Wednesday, April 3, 2019

NDC meets to finalise concept paper of 15th five-year plan

The National Development Council (NDC) meeting – the first one after the country entered into the federal set-up – kicked off today in Kathmandu to give final shape to the concept paper of the 15th five-year plan (fiscal years 2019-20 AD to 2023-24 AD).
The concept paper prepared by the National Planning Commission (NPC) with the government's vision of 'Prosperous Nepal, Happy Nepal', will be forwarded to the Cabinet for its endorsement after NDC finalises it.
The meeting inaugurated by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli will also witness deliberations on the draft of the 25-year development concept paper will continue till tomorrow.
Speaking at a programme a member of the NPC Min Bahadur Shahi said that the NDC meeting will also hold discussions on the draft 25-year development concept paper. "The five-year periodic plan has addressed the government’s vision of ‘Prosperous Nepal, Happy Nepali’," he said, adding that the NPC had taken inputs for the draft of the 15th five-year periodic plan from various stakeholders.
Likewise, vice chair of NPC Pushpa Raj Kandel said that the final document will be prepared before April 20 and forward it to the Cabinet for approval.
Though, NPC had set a target to achieve a minimum average economic growth of 9.4 per cent per annum in the next five years, earlier, the draft envisions that the economy can grow up to 10.1 per cent per annum in the next five years based on different scenarios.
The draft of the periodic plan also envisions the country’s agriculture sector to witness average growth of 5.6 per cent per annum in next five years while the industrial sector can witness average growth of 17.1 per cent per annum. Likewise, the services sector is expected to witness 9.9 per cent growth per annum in between fiscal years 2019-20 and 2023-24.
The government had last introduced a five-year periodic plan in 2001, which lasted till 2006. Since then the government had introduced only three-year interim periodic plans on four occasions due to political transition.

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