Kathmandu, June 28: Leader of the Nepalese delegation and Deputy Prime Minister Ram Chandra Paudel Tuesday addressed the 24th session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly entitled “world summit for social development and beyond: achieving social development for all in a globalising world” in Geneva, Switzerland.
On the occasion, Mr Paudel said though the world has made unprecedented achievements in science and technology with full capacity to get rid of human sufferings, it is also facing ever widening gap between the rich and the poor, adding mankind has acquired enough capacity to feed itself, yet it has the largest number of people going to bed with empty stomach.
The Deputy Prime Minister noted that at the national level, poverty alleviation is Nepal’s topmost priority and we are trying to achieve sustainable development through utilization of locally available resources for agriculture, forestry, tourism and water resources development.
The development needs of the developing world, especially the LDC’s, are many and they need much higher level of assistance, he said, adding it is importannt that the commitment to provide 0.7 per cent of the industrialized countries’ GDP as Official Development Assistance (ODA) is met.
Observing that any social development becomes an expensive and unsustainable effort in the absence of basic infrastructural facilities, Mr Paudel urged the allocation of adequate resources to develop basic physical infrastructure, specially transport and communication network.
We are faced with a heavy burden of over hundred thousand refugees from our neighbouring country Bhutan and the pressure is casting a shadow in our social, economic and national environments, he said, adding that international cooperation is necessary to ensure social justice.
Stating that no sooner have we liberated ourselves from the tyranny of autocracy, people in parts of the country find themselves pushed to live a life of fear and agony, the Deputy Prime Minister remarked that in the form of terrorism autocracy is attempting to meddle, and as we are fighting for freedom from hunger, we once again find ourselves fighting for freedom from fear.
Our mission is to change the course of history and for this, the well-being of the people and society must be the goal of polity with economic strategy only as a means, Mr Paudel said, adding social development is not possible witout social justice and democracy will also be threatened in the absence of social justice.