Kathmandu, June 24: Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has said that the task of national development could materialise only through co-ordination and concerted effort between the government and the private sector.

Prime Minister Koirala was inaugurating a seminar on the state of health services in the country and interrelationship between private and government hospitals here today.

Referring to the need for planners to make on the spot study of the geographical and economic conditions of the country while laying out plans, he pointed out that public enterprises are financially weak because of incompetent management.

He suggested that the private sector also launch programmes targeting rural people in view of the shortage of the health personnel in such areas.

Directives were issued to the finance minister and planners to come up with an ambitious and concrete budget, he said adding that if the goals and programmes envisaged in the proposed budget are met and executed, the need for seeking loans and grants from donor agencies would not remain for long.

At the seminar organised by the Association of Private Health Institutions Nepal as a part of its second general meeting, Dr. Yagya Bahadur Karki, Dr. Biswambhar Pyakurel and Dr. Madan Kumar Dahal presented working papers pointing out the need for suitable policy to encourage private sector involvement in health services in view of only 5 per cent of the budget being invested in this sector.

They also said that Value Added Tax should not be enforced immediately without first studying the income of institutions involved in the health sector.

Association chairman Dr. Bhola Rijal presided over the seminar at which Dr. Sachche Kumar Pahadi and Basanta Kumar Choudhari threw light on seminar objectives.