Kathmandu, May 31:Minister of State for Population and Environment and leader of the Nepali delegation Shiva Raj Joshi, taking part in the special conference of the environment ministers and the UNEP governing council meeting organised by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) at Malmo, Sweden, has said that being one of the least developed countries in the world Nepal has to take care of the infrastructure development, whereas on the other hand it has to give equal priority to the environmental concerns as well.

Stating that after the restoration of multi-party democracy in 1990, Nepal has adopted the policies like the economic liberalization, market driven economy and privatisation and more so we are of the opinion that there should be less intervention of the government in the areas where the private sectors are more efficient, he said, adding we are at the stage of defining the role of the locally elected bodies.

The present government is moving towards institutionalizing the sound basis for good governance, he said.

Stating that Nepal is in a process of getting membership of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), he said once we are a member of the WTO we are expected to fulfill a number of requirements and meet the duties and obligations.

Nepal is trying its level best to have an active role of the private sector in the management of the environment, he said, adding however, Nepal still needs to upgrade its capacity both in terms of institutional and financial abjects to cope up with the ever-changing demand from both the domestic and the international community, Mr. Joshi said.

There are a lot of non-governmental organisations working in the field of environment, he said, adding they have been playing a notable role in advocacy.

Media in Nepal, he said are playing a pivotal role in shaping and reshaping the public mood regarding the environment.

However, we severely lack, in most of the instances, required capability both technical and financial, he said, asking the international community to work towards meeting the gap between policy and action in the developing countries specially the least developed ones.