ADB Vice-President Shixin Chen calls on Minister Bhusal

KATHMANDU: Vice-President of Asian Development Bank (ADB) Shixin Chen paid a courtesy call on Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Pampha Bhusal on Monday.

During the meeting held at Minister Bhusal’s office, they discussed implementation status of various ADB-invested projects in Nepal, according to the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation.

Extending her gratitude towards ADB for its assistance to Nepal’s development endeavors, Bhusal expressed her confidence that significant cooperation in the areas of energy production and distribution would be provided by the ADB in coming days.

The Minister informed the ADB vice-president that an understanding has been reached with Bangladesh, Bhutan and India at policy level for energy export and assured Nepal would be able to export energy to these countries within few years. She also urged the ADB to consider investment in reservoir-based hydro power projects and expected cooperation from ADB in expansion of the East-West transmission line.

On the occasion, ADB’s vice-president Shixin mentioned energy trade agreement inked with India to export 365 megawatt electricity from Nepal to India was a way forward for Nepal and expressed his confidence that the energy trade would take a leap forward in coming days.

He reaffirmed the commitment of ADB to continue supporting Nepal in the areas of electricity and water resources.

According to him, the ADB was monitoring the implementation status of the 10 important projects in Nepal funded by ADB. Furthermore, he suggested to emphasize domestic consumption of the electricity and stressed on the need to replace fossil-fueled industries with electricity.

Present in the meeting were secretaries of the concerned ministries as well as high-ranking officials of the Nepal Electricity Authority and Country Director for Nepal Arnaud Cauchois among others.

Earlier on Sunday, the ADB vice-president had called on Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and reiterated ADB’s commitment to further strengthen its partnership with Nepal.