Kathmandu, May 17: The government of Japan is providing an additional 5.73 billion yen grant for the 'Dhulikhel Hospital Trauma and Emergency Center under the Internal Grant Improvement Project.

Under the presence of Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Vishnu Prasad Paudel and Japan's Parliamentary Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Ikuina Akiko, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the head of the International Economic Aid Coordination Division of the Ministry of Finance, Dhaniram Sharma, and the representative of JICA in Nepal at a function organized in the Finance Ministry.

The Ministry of Finance has stated that an agreement has been signed with the participation of Finance Minister Paudel from the Government of Nepal and Deputy Foreign Minister from the Government of Japan, along with Secretary of the Ministry of Finance Ghanshyam Upadhyay, Ambassador of Japan Maeda Toru, and others, who attended the Everest Dialogue Program.

Finance Minister Paudel stated that there is a relationship of mutual interest between Nepal and Japan, mentioning that Japan is a very close friend of Nepal. He said, "We have been receiving significant support from Japan for Nepal's development, and we expect that Japan's assistance will be even broader in the future with the belief that we will continue to cooperate and collaborate."

Deputy Prime Minister Paudel thanked the visiting Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister during the Sagarmatha Dialogue and invited her to visit Lumbini, the birthplace of Gautam Buddha. He said, 'I would like to invite the minister to visit Lumbini, the birthplace of Gautam Buddha, this time. If it is not possible this time, I would still like to invite you to go to Lumbini another time.'

Minister Paudel thanked the government of Japan on behalf of the Nepalese government for significant assistance for Dhulikhel Hospital, recalling that Japan has been providing support to Nepal in various sectors.

People’s News Monitoring Service.