Concluding remarks by Mahesh Acharya Minister for Finance, Nepal, at the Nepal Development Forum held in Paris, France from April 18-19, 2000

Four days ago when I left Kathmandu for Paris, I was alone with my Reform Agenda For Poverty Reduction. I had with me my determination and  economic reform strategy with the help of which I wanted to change the destiny of my country and millions of my poverty-stricken people. Today, when I am leaving Paris for Kathmandu, I am not alone. My enthusiasm and my determination has doubled as I find you, our Development Partners, willing to help Nepal and support fully and strongly our reform agenda.

Now, when I return to Nepal, my country and my people will ask me what message have you brought from Paris? I will answer them with pride that our trusted and valued friends of Nepal do not intend to leave Nepal and Nepali people alone at their critical juncture of economic reform and development;  rather they are prepared to support Nepal and her people more actively and intensively.

I must admits it frankly that I was a little hesitant and there was some degree of uncertainty in my mind on my way to Paris. I thought perhaps, our  growing challenges and enormity of tasks could have engulfed our partners and that they might not come out of their shell of frustrations. But you have proved me wrong.

I question myself as to what would have I done-had you remained hesitant in supporting my Reform Agenda. An answer always kept coming from my heart- I would have marched ahead on this reform path alone; because this is our Agenda of Reform-Agenda of my people and my country. This Reform Agenda is not designed to muster donor support in the first place;  it is fundamentally designed to drastically improve our institutions, and change the quality of life of our people and enhance human dignity.

I  ask  myself-how  has  it become  possible   to  create  a complete rapport and understanding within our Reform Agenda. There is only one answer to this-your have always been a most trusted and reliable friend of Nepal. And today, when Nepal is in a state of urgency to move ahead, when Nepal needs your support more than ever before, I had this faith that you would not leave us alone and that you would rally behind us in our effort to develop Nepal.

Madam Chairperson, I express my special thanks to you. You have been instrumental in engineering a new and positive approach to look at Nepal and the potentially of our people.

During   our   two   days   of discussions,   you    have   repeatedly    raised   the   issue   of effective implementation. I want to emphasize once again-under the   leadership    of   our   Prime Minister, the new Government is    fully   committed   to   implement this agenda. Our people at large and civil society organizations stand strongly behind this agenda. There is emerging consensus among political parties and partners  on these issues. The commitment of the Government and emerging consensus within Nepal is the guarantee for effective implementation.

You have referred to the need for regularly monitoring the progress on reform action plan. We take this as our primary responsibility-to monior the effective implementation of our own proposal. We have an institutional arrangement under which the Prime Minister reviews various development promises and commitments of the Government. Apart from this we will periodically share with you our progress and status of the reform action plan.

There is  yet another issues which I need to monitor. The task of monitoring whether  your support and commitment has been translated into action or not is equally important to our Reform Agenda.

One of the major elements of our Reform Agenda is to incorporate and include the needs and expectations of our people. That is why I request  our each and every Development Partner to contribute to the Poverty Alleviation Fund so that through this fund, local representatives of the people, members of civil society and the Government can together oversee the channeling and use of funds at the grass root levels.

Your observations on strong interlinkages between peace, development and human rights have been encouraging and I respect your sentiments, I come from the country where the Constitution guarantees the Human Rights, I am proud to claim that our commitment to Human Rights is second to none. I also represent a nation which is currently chairing the International Human Rights Commission. The need for upholding human liberty and dignity and the basic tenets of human rights will be further consolidated in Nepal after the constitution of the National Human Rights Commission.

Finally, I once again thank you for your support and assistance. May I propose that the next meetings of Nepal Development Forum be held in Kathmandu.