Shiv Kumar Agrawal elected President of Nepal Foreign Trade Association

KATHMANDU: Shiv Kumar Agrawal has been elected President of Nepal Foreign Trade Association (NAFTA).

The 44th annual general meeting (AGM) of NAFTA, held in Kathmandu on Sunday, unanimously elected a new executive committee under Agrawal's leadership.

Anil Kumar Agrawal has been elected as the first vice president of the new executive committee, Gaurav Sharda as the second vice president, and Jayant Kumar Agrawal as the secretary general. Similarly, Swati Roongata Agrawal has been elected as the first secretary, Vishnu Kumar Joshi as the second secretary, and Rishi Raj More as the treasurer, NAFTA announced in a statement. Akash Golchha, Kumar Bahadur Karki, Govind Lal Sanghai, Dipesh Khetan Agrawal, Nirmal Pouel, Pradeep Rajgarhia, Prabhat Kumar Sarraf, Basant Agrawal, Madan Mittal, Mayank Kedia, Ramchandra Khetan, Vimal Siddhartha Vaid, Sumeet Kumar Bansal, and Sanjay Agrawal have been unanimously elected to the executive committee.

In consultation with the new executive committee, President Shiv Kumar Agrawal has nominated Abhinav Churiwal, Pankaj Jalan, Rupali Sikariya, and Dilli Ratna Tuladhar as executive committee members. According to NAFTA's statute, 20 members can be directly elected to the executive committee, and four members must be nominated by the president in consultation with the elected executive committee. Additionally, the statute provides that the immediate past president and the former president remain as ex-officio members of the executive committee.

Newly elected President Agrawal committed to focusing the efforts of the new executive committee on further strengthening the business-friendly environment and advocating for the rights and interests of businesspersons, taking the slogan 'Empowering Business, Building a Prosperous Nation' as the guiding principle.

Addressing the inaugural session of the 44th AGM, Yuba Raj Khatiwada, Economic and Development Advisor to the Prime Minister and former Vice-Chairman of the National Planning Commission, said that the economic situation has deteriorated due to the policies adopted by the government in the last five or six years and that the current government is working to bring it back on track. Khatiwada concurred with the issues raised by NAFTA and said that improvements will be made, but the process may take time.

While delivering the welcome address at the inauguration programme, NAFTA IP President Binod Kumar Sethia raised various issues of import-export trade and the overall economy. Similarly, Executive Committee Member Jayant Kumar Agrawal spoke about the current business situation. He gave a presentation on the situation and the steps to be taken for improvement. The presentation, which neatly outlined the problems faced by the business sector due to policy and process weaknesses, also suggested solutions to the problems. 

Khatiwada agreed with the issues raised through the presentation and requested that all those issues be provided to him in writing.