By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Feb. 14: Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gokul Prasad Baskota said Thursday that Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli-led government had made a remarkable progress under his visionary leadership.
Various development programmes initiated by the government have now started yielding the desired results, Minister Baskota, who is also the government spokesperson, said at a weekly press meet organised to make the cabinet decisions public at the Ministry.
Prime Minister Oli-led government is going to complete two years in office on February 15. “Within these two years in office, the government has made and taken various development programmes and plans into implementation phase and some are in the stage of technical study,” he said.
Presenting some of the development programmes and good governance practices maintained by the government, Minister Baskota said that the present government had been able to maintain and establish rule of law in the country after PM Oli assumed his office.
In the rule of law index, Nepal has climbed two steps up (59th place) after the formation of the present government. The rule of law index was prepared by World Justice Project (WJP) and this was the report of 2019, Minister Baskota said.
“Nepal is the 113th least corrupt country out of 180 countries, according to the 2019 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) prepared by the Transparency International. In 2018, Nepal ranked 124th,” Minister Baskota said.
Also, in Happiness Index, Nepal made progress by climbing up three positions. Nepal got 4.91 in Happiness Index in 2019. In doing business, Nepal ranked 94th among 190 economies, according to the World Bank’s annual ratings of 2019. In 2018 it was 110, he said.
Peace and security situation has also improved in the country, with some exceptions, he said. Likewise, in the Global Peace Index, Nepal ranked as the 76th most peaceful country in the world. The report was published by Institute for Economics and Peace. Nepal improved its position by 12 ranks from the previous year, according to the index.
“All these indices and reports are not published by the government of Nepal and upon the request of PM Oli; these are the world’s standard reports published on the basis of their analysis,” Minister Baskota said.
The present government has also built 8,000 houses under Janata Awash Programme (People’s Housing Programme), he added. In another context, Minister Baskota said that the government was not preparing to privatise Nepal Airlines Corporation. He said the government was constructing some new airports and upgrading some existing airports like Bhairahawa and Pokhara.
However, he said that the government had been preparing to tie up relations with some international companies for handling Nepal’s airports smoothly.
In terms of upgrading and operation of Bhairahawa airport under international management, the government is currently holding talks with a Swiss company to introduce international management, Minister Baskota said. He, however, admitted that there were many problems with the NAC requiring its overhaul.