Vice president of the World Bank (South Asia region), Praful Patel called on Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala at the latter’s residence Sunday afternoon.

On the occasion, Prime Minister Koirala praised the cooperation provided by the World Bank in Nepal’s peace process and development and expressed the confidence that the cooperation would be provided long in the future too.

The International Development Association, a soft lending arm of the World Bank (WB) had last week agreed to provide a grant assistance of NRs 1,592 crore to Nepal for speeding up development projects in the country. The grant aid is basically meant for the implementation of projects designed to improve access to basic and primary education, enhance irrigation, expand rural roads and improve living conditions, livelihoods and empowerment of the rural poor, it is learnt.

The aid package is the largest even grant programme the World Bank has offered in a single year.

Earlier, Patel also met CPN-Maoist Chairman Prachanda and his deputy Dr. Babu Ram Bhattarai and discussed development issues. nepalnews.com ag Feb 04 08