KATHMANDU, Aug 24: The 56th Conference of Directors General of Civil Aviation, Asia and Pacific Region (DGCA) concluded on Friday, announcing to hold the next conference in Dhaka of Bangladesh on November 2020.

Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu, President of International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO); Rajan Pokhrel, director-general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN); and Muhammad Mafidur Rahman, chairman of Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) addressed the closing ceremony in Kathmandu.

Also, the closing ceremony was marked by the handover of ICAO flag to the CAAB by CAAN, to host the 57th Conference.

According to a press statement issued by the ICAO on Friday, Aliu appreciated concerned bodies of member states for cooperating and collaborating in helping the states live up to their ICAO obligation. "These are important priorities to consider today given the critical relationship between the concerted actions taken by governments to invest in and improve their levels of ICAO compliance, and the resulting increase in international air connectivity which is so essential to the prosperity of all states, especially those with 'landlocked' or 'small island developing' status," Aliu was quoted as saying.

The conference also provided a forum for a sideline meeting between the director-general of CAAN and the deputy administrator of CAAC (China) regarding flights of Nepali carriers to China, flights of Chinese carriers to Gautam Buddha International Airport of Nepal, and other matters of technical cooperation.

Issues regarding safety and mutual cooperation with different countries including South Korea were discussed on the sidelines during the conference.

The five-day DGCA conference was hosted by Nepal for the third time. The theme of this conference was “Harmonizing Efforts to Meet Capacity Constraints”. ICAO organizes the conference every year.

Nepal had earlier hosted the conference in 1978 and 1998.

The conference was attended by director generals of Asia Pacific's aviation sector, chief of European Union regulatory body, high delegates, representatives from regulatory bodies of countries including the US, the UK, and France and representatives from aircraft manufacturers like Boeing and Airbus.

A work plan on aviation safety, security, capacity, air navigation, economic development and air transport, aviation and environment, technical and regional cooperation and other contemporary issues related to aviation were presented and discussed in the conference.

ICAO is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year and had prepared a special flag for the occasion. The flag was hoisted at the peak of Mt Everest on May 23, 2019, as per the decision passed by the council of ministers of the organization.

 
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