KATHMANDU, JUN 24 -
To push its institutional reform agenda, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), at the initiative of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayan Kaji Shrestha, held a meeting at a resort on the outskirts of the Kathmandu valley that concluded on Saturday afternoon.
MoFA officials spent at least 24 hours at Patle Ban resort near Thankot finalising some of the crucial agenda of institutional reform recommended by various panels formed by the ministry.
Senior officials at the ministry, including joint secretaries available in Kathmandu and under secretaries, attended the meeting, dwelling mostly on consular related matters, effective consular service to the people, introduction of separate Foreign Service Act, regular website update, and opening three missions and two Consulate offices.
“We need to reorient Foreign Service; for that a good beginning is necessary. Our effort will be to start some institutional reforms recommended by various panels,” DPM Shrestha said.
Separate panels had suggested that more efficient manpower is needed to conduct the diplomacy of the 21st century, for which diplomats need adequate training and exposure. Another 34-point reform plan that entails jobs from garden management to opening new missions and consulate offices abroad to effective management of passport distribution is being enforced in full swing.
“The reforms should be people-oriented. Until the foreign secretary and other senior staff return from Brazil, we will hold another round of discussion, focussing on implementation,” the spokesman for the ministry, Arjun Bahadur Thapa, said.
It has also been made mandatory that now on every Nepali mission submit its report to the MoFA on a monthly basis. An instruction was circulated to all the 31 Nepali missions asking them to focus on economic diplomacy.
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