Municipal Infrastructure Investment Summit 2024 concluded on December 23, 2024 in Kathmandu. The summit was organized by Town Development Fund (TDF) under its Municipal Finance and Capacity Building (MFCB) Program supported by Delegation of the European Union to Nepal. Over 100 participants from 17 municipalities including 15 municipalities under the MFCB Program, I/NGOs and other organizations attended the summit. The general objective of this summit was to share projects developed under MFCB Programme and to create business opportunity through long-term financing to the international and national institutions and private parties by exploring various financing models in the prioritized projects with strengthened technical, managerial and financial capability of municipalities.
During the inauguration ceremony, Hon. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister, MoUD, Prakash Man Singh and Chief Guest, spoke about the urbanization process in Nepal stating the fact the Nepal is one of the fastest urbanizing countries in the world. He also emphasized that the TDF has played vital role in this aspects. He also underlined that this summit would be milestone to address the various concerns surrounding urban infrastructure development in Nepal.
Er. Binod Prakash Pandit, Executive Director, Town Development Fund (TDF) gave the welcome remark during the inauguration ceremony. During his welcome remarks, he emphasized that this summit would explore various financing models in the prioritized projects with strengthened technical, managerial and financial capability of municipalities.
During the inauguration ceremony, Er. Sushil Gyewali, Chief Executive Officer, Investment Board of Nepal and Mr. Jose Luis Vinuesa-Santamaria, Head of Cooperation Delegation of European Union to Nepal were also present as the guest and gave the opening remarks during the inauguration ceremony. All of them has stated the importance of this summit to develop the infrastructure development at the local level.
During the technical session 4 panel discussions were held on three themes namely Private Sector Engagement in Municipal Infrastructure Financing, Leveraging Climate Finance for Urban Infrastructure Financing, Financing Social/Urban Infrastructure for Local Economic Developing (LED) and Gender Inclusive Infrastructure Development: Challenges and Opportunities in Municipalities. Sessions were moderated by Dr. Surya Raj Acharya, Sr, Infrastructure/PPP Expert, Mr. Maniram Singh Mahat, Sr. LED Expert, Former ED/TDF, Mr. Raju Pandit Chhetri, Sr. Climate Finance Expert and MS Sama Thapa, Journalist. Experts from the concerned areas, Mayor and deputy Mayor were the panelist during the panel discussion.
