Kathmandu, June 3

Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai on Sunday said that the government has accorded due priority to the cooperative sector for bringing about economic, social and cultural transformation in the country.

The newly established Ministry for Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation would take the lead of promoting overall cooperative sector so as to increase production and generate employments in the country, Prime Minister Dr. Bhattarai said in a message sent to the workshop on ‘Improving Cooperatives for Entrepreneurship Promotion.’

The two-day workshop began in the capital on Sunday.

He said that the government was committed to enabling the cooperative sector in carrying out small as well as large scale projects that would help promote production and job creation in the country.

"The government has been given top priority to the cooperative sector and would like to use it as a means of implementing projects from agriculture to hydropower," he said.

In a message read by Lila Mani Paudel, Secretary at the Office of the Prime Minister, PM Dr. Bhattarai stressed the need for carrying out special and competitive entrepreneurship development programmes and activities to increase the income of farmers, labourers, artists and workers.

Minister for Cooperative and Poverty Alleviation Eak Nath Dhakal on Sunday said that the separate Ministry of Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation was established with the long-term vision of social welfare.

He further said that the cooperative sector would be a sustainable means of social and economic transformation of the country.

Minister Dhakal made the remarks while addressing an inauguration session of a two-day national seminar on reforms of the cooperative associations and promotion of its professionalism.

He underlined the need to link the cooperative sector with poverty alleviation for the success of the Nepalese cooperative movement.

He informed that the ministry would approve the draft of the National Cooperative Policy soon with necessary amendments.

He said that the ministry was ready to help organize capacity enhancement trainings, and maintain good governance, transparency and self-governing system within the cooperatives.

Chairman of the National Cooperatives Federation (NCF) Keshav Badal called for promoting entrepreneurial capacity of the cooperatives.

"For this, the central and district unions should be strengthened," he said.

Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) Dr. Yubaraj Khatiwada, Co-Chairman of the Cooperatives Development Board Saroj Kumar Sharma, Vice-Chairman of the Youth and Small Entrepreneur Self employment Fund Prof Dr. Punya Prasad Regmi, Secretary at the Ministry of Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation Keshav Bhattarai, among others, spoke on the occasion.