KATHMANDU, April 27: The sixth meeting of Nepal-United Kingdom Bilateral Consultation Mechanism (BCM) was held at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in London on Wednesday.
In the meeting, the two sides reviewed the overall state of Nepal-UK relationship and deliberated on enhancing the engagements in various areas of mutual interests. The UK side highlighted the changing shape of UK’s development cooperation portfolio and shared the priority areas of future cooperation to Nepal that would include support in transition to middle income country and progress towards sustainable development goals, help in mobilizing investment and climate finance, support in expanding access to education, in particular girls’ education.
Similarly, Nepali side appreciated the valuable development cooperation provided by the United Kingdom as one of the largest development partners and emphasized the need for continuity and enhancement of such support at a critical time of graduation from the least developed country status, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs(MoFA).
Fifth meeting Nepal-UK Bilateral Consultation Mechanism held
Likewise, the two sides agreed to work towards further consolidating and widening cooperation and engagements in productive sectors such as trade, investment, energy and tourism. It was also agreed that scaling up investment in Nepal’s clean energy would not only foster economic growth but would also help address the agenda of climate change.
During the meeting, there was also discussion regarding the utilization of the investment windows such as British International Investment (BII) on various fronts including renewable energy and information and communication sector, as well as the possibility of channelizing more resources from British Investments Partnership (BIP).
In a separate meeting, Foreign Secretary Bharat Raj Paudyal and the Permanent Under-Secretary at FCDO Sir Philip Barton had a productive discussion on a range of topics including marking of the centenary of Friendship Treaty, exchange of high-level visits, bilateral cooperation, among other matters.
