NICCI welcomes Sharma, newly appointed Ambassador to India

KATHMANDU: Nepal-India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NICCI) today welcomed the newly appointed Nepali Ambassador to India, Shankar Prasad Sharma, at its secretariat in Narayanchour, Naxal. NICCI President Shreejana Rana welcomed Ambassador Sharma and briefed about NICCI and its activities. President further briefed Sharma that NICCI has been working on 'Coffee Table Book' and website development for the promotion of Nepal-India Crossborder Religious Circuits for bilateral tourism promotion, which is now in the final phase and will be published and launched soon. Rana also urged Sharma to support NICCI on this so as to promote tourism in both countries. NICCI Secretary General RB Rauniar also shared the issues related to Nepal-India trade and transit. He appealed to Sharma to resolve the issues at the customs office. Rauniar informed Ambassador Sharma that there was no uniformity on which documents one has to submit while importing via train or road transport. He further drew the ambassador's attention towards the development of infrastructure at the Indian side customs office, especially at Panitanki Customs. Sharma was asked to consider rail connectivity from Birgunj to Kathmandu which could reduce logistic costs while importing the goods. Likewise, NICCI Treasurer Gyanendra Lal Pradhan, suggested Ambassador Sharma bring in big investors from India to invest in hydropower citing that investors from both countries were interested in this sector. Pradhan told the ambassador that big investments from the Indian side on megaprojects will be of great help for the development of the hydropower sector. [gallery columns="1" link="file" size="full" ids="21015"] Similarly, NICCI Vice President Sunil KC briefed Ambassador Sharma about the programmes being developed by NICCI to attract foreign investment. Programmes like  Nepal-India Partnership Summit and an annual event like Kathmandu-Kolkata Forum (K2K Forum) could be initiated to develop Nepal as an investment destination and bring stakeholders from both countries and discuss entire issues on the transit sector, KC said. He suggested the ambassador establish Nepal-India Entrepreneurship promotion Centre in Delhi to bring in the startups from India and Nepal and guide them for the further joint venture. He said big investors from Gujrat, Mumbai, Panjab and other big cities could be attracted to the hydropower project development and power trading in India in public-private partnership (PPP) Model. Vice President KC hoped that power trade with India could minimise the trade deficit. Likewise, Saibal Ghosh, Convener of Indian Business Forum and Vice President of NICCI claimed that investment in Nepal is better in comparison to other countries as the corporate tax is low here and cheap labour is also available in the country. However, he also pointed out a few bottlenecks like repatriation, re-investment, intellectual property rights (IPR) and trademark issues. [gallery columns="1" link="file" size="full" ids="21017"] On the occasion, the newly appointed Ambassador to India expressed pleasure for the warm welcome and briefing about the issues on which he could focus after assuming office in India. He expressed his commitment to support the programmes developed by NICCI. READ ALSO:

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