National conference on Peace, Reconstruction and Development

May 25, 2006
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Senior journalist Kanak Mani Dixit briefing reporters about the National Conference on Peace, Reconstruction and Development being organized in Kathmandu in July this year. May, 25, 06.

Senior journalist Kanak Mani Dixit briefing reporters about the National Conference on Peace, Reconstruction and Development being organized in Kathmandu in July this year. May, 25, 06.
A three-day national conference is to be organized in the capital, Kathmandu, in July this year to help define the path ahead on the basis of national self-confidence generated by the people’s movement 2006, the organisers said.

The conference, being organized by a Steering Committee made up of members of the Joint People’s Movement central coordination committee, will bring together nearly 200 invited participants from academic, politics, civil society and the development sphere, according to the organizers. The Steering Committee is chaired by Speaker of the House of Representatives Subash Nemwang.

“The three-day meet (July 9-11) will study the various aspects of peace building including the dialogue between the government of Nepal and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), the management of arms and the restructuring of state through the constituent assembly process,” said senior journalist Kanak Mani Dixit, who is also the convener of the conference.

The Social Science Baha, Lalitpur, is to serve as the secretariat of the conference.

More information can be accessed at by visiting the confernce website ( www.naya-nepal.org). The conference logo shows the map of Nepal with the slogan “Naya Nepalko Kalpana'( Imagining a New Nepal).

Responding to the queries of reporters, Dixit said Nepal needed to tap tremendous goodwill generated across the world thanks to the people’s movement. He said Nepal might need a development assistance up to USD three billion to be spent over the next three years. “We need to launch a coordinated campaign to tap the resources,” he added.

Dixit further said reconstruction would mean both human and physical in the wake of whole generation of traumatized people. He said the word ‘development’ had been pushed to the back during the direct rule of the king and needed to be brought to the front once again. “Development has to be driven and led by the Nepalis themselves, not the donors,” he added.

Chairman of the Social Science Baha, Dr. Rajendra Pradhan, said key messages that emerge out of the conference will be discussed and debated in various parts of the country later.

One of the members of the Steering Committee and Jana Morcha Nepal lawmaker, Pari Thapa, said Nepal did not have a raw print, let alone blue print, about the future reconstruction and development needs of the country. “We hope this conference will be able to come up with a raw print of new Nepal,” he added.

According to the organizers, representatives of the donor community will also be invited to take part in the conference. The government of Nepal has committed to provide an assistance of Rs 1.5 million to help organize the conference, which will take place at the Birendra International Conference Center (BICC), Baneswore, in Kathmandu.