NICCI honours Prabhakar SJB Rana, promotes bilateral investment with India

KATHMANDU: Nepal-India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NICCI) hosted a gathering on Sunday to invite bilateral investment from India in Nepal at a memorial lecture honouring the entrepreneurship, legacy, and vision of Prabhakar SJB Rana, the first elected President and founding member of NICCI.

At the event, NICCI released the 'Business Climate Survey for Indian Companies in Nepal, 2024' – a data-driven survey of flourishing Indian companies that have chosen to expand to Nepal, compiled by Shweta Karki, Sajina Rai and Kuber Chalise.

Sunil KC, 11th elected President of NICCI, honoured the memory of his predecessor Rana by hosting the event in his honour. KC commended Surya Nepal, The Soaltee Hotel, and Sipradi Trading – businesses recognised as leading taxpayers in Nepal among the coalition comprising over 130 industries that are members of NICCI, facilitating a distribution network in Nepal and India.

Rana, lauded as the 'Father of Tourism in Nepal', was born shoulder-to-shoulder with former royalty. Rana utilised his position and education to facilitate collaboration with Oberoi Hotels in India, for investment and to extend Nepal’s institutional capacity. The former President often championed the separation between ownership and management to ensure operations benefit both parties. Leading up to the sixth year of his passing, Rana’s son Siddhartha SJB Rana addressed the gathering in his father’s honour, commending his father’s legacy and advocating for an open-border employment policy in Nepal to gather essential manpower akin to cross-border employment opportunities available to citizens of European Union member states.

Guest lecturer Krishnamurthy V Subramanian, Executive Director at the IMF, delivered a thought-provoking speech – promoting 'Dharmic' Capitalism and echoing the sentiments of Eastern scripture in opposition to the ethos of socialism. Subramanian, author of 'India @100', commends India’s market-driven capitalism, which has it on course to become the world’s third-largest economy.

Prasanna Shrivastava, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of India in Kathmandu, also utilised the platform to commend the ease with which Indian tourism can flourish in Nepal due to collaborations endorsed by NICCI and the efforts of startups granting access to payment and banking services to Indian citizens in Nepal.

Ravi Rayavaram, Vice-President of NICCI and Managing Director of Surya Nepal, also praised the collaboration and concluded the 1st Memorial Lecture in honour of Prabhakar SJB Rana.