KATHMANDU, March 21: Nepal-India Chamber of Commerce & Industry (NICCI) welcomed the newly-appointed Ambassador of Nepal to India Dr. Shankar Sharma at NICCI Secretariat, Narayanchaur, Naxal on Sunday.

NICCI President Shreejana Rana welcomed Ambassador Sharma and briefed about the formation of NICCI in 1993 with the objective of promotion and facilitation to Nepal-India Investment and cooperation for the economic development of the country. Rana further informed Ambassador Sharma that NICCI has been working on Coffee Table Book and website for the promotion of Nepal-India Cross-border Religious Circuits and very soon it will be published and launched.

NICCI Secretary General RB Rauniar shared the issues related to Nepal-India Trade & Transit in which Dr. Sharma could play and important role to resolve the issues like documents to be presented in custom on import via trans-shipment and via road transport where there is no uniformity, development of infrastructure in Indian side custom (especially at Panitanki custom at Indian side). Another issue is to connect rail connectivity to Kathmandu from Birgunj which may cut down the logistic cost while importing the goods.

Treasurer of NICCI Ghanendra Lal Pradhan also put his suggestion to Ambassador Dr. Sharma that since Hydropower is the area where big investment could come as now the investors from both the countries have interest on water so it won’t be an issue to convince big investors there in India so Mr. Pradhan requested H.E. Ambassador Dr. Sharma to look into this and if could convince 4-5 big investors there in India that would be a great help for the development of the hydropower sector of the country.

Vice President of NICCI Sunil KC also briefed newly appointed Nepalese Ambassador Dr. Sharma about the programs being planned by NICCI like Partnership Summit to bring investors in Nepal as an annual event so as to develop Nepal as a investment destination like in 90’s era and Kathmandu-Kolkata Forum (K2K Forum) as to bring stakeholders from both the countries and discuss on issues so that the way forward could be identified, to establish Nepal-India Entrepreneurship promotion Center in Delhi so that the startups from India and Nepal could bring into contact and guide them for the further joint venture, Big investors from particular areas of India like Gujrat, Mumbai, Panjab, etc for the Hydropower project development and Power Trading in India in PPP model so that the energy being produced in Nepal could be traded with India which could narrow down the trade deficit with India.

Convener of Indian Business Forum and Vice President of NICCI Saibal Ghosh also shared his views that Investing in Nepal is good enough even today compare to other countries as there we have low corporate tax and cheap labor available here in Nepal though there has been few bottleneck like repatriation issue, re-investment issue and IPR and Trademark issues.

Newly-appointed Ambassador Dr Sharma expressed happiness on organizing such a warm welcome and briefing about the issues on which the Ambassador designated could focus while assuming his office in New Delhi. Specially the programs which have been planned by the Chamber like Partnership Summit, K2K Forum, Entrepreneurship Promotion Centre in Delhi and of-course the Coffee Table Book on Cross-border Religious Circuits to promote Tourism also, the Embassy could support and work jointly.

 
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