Nepal records growth in foreign aid commitments

The Nepali government has recorded overwhelming increment in commitments for financial assistance from different foreign donors, governments and development partners, an officials said Sunday.

As one of the poorest countries in the world, Nepal has already signed agreements for foreign assistance worth $537 million so far during the current fiscal, Xinhua reported. The Nepali financial year is July 16-July 15.

The total foreign aid amount for which the agreements have been signed during the review period is three times more than the same period last fiscal.

During the first six months of the last fiscal year, Nepal government had signed agreements for $157 million.

"Of the total agreements signed so far in this fiscal year, $359 million is for grant while remaining $178 million is for loan -- both commercial and soft loan," said Madhu Marasaini, chief of International Economic Cooperation Coordination Division at Nepal's Finance Ministry.

During the same period in the last fiscal, the finance ministry had signed agreements for $144 million under grant and $171 million under loan assistance.

Marasaini said the foreign donors have committed the aid amount for sectors including hydropower development, education, infrastructure, transportation, agriculture and good governance.

Despite the huge commitment from donor agencies and foreign governments, the Nepali government has been failing to get the assistance amount in real sense due to its failure to introduce and implement effective programmes on which the assistance are pleaded.