Aid-Dependent Nepal Says Needs $6.6 Billion for Post-Quake Rebuilding

Reuters, 13/06 13:58 CET

By Gopal Sharma

KATHMANDU (Reuters) – Earthquake-battered Nepal will ask international donors to support a reconstruction plans that is expected to cost $6.6 billion (4.2 billion pounds) over five years, the government said on Saturday.

Two quakes on April 25 and May 12 killed 8,787 people and destroyed more than 500,000 homes, affecting 2.8 million of the Himalayan nation’s 28 million people.

Losses to the economy from Nepal’s worst disaster on record stand at $7 billion, including from tourism, the government said in a Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) report.

Suman Prasad Sharma, a senior finance ministry official, said 36 countries and 24 donor agencies had been invited to a conference on June 25 to pledge support for reconstruction.

“We have expectations of a very handsome and good support from our donors during the conference,” Sharma said at a function in Kathmandu. Currently, Nepal gets two-thirds of the cost of its economic development in international aid.

Full article available here: http://www.euronews.com/newswires/3024901-aid-dependent-nepal-says-needs-6-point-6-billion-for-post-quake-rebuilding/

Source: Euronews