Kathmandu:Nepal has appealed to the international community to provide it with additional financial assistance to improve its economic health.
The government has plans to mobilise USD 1 billion in foreign aid for this fiscal year in order to implement its ambitious budgetary plans, Minister for Finance Baburam Bhattarai said during his visit to USA to attend joint meeting of World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
"We have requested donor states to make additional pledges in the areas prioritised in the budget for the current fiscal year," the Maoist leader told reporters.
On Thursday and Friday, the finance minister met senior officials of the WB and leaders of bilateral donors including the US, Norway and the UK.
During the meetings, he apprised the development partners of Nepal about the current political situation in the Himalayan nation and the latest budgetary programme of the Maoist-led government to steer the country through economic transformation.
Besides asking for development assistance, Bhattarai also requested the US to extend Nepal special market access facilities at the bilateral level.
Bhattarai s call for additional financial assistance comes at a time when the Maoist leadership is facing pressure from its hardliner leaders including Mohan Vaidya Kiran during recently concluded central body meeting that the party should go for a communist republic as the traditional type of parliamentary democracy cannot fulfill the aspirations of the Nepalese people.
