Finance Minister (FM) Janardan Sharma has urged the banks and financial institutions (BFIs) to increase their investment in Karnali Province, where the rate of multi-dimensional poverty is highest among the seven provinces. He said that the country would not be developed without curbing poverty rate in Karnali and other provinces.
FM Sharma made this remark while addressing an interaction programme titled ‘Every House Self-employment’, organised by the province’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Planning, in Kathmandu on Thursday.
“Multi-dimensional poverty is highest in Karnali followed by Sudurpashchim and Province 2. Poverty will not be alleviated from Nepal without ending poverty in these provinces. The programme to end poverty in Karnali is not only a province-level programme but a national one as well. It is also the national responsibility of the banks to invest for that,” he said.
According to the statistics released by the National Planning Commission for 2019, the multi-dimensional poverty rate in Karnali is 39.5 percent, 25.5 per cent in Sudurpashchim Province and 24.5 per cent in Province 2.
Stating that poverty could be ended through the campaign of increasing agriculture and agricultural production, Minister Sharma stressed the need for adopting a policy of distributing loan assistance to the farmers.
He expressed confidence that poverty would be eradicated within five to seven years by implementing the programme properly.
Minister Sharma said that the campaign that started from Karnali would be extended to other provinces as well to end poverty.
On the occasion, Chief Minister of Karnali Province Mahendra Bahadur Shahi urged the banks to invest in the programme to make the campaign a success.
He added that the province government was committed to developing physical infrastructure, agriculture and livestock insurance, transportation and marketing of manufactured goods, monitoring and facilitation.
Former Minister Shakti Basnet urged the BFIs to invest with confidence as Karnali was a ‘virgin land’ for development of the country and so investors could greatly benefit from it.
He said that the investment made in Karnali, which has a large geography and ample resources, would yield good returns.
Minister for Economic Affairs and Planning of Karnali Gopal Sharma requested the banks to join hands for the programme and said that it had a huge potential to lift the poor out of poverty.
Chief Executive Officer of Rastriya Banijya Bank Kiran Kumar Shrestha, Deputy Executive Director of Nepal Bank Samata Panta, Chairman of NMB Bank Pawan Golyan and Chief Executive Officer Sunil KC, Director of Prime Commercial Bank Gajendra Bista, SME Head of Mega Bank Janak Bhattarai, Global IME Bank Surendra Regmi said that they would be ready to invest if the province government ensured loan security.
Source : TRN,
