चारदिशा, बेल्जियम,
संयुक्त राष्ट्रसंघको ‘कमन फन्ड फर कमोडिटिजको’ उपाध्यक्षमा नेपाल निर्बाचित भएको छ । नेदरल्यान्डको द हेगमा सम्पन्न संस्थाको तिसौ वार्षिक साधारण सभामा एसिया महादेशको प्रतिनिधित्व गर्ने गरी नेपालको तर्फ बाट बेनेलक्सका लागि नेपाली राजदुत लोक बहादुर थापालाई उक्त जिम्मेवारी दिईेएको हो ।
नेदरल्यान्दको आम्स्टरदममा मुख्यालय रहेको संयुक्त राष्ट्र संघीय निकायको विश्वका एक सय भन्दा बढी देश सद्स्य छन । अल्प बिकशित र बिकशोन्मुख देशहरुमा उत्पादित बस्तु र पिछडिएका बर्गको विश्वब्यापी पहुच एबम सामाजिक, आर्थिक बिकासका लागि काम गर्ने यो संस्थाको नेपाल स्थापनाकाल देखि सदस्य रहदै आएको छ ।
संस्थाको तीसौ साधारन सभामा आफ्नो मन्तब्य राख्दै बेनेलक्स र युरोपियन युनियनका लागि नेपाली राजदुत लोक बहादुर थापाले बिकासको पहुच नपुगेका, बिशेष गरी दुर्गम क्षेत्रका किसान र साना उध्योगीहरुका लागि संस्थाले काम गर्नु पर्ने बताउनु भयो । आजको पुजीबादी बजारीकरण् र तिब्र प्रतिस्पर्धाको जमानामा अल्पबिकसित क्षेत्रको हित प्रबर्धनका परियोजना छनोट गरी समग्र विकासका लागी काम गर्नु पर्ने बताउनु भयो । नेपालको तर्फबाट राजदुत थापाले दिनु भएको मन्तब्यको पूर्ण पाठ…..
Statement by Ambassador Lok Bahadur Thapa, Leader of the Delegation of Nepal at the 30th Annual Meeting of the Governing Council of the Common Fund for Combodities (CFC)
6-7 December 2018, The Hague
Mr. Chairman
Mr. Managing Director
Excellencies
Distinguished Delegates
Ladies Gentleman
Let me congratulate you, Mr. Chairman, on your election to preside over the 30th Annual Meeting of the Governing Council of the Common Fund for Commodities.
I assure you my delegation’s full support and cooperation in discharging your important responsibilities.
I thank CFC Managing Director for his comprehensive statement on the activities of CFC.
We believe that this annual Governing Council meeting is an important event as it takes stock of various activities and makes concrete recommendations for future priorities.
Mr. Chairperson,
We know that the Common Fund’s mandate to enhance the socioeconomic development of commodity producers and contribute to the development of society as a whole has never been more important.
It is particularly so when the focus of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is on ending hunger, achieving food security, improving nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture.
The Sustainable Development Goals, in particular Goals and targets related to food and energy security, adding value to commodities and improving the management of natural resources is taken in the Agenda as vital development tool.
Development in agriculture sector is key to enhance the competitive edge of agro-industries. This is of critical importance for countries especially the LDCs and LLDCs that are largely based on agriculture.
It is all the more important for the Common Fund to further engage itself in development of commodity sector and have impactable work on commodity development.
Mr. Chairperson,
Nepal has given utmost importance to the development of commodity sector over the years.
Our Constitution itself guarantees the right to food sovereignty.
We do focus on commodity development and for this reason we accord our relations with this august Institution.
Like most of the least developed countries, Nepal remains commodity driven.
In fact, agriculture has remained the backbone of Nepal’s economy.
Our main export is based primarily on agriculture and commodities.
More than 63 percent of Nepali people subsist on Agriculture for their livelihoods.
This particular sector accounts almost one third of our GDP.
More importantly, agriculture sector is characterized by a large number of small and medium holder family farms.
In view of the importance of agriculture sector for national economy, the Government has devised Agriculture Development strategy in 2015 that calls for forging effective strategic alliances among actors from government, development partners and private sector.
We have particularly focused on enhancing investment in agriculture, improved governance, higher agriculture productivity, profitable commercialization, attracting the young generation to agriculture and modernizing agro-food value chains.
There are a lot of Nepali agro-products such as ginger, tea, coffee, lentils, cardamom, peeper and various medicinal and herbal products, which have immense prospects for exports. For this, we need to have appropriate interventions to link to global value chain.
Mr. Chairperson,
Despite our efforts, however, our farmers are facing persistent challenges.
Those challenges include price hikes, shortage of labour, inadequate supply of agricultural inputs; lack of technical knowhow and knowledge, lack of markets, low price of products, limited product diversification etc.
Similarly, our agriculture sector is bearing the brunt of the adverse impact of climate change in recent years.
These challenges and gaps have made our commodity sector more vulnerable and less competitive in the global market.
Mr. Chairperson,
It is therefore incumbent upon us to pay proper attention to the challenges facing those people engaged in this important sector and address them properly.
We are of the view that consistent efforts should be undertaken to help these countries better mitigate and manage the risks associated with the volatility of commodity prices without distorting market behavior and by strengthening and expanding existing facilities.
We need to make small and medium holder farmers a major and strategic target of the development activities.
There is a need to increase sustainable agricultural production that would include improving markets and trading systems as well as increasing responsible public and private investment in sustainable agriculture and rural development.
Consistent and constructive efforts should be directed to link the commodity products from different countries to regional and global value chains.
We need to materialize the concept of agriculture from subsistence activity to a commercialization that provides sufficient income to farmers and uplifts their livelihoods.
As a least developed landlocked country, Nepal are laying emphasis on competitiveness of agricultural and livestock products, production of low-volume, high-value commodities, fostering the development of crop and livestock industries based on value-added processing, promoting marketing and increase the access of local people to markets, and develop environment-friendly agro technologies which reduce the adverse impacts of climate change by protecting, promoting and using agro-biodiversity.
Knowledge enhancement of farmers, involvement of women, easy access to extension services, creation of agricultural institutions, and availability of finances and markets are crucially important for commodity development.
We can achieve these objectives through enhanced level of cooperation including technical and financial support.
Mr. Chairperson,
I see a pivotal role of the CFC in helping address those gaps and challenges facing the country like Nepal.
We are looking forward to working with CFC for those purposes in the days to come.
We also wish the CFC to increase its outreach to all countries, provide training and building capacity, share its knowledge and experience, assist the government and private sector, provide support and strengthening the value chain of agricultural goods.
We hope that reorienting CFC activities and investment policy in this direction is crucial.
We are confident that the CFC will be making enhanced level of efforts, cooperation and collaboration to better address the goal of commodity promotion in the international market and transform the economies of the least developed countries like Nepal.
Last but not the least, Mr. Chairman, I would like to reiterate my delegation’s commitment to be closely and constructively engaged with other member states and the CFC.
I thank you, Mr. Chairman.
