The Nepal Weekly 
March 12, 2024Finance Minister Barshaman Pun on Monday met with Faris Hadad-Zervos, the Country Director of the World Bank for the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka, at the Ministry of Finance. During the meeting he urged the WB official to increase the World Bank’s economic and technical assistance to Nepal.
According to sources at the Ministry, the minister urged the World Bank’s Country Director to prioritize Nepal as the economy here was still facing a crisis.
Minister Pun said he expected a higher level of coordination and cooperation from the World Bank for being a key development partner of Nepal.
He underscored the need for the World Bank’s assistance in employment generation and expediting economic activities. “The economy is under pressure to some extent due to some internal and some external reasons. We have expected further assistance from the World Bank in this challenging situation,” remarked Finance Minister Pun.
Minister Pun told the WB country director that he was working to ensure reforms in the public finance sector and increase capital expenditure. He informed that the Nepal government was implementing the World Bank’s ambitious Upper Arun Hydropower Project, the province and local road infrastructure development project and the digital Nepal project with due priority.
During the occasion, the WB Country Director drew the attention of Minister Pun for the coordination on the part of the government to ensure satisfactory results of the World Bank-funded projects.
Zervos also informed the Finance Minister about the new partnership strategic framework being developed by the World Bank.
He also informed Minister Pun regarding the preparations for the meeting of the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank to be held in June 2024 in Kathmandu.
