KATHMANDU: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has planned to provide $1 billion in concessional loans and another $13 million in technical assistance grants to Nepal over the next three years, ADB President Takehiko Nakao.
He added that the credit was intended to be spent on improving Nepal’s poor infrastructure sector, human capital development and agriculture sector. The ADB’s new Country Partnership Strategy has given the number one priority to energy followed by transport, water and urban infrastructure, education and agriculture, natural resources and rural development.
According to the ADB, more than 80 percent of its financial support was earmarked for major infrastructure projects in hydropower generation and transmission, international airport expansion, road transport and trade facilitation, urban development in key municipalities, education and skills development and agriculture productivity growth.
Considering the longstanding energy deficit in Nepal, Nakao has pledged to help it reduce power related problems by supporting tariff reforms, improving the institutional capacity and financial health of the Nepal Electricity Authority and strengthening the sector’s regulatory framework.
“The ADB will help the government attract private sector investment and public private partnership for large scale hydropower and transmission projects,” Nakao said. He added that the ADB had targeted providing more support to human development, in particular, in recent years.
