Friday, June 1, 2018

Nepal-Bangladesh to jointly promote trade, tourism

Nepal and Bangladesh could promote trade and tourism jointly, according to a higher Bangladeshi official.
Addressing a Round Table Meeting on 'Nepal-Bangladesh Relations: Exploring Trade and Commerce', in Kathmandu today jointly organised by the Asian Institute of Diplomacy and International Affairs (AIDIA) and Embassy of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh commerce secretary of Bangladesh Shubhashish Bose said that Nepal and Bangladesh could both develop a joint tourism package. "Both the countries can cooperate to formulate such policies that could offer a joint package to the tourists who can visit both the countries easily," he said
Saying that Nepal could be the chief exporter of commodities like tea, garlic, lentils, cardamom to Bangladesh, he also suggested that Export Function Bureau of Bangladesh and Trade and Export Promotion Centre (TEPC) of Nepal could sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to better facilitate trade and commerce between the two nations.
The visiting Bangladeshi commerce secretary Bose, on the occasion, said that both the nations need to cooperate to be self-reliant and support the South Asian market rather than wholly depend on their Western or European counterparts.
Likewsie, commerce secretary Chandra Kumar Ghimire, on the occasion, emphasised that the population of Nepal has great potential, if guided in the right direction and the utilisation of the demographic dividend will be in its full form if proper actions taken in the form of education and practice. He mentioned that partnership with our immediate neighbour like Bangladesh is necessary to achieve the estimated gross domestic product (GDP) of Nepal to be 8 per cent in the next fiscal year. "Liberal policies are necessary regarding tariffs and connectivity," he said, mentioning the agendas like generation and export of hydropower sector in Nepal, tariff related issues, and preferential market access, Rohan Singbad route, simplification of pharmaceutical products, etc will be put into action.
He also expressed the need of trilateral cooperation between Nepal-India-Bangladesh to better facilitate trade and commerce.
Likewise, president of Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) Hari Bhakta Sharma, on the occasion, wished to see the trade agreement happen between both the nations regarding the hydropower sector. He talked about the acute deficiency of infrastructure regarding tourism which needs to be developed to better enhance revenue from tourism industry. Sharma also suggested that there can be a common visa for Bangladeshi tourists to India and Nepal. He mentioned that a lot of things need to be done in future but the most important thing to be done is the immediate implementation of the decisions made.
Ambassador of Bangladesh to Nepal Mashfee Binte Shams concluded the round table, which aimed at discussing the possible trading arenas between the two countries focusing on connectivity through which trade between the two neighbouring countries can flourish and benefit both the parties, according to the organisers.

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