KATHMANDU, Oct 15: The Nepali delegation has returned home after participating in the joint annual meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The Nepali delegation headed by Finance Minister Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat returned to Nepal on Sunday after a visit to Marrakech, Morocco.

There is an arrangement that the finance minister will be the ex-officio governor of the World Bank and the governor of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) will be the ex-officio governor of the IMF. Similarly, there is an arrangement that the Finance Secretary will be the alternate governor of the World Bank and the Joint Secretary of the International Economic Cooperation Coordination Division will be the alternate governor of the IMF.

In the meeting, after reviewing the problems and progress achieved during the year's work, the strategy for the next year is discussed among the representative countries.

On the sidelines of these annual meetings, where finance ministers from around the world participate as governors of the World Bank, the participants have the opportunity to discuss matters of collective and bilateral interest and to network with the international community.

The Nepali team met with IFC Regional Vice President Ricardo Puliti, Korean Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho, European Union Commissioner Jutta Urpialinen, IMF Deputy Managing Director Bo Li, World Bank Regional Vice President Martin Raiser and World Bank Vice President for Development Finance Akihiko Nishio on different days.

Apart from that, the members of the Nepali delegation also participated in the discussion of the importance and prerequisites of public electrical infrastructure, investment in human capital development, access to concessional loans for small and at-risk countries, and the group of 20 countries likely to be affected by climate change.

A team including the Finance Secretary and Joint Secretary and the Governor on behalf of NRB participated in the Nepalis delegation under the leadership of the Finance Minister.

In a meeting with the regional vice president of IFC, Ricardo Puliti, the team including the finance minister discussed increasing private investment and external capital mobilization, developing a pipeline of potential projects, diversifying into innovative financial instruments as well as equity exposure, mobilizing technical assistance for project development in public private partnerships, additional capital through local currency based bonds. Discussions were held on how to mobilize and include these in the upcoming Country Partnership Framework of IFC.

 
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