Madame Chair, Their Excellencies, Their Highnesses, His and Her Eminences, Honourable Donors, Honorary Self-appointed Guardians of this Country's Morals, Ordinary Fellows, Distinguished Ladies, and the Distracted Gentleman at the back. Yes, I mean you, near the window wearing the red muffler. At the outset let me thank the organisers of this Six-Day Interaction Programme on the Sustainable Development of Grassroot Constituencies Through Empowerment of Local Multi-stakeholders Through a Paradigm Shift in Their Agenda-Setting Role in the Context of Economic Globalisation organised by His Majesty's Government in corporation with FEDUP, UNDO, USURP, DEFEAT and FINITO. So, now that Nepal Television has finally arrived, we can get on with the job of declaring open this seminar-workshop without further ado and beating around the bush.

As you all must be knowing Nepal is a landlocked Himalayan kingdom that is entering a new millennium. It is important for all Nepalis not be disoriented by the thickets of jargon in the farrago of twisted facts, and be clear about our short-, mid-, and long-term goals. The fact is that we now need a steering committee that prioritises a bottoms-up approach to internalise the totality of the changing paradigms. And we are not just paying lip service today in this mid-term review to the complex dynamics of underdevelopment. We are taking a holistic approach, a strategic macro-economic perspective in attaining end-degree refinement, a multi-sectoral institutionalisation of all trilateral and bilateral monitoring and evaluation mechanisms in the process of re-intermediarisation of sequenced interventions for sustained resource mobilisation within the framework of economic globalisation and national-level programme strategies so that a selective allocation of these resources can be fine-tuned for optimum utilisation and disbursement to all and sundry. To this end, the requirement of a supportive environment from all stake-holders cannot be overemphasised and understressed. Self-correcting mechanisms for proper TORs to meet the governance goals of appropriate CCCP, self-fulfilling STCRDP/RSP, and participatory LSGDA are going to be vital ingredients in creating an enabling environment in the Phase II of the DSRSL Framework and empowering the grassroots through the construction of earthquake-resistant capacity buildings. We must look at mis-directed priorities by military society and civil society for effective political advocacy. In this day and age no one can say he, she or it is not a proactive participant in action research and an exchange of experiences to bring about a win-win situation for all beneficiaries and target groups. This is why we have to doubly redouble our efforts to rectify all wrongs so that we address the structural policy-polity dichotomies that hobble our efforts to empower our energy sector so that the initiatives will ultimately trickle down to the light-bulb at the end of the tunnel. It is imperative that at the present time, as soon as I give you the signal, we observe a one-hour silence to re-read all our past speeches so that we can self-evaluate how much of its has been hot air. "Ready? On your mark. Get set. Go!"