HEADLINE NEWS THE RISING NEPAL (DAILY)

Prime Minister’s forthcoming India visit
PM starts interactions to seek national consensus on agenda

Kathmandu, July 18 (RSS): Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has started interaction with the renowned persons of various walks of life to reach a national consensus on the agenda for discussions during his visit to India in the near future.

The prime minister is visiting the closest neighbour India after a gap of four years.

There are various national, bilateral, regional and international issues to be discussed between the leaders of the two countries.

Prime Minister Koirala has already publicly expressed his commitment to hold discussions on all aspects of mutual interest and make all the matters transparent throughout the nation.

He has also expressed the conviction that the meeting between the leaders of the two countries after every four years will help create an environment of trust.

According to Baluwatar sources, Mr Koirala interacted with the office bearers of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) and Nepal-India Chamber of Commerce on Sunday.

FNCCI president Pradip Kumar Shrestha, president of Nepal-India Chamber of Commerce Rukma Shumsher Rana, other officer bearers of the two Chambers, Himalaya Shumsher J. B. Rana, Padma Jyoti and Bishwambhar Pyakurel were also present at the interaction programme.

Prior to this, the Prime Minister has already held discussions with senior diplomats Yadunath Khanal, Shailendra Kumar Upadhyaya, Lok Raj Baral, Uddhav Dev Bhatta, Bharat Prasad Dhital, Jaya Raj Acharya and Jagadish Shumsher J. B. Rana.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been urging the various political parties to provide suggestions on the matters on which stress has to be laid by the Nepalese side during the forthcoming visit of Prime Minister Koirala to India, it is learnt.

The officials of the Ministry are working to give final shape to the itinerary of the Prime Minister.

Meanwhile, the second meeting of the business consultative group was held here today under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala.

On the occasion, Mr Koirala said talks held so far on removing special additional duty imposed by India on Nepalese goods and getting recognized the food items tested by Nepalese officials are positive and he will finalize these issues during his forthcoming visit to India.

The Prime Minister, in response to different questions and suggestions of participants about industry, tourism, commerce, etc, promised to find solutions after consultations with the Finance Ministry, the National Planning Commission (NPC) and other concerned ministries.

Whether a separate policy should be devised for establishing industrial zones in three districts with dry ports needs discussions, said the Prime Minister adding, attention should be given to opening a branch office of Nepal Bank Ltd in New Delhi, India for Nepali businessmen.

Stating that he is positive on recognizing tourism as an industry and decisions will be taken within one week if the private sector takes initiatives for managing the garbage disposal problem in Kathmandu Valley, he remarked that the government has given due attention to the trade and industry sector.

During the discussion, Deputy Prime Minister Ram Chandra Paudel said His Majesty’s Government has pursued long-term, mid-term and short-term policies for resolving the garbage disposal problem in the valley, but politics has come in the way of its resolution.

Welcoming the initiative taken by the private sector, Mr Paudel spoke of the need to maintain proper coordination between agriculture, and trade and industry.

NPC Vice Chairman Prithviraj Ligal said the coordination committee, tourism sub-group, business consultative sub-group and sub-groups concerning agriculture are at work for identifying the problems of commerce, tourism and agriculture and submit suggestions for their solutions.

Convenor of the tourism sub-group Dr Shanker Sharma spoke of the need for the government to come up with time-bound work plan to resolve the problem of garbage in the valley and recognize tourism as an industry.

Similarly, convenor of the business sub-group Pradip Kumar Shrestha spoke of the need to fix priority areas, make the industry sector competitive, guarantee peace and security and safeguard forward and backward linkage industries and those that want to bring in new technologies.

The participants had also expressed their views on various issues which Nepal has to raise during the Prime Minister’s visit to India.

According to Parliament Secretariat, Minister for Industry, Commerce and supplies Ram Krishna Tamrakar, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Tarini Datta Chataut, Minister of State for Agriculture and Cooperatives Baldev Sharma Majgainya, NPC member Dr Ramesh Ananda Vaidya, the secretaries of His Majesty’s Government and the people from the trade, industry, tourism and fiscal sectors were present during the meeting.

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