The first meeting of the Istanbul Programme of Action National Implementation Oversight Committee of Nepal (IPOA-NIOC) held at Ministry of Foreign Affairs today under the chairmanship of Minister for Foreign Affairs Madhav P. Ghimire decided to ask the Finance Ministry to formulate a new national development finance policy to replace the old one so as to bring it closer to the spirit of IPOA, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. [break]
The meeting also directed the relevant government agencies and processes that pertain to the implementation of the IPOA by mainstreaming its eight priority areas.
It decided to formulate a national plan of action in regard to IPOA implementation by mainstreaming factors such as setting goals, targets and indicators, prioritization and sequencing of the programmes and integrating a financing plan including local resource mobilization, foreign aid as well as FDI.
It also relates to identification of key partners for implementation of the IPOA. The National Planning Commission (NPC) has been assigned to carry out this responsibility and report back the progress in another meeting.
A decision to review the status of the past two years in IPOA implementation in Nepal following the adoption of the IPOA document in Istanbul in May 2011 was made to learn lessons and build them into the implementation process of IPOA in the future.
The meeting asks all line Ministries to hold at least one consultation meeting involving all key stakeholders to review the process and identify sectoral programmes that fit into the implementation of IPOA.
Likewise, the decision of the meeting states to form a team, involving an expert, if necessary, which will look into the post-2015 development agenda and prepare a report to incorporate the issues and concerns of LDCs into the post-2015 development process.
For the preparation of this, which is to include the programme as well as financing part for lobbying in the relevant international forums, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will play the role of a lead agency.
The decision, related to the 9th WTO Ministerial Conference to be held in Bali, Indonesia in the first week of December this year, has assigned the responsibility of preparing the position of LDCs in general and Nepal in particular in relation to the current core agenda of the LDCs purported to be included in the declaration of the Ministerial meeting.
LDCs have been putting forward issues like full implementation of duty free, quota free (DFQF) access to the products of the LDCs into the markets of developed and developing countries, simplification and predictability of the rules of origin in favour of LDCs, implementation of service waiver of the LDCs, enhance the impact of Aid for Trade and Enhanced Integrated Framework as well as implementation of trade facilitation with a view to boosting the LDCs export trade.
Intensive discussions were held and views were expressed on various aspects of mainstreaming and implementation of the IPOA in the Nepali context, adds the Ministry.
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