Finance Minister Paudel, US Assistant Secretary of State Lu hold talks

KATHMANDU: Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel and United States (US) Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu have held a meeting on Monday.

In the meeting held at the Ministry of Finance in Singha Durbar, they discussed bilateral economic cooperation, Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), effective implementation of projects being implemented under the US Agency for International Development (USAID), mobilization of development finance and private sector investment, among other topics.

“Discussions were also held on exchanging cooperation between Nepal and the USA. Talks were held on the implementation of projects operated under MCC and the USAID with US assistance,” said Joint Secretary at the Ministry, Dhaniram Sharma.

According to Sharma, during the discussions, the US official also showed his interest as to how the investment of the US Development Finance Corporation (DFC) could be made effective and expanded, and how additional capital was brought to Nepal, in the context of DFC’s investment in Nepali’s private sector as well.

“In this topic we have expressed the government’s commitment to extend support for encouraging the investment from the private sector,” Joint Secretary Sharma added.

On the occasion, Finance Minister Paudel said that the main priority is on economic development as there is political stability in Nepal now and urged the US Assistant Secretary of State Lu to further expand US assistance to Nepal for that purpose.

The US Assistant Minister of State said that although some countries of South Asia were facing economic difficulties, Nepal has become successful in maintaining economic growth and stability and expressed his happiness over this.

He informed that the United States of America is providing additional economic assistance to Nepal in the coming days.