The Legislature Parliament has unanimously adopted the proposal on the accession of Nepal to the Multilateral Agreement for the Establishment of an International Think Tank for Land Locked Developing Countries (ITT-LLDCs).

Mongolia had offered to host such think tank targeting to carry out various research and studies related to LDCs issues where Nepal had agreed to support it.  Nepal will make contribution of $10,000 as one time contribution to support the think tank.

The proposal was tabled by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Krishna Bahadur Mahara, at the Legislature Parliament session on Sunday.

 It may be noted that Nepal after depositing the instrument of accession will be the 10th member of ITT-LLDCs, thus fulfilling the minimum requirement for the agreement to come into force and to establish formally the Secretariat of the Think Tank at Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA).

The think tank, according to the MoFA, will be a centre of excellence for analytical research and policy advice for LLDCs and contribute to strengthening analytical capacities of landlocked developing countries in key areas of economic growth and poverty reduction, in particular transit transport, aid for trade and trade facilitation, as well as provide to negotiators in LLDCs appropriate negotiation tools at World Trade Organization and other international institutions.

Earlier, 9 LLDCs namely Afghanistan, Armenia, Burkina Faso, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Paraguay and Tajikistan had ratified the agreement.

The meeting of the Representatives of LLDCs in New York on 24 September 2009 had adopted the text of Multilateral Agreement for the Establishment of International Think Tank under the aegis of the United Nations and was opened for signature from 1st November 2010.