Kathmandu, Mar. 31:The Government of Japan has agreed to provide a grant assistance of Japanese Yen 1589.824 million (equivalent to about Rs. 1020.667 million) to His Majesty’s Government of Nepal.

Two separate exchanges of notes to this effect were signed and exchanged between His Majesty’s Government of Nepal and the Government of Japan here today.

Under the first note, the Government of Japan will provide a grant assistance of Japanese Yen 700 million (equivalent to about Rs. 449.4 million) to His Majesty’s Government of Nepal for the increase of food production under Kr II  programme in Japan’s fiscal year 1999.

The assistance will be utilised for the procurement of fertiliser and other related services. His Majesty’s Government of Nepal has to deposit an amount equivalent to two-thirds of the F.O.B. Price of fertiliser in the Kr II counterpart fund in Nepalese currency.

The money deposited will be utilised for the development projects related to agriculture, forestry and other socio-economic sectors.

The Japanese Government has been providing grant assistance for increase of food production programme since 1977.

Under the second note, the Government of Japan will provide a grant assistance of Japanese Yen 889.824 million (equivalent to about Rs. 571.267 million) to His Majesty’s Government of Nepal under the debt relief measures.

The grant assistance is in lieu of repayment of the principal and the accrued interest of the outstanding loans extended by the Government of Japan to His Majesty’s Government of Nepal.

The Government of Japan has been providing such grant to Nepal under its debt relief measures since the fiscal year  of 1978.

The debt relief measures is used for procuring commodities which are essential for various development works.

The grant assistance under the notes exchanged today is the fourth portion of Japanese grant under the debt relief measures for the Japanese fical year 1999.

The notes were exchanged by Mr. Ram Binod Bhattarai, secretary at the Ministry of Finance and Mr. Mitsuaki Kojima, ambassador of Japan on behalf of His Majesty’s Government of Nepal and the Government of Japan respectively.

His Majesty’s Government of Nepal has expressed its sincere appreciation to the Government of Japan for this assistance and for its keen interest and continued support for the socio-economic development of Nepal.