Deputy Prime Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha had a meeting with Ms. Rabab Fatima, Under-Secretary-General, and High Representative for LDCs, LLDCs, and SIDsat the margins of the Fifth United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries in Doha today.

The discussion was focused on strengthening cooperation between Nepal and the United Nations Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN OHRLLS) including the need for full and effective implementation of the Doha Program of Action, recovering from COVID-19 pandemic, making SDGs on track, and fighting against climate change as well as ensuring sustainable and irreversible graduation from LDCs status.

They also discussed enhancing cooperation and collaboration between Nepal and UN OHRLLS to defend and promote the interest of LDCs. The Under-Secretary-General congratulated Nepal as the upcoming Chair of the Global Coordinating Bureau of LDCs and expressed assurance of full support of UN OHRLLS.

The Deputy Prime Minister also met with Mami Mizutori, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction and discussed on enhanced support and cooperation for building resilient infrastructure,and financing disaster risk reduction, and achieving risk-informed Sustainable Development.He shared Nepal’s experience with disaster risk reduction and expressed willingness for constructive engagement with the UN system in this area.

He also had a meeting with Mr. Oscar Fernandez, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Development Cooperation. The discussion was focused on the challenges and development priorities of LDCs and the 2030 Agenda.He also met with Jutta Urpilainen, the EU Commissioner for International Partnerships and discussed the matter of mutual concerns including development cooperation, trade, tourism, investment, and people-to-people connection.

The Vice-Chairman of the National Planning Commission Dr. Min Bahadur Shrestha addressed the closing session of the LDC5 Private Sector Forum this afternoon. While addressing the session, Hon. Vice-Chairman highlighted the importance of the private sector for sustainable development of the Least Developed Countries and their graduation from the LDC status.

The Foreign Secretary Bharat Raj Paudyal addressed the Ministerial Meeting on South-South Cooperation - Panel discussions on accelerating South-South and triangular cooperation to recover from the impacts of the ongoing crises, build resilience and accelerate the implementation of the Doha Programme of Action. Speaking at the Meeting, the Foreign Secretary said that South-south cooperation should not be seen as a substitute for, but rather a complement to north-south cooperation. He emphasized that south-south and triangular cooperation must expand and intensify sharing of good practices, knowledge, and technical expertise to meet the development needs of the global south. The Foreign Secretary Paudyal also had meetings with H.E. Peter Szijjarto, Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister of Hungary and Raul Silvero Silvagni, Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs of Paraguay and discussed various matters of mutual interest.

In the Morning, Madhu Kumar Marasini, Secretary of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies delivered remarks in High-level Thematic Round Table 4: Enhancing the Participation of LDCs in international Trade and Regional Integration and underscored the importance of investments in enhancing the productive capacity, trade diversification, simple and transparent preferential rules of origin, continuation of the duty-Free Quota Free market access, strengthening ICT infrastructure to enable fair share in global trading system for LDCs. He also emphasized on providing incentives-based international support, particularly for the graduating LDCs including Nepal for making their graduation sustainable and irreversible.

Later in the afternoon, Kewal Prasad Bhandari, Secretary of the National Planning Commission participated at the High-level Round Thematic Table 5: Addressing Climate Change and Supporting the Environment.Speaking at the Round Table, he emphasized the need for immediate and deep emissions reductions by developed countries and large emitters, doubling adaptation finance, ensuring US$100 billion per year for climate action, and addressing loss and damage particularly focusing the most vulnerable like LDCs.

The Deputy Prime Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha left for Kathmandu today upon completion of his official visit to Doha for LDC5 conference today.