at the meeting.