Finance Minister Wagle returns home after attending AIIB Annual Meeting

Kathmandu. Finance Minister Dr. Swarnim Wagle has returned home on Thursday after attending the annual meeting of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Swarnim Wagle returned home on Thursday. He arrived in Kathmandu at 8:45 am on a Qatar Airways flight. Finance Minister Wagle had left for Doha, the capital of Qatar, to attend the annual meeting of the AIIB on September 26.

The annual meeting elected Wagle, who is also the Governor of the AIIB’s Council of Governors, as the Vice President for the year 2026-27. This is the first time that Nepal has been elected as the Vice President of the AIIB among the regional member countries. In the ‘Governor’s Business Roundtable’ held at the meeting, Wagle said that capital formation through infrastructure is an important basis for economic growth in the least developed countries. He said that investment should be increased in key sectors of production including roads, electricity, communication and information technology.

He also stressed on the need of making the bank’s investment more concessional in line with the needs of countries like Nepal and providing financial resources to attract domestic and foreign private capital.

During the visit, Finance Minister Wagle held discussions with the President of AIIB and Finance Ministers of Qatar, India, Bangladesh, Armenia and Georgia on matters of bilateral interest, economic cooperation, investment expansion and support in Nepal’s post-disaster reconstruction.

Nepal’s election to the post of Vice President of AIIB is expected to help expand the Bank’s investment in infrastructure development, transfer of technology and create more opportunities for collaboration among the member states.