WB closes fiscal year in Nepal on record high

THE fiscal year 2012-13 has been a record year for the World Bank (WB) in Nepal in terms of disbursements, results and new commitments. The bank is closing the fiscal year with US$ 180 million in disbursement, a 25 percent disbursement ratio exceeding target, and about US$ 416 million in new commitments, the highest recorded for a single financial year. On Monday, the government of Nepal and the World Bank signed three project agreements for a combined value of US$ 207.3 million. Three more project agreements valued at US$ 168 million are expected to be signed over the next few days. “The impressive pick-up in performance benefited in the last quarter with the announcement of the full budget in April 2013,” said Tahseen Sayed, World Bank Country Manager in Nepal. “We look forward to early approval of the fiscal year 2013-14 budget and timely delegation of spending authority,” she added. The bank approved seven operations this past fiscal year. These include US$ 100 million additional financing for the School Sector Reform Programme, US$ 80 million additional financing for the Poverty Alleviation Fund, US$ 60 million for the Agriculture Commercialization and Trade Project, US$ 39 million additional financing for the Nepal India Electricity Trade Project, US$ 99 million for the Nepal India Regional Trade and Transport Project, US$ 27.3 million for the Kali Gandaki A Hydro Electricity Rehabilitation Project and US$ 30 million for the Financial Sector Stabilization Development Policy Credit. “We will work with the government of Nepal to focus on three core crosscutting issues during the coming year,” said Sayed. “These include staffing and frequency of transfers; enhancing transparency and capacity procurement and better financial management; strong monitoring including independent third party monitoring and enhanced use of social accountability tools,” she said. The WB has been a development partner to Nepal for over 50 years. Eighteen World Bank-financed projects worth about US$ 1.5 billion are currently under various stages of implementation.