KATHMANDU, Feb. 1:
The government is set to come up with an action plan to boost tourism, foreign employment, investment, and hydropower potentials through the medium of economic diplomacy.
The government has formed a high-level coordination committee headed by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and set up an economic diplomacy desk at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) to best use economic diplomacy for the overall economic development of the country.
Other included in the committee are the representatives from the MoFA and Nepali diplomatic missions in foreign countries.
In this connection, the MoFA organized an interaction programme on the coordinating role of stakeholders for tourism promotion and foreign employment management in the capital on Saturday.
On the occasion, Minister for Foreign Affairs Madhav Prasad Ghimire said economic diplomacy is one of the important aspects of foreign policy, underlining the need of crafting new vision and restructuring the existing mechanism for its effective enforcement.
Among the recommendations provided by the Minister include setting up bilateral chamber of commerce by private sector in foreign countries, adding honorary consulate generals, organizing trade and investment fairs and appointing tourism advisors by Nepal Tourism Board.
While presenting a statistic that the returns of the growing inflow of tourists have not been made in an anticipated manner, noted economist Prof Dr Biswambhar Pyakurel stressed the need to lay emphasis on quality service and production along with foreign trade based on the principle of comparative costing.
Chairman of the Non Resident Nepalis Association (NRNA) Shesh Ghale called for coordination on concrete agenda for economic diplomacy, adding that the NRNA has presence in 65 countries across the globe.
Also speaking at the programme, senior journalist Dhrubahari Adhikari said that besides the policy of using the media for economic diplomacy, the role of media should be emphasized for economic diplomacy and support of media should be taken to bring the policy-based action plans to the people.
Likewise, Chairman of Hotel Association of Nepal Shyam Kachhapati said that Nepal has become famous through tourism in the world and suggested the Nepalese embassies to make hospitable and business-friendly.
Similarly, Officiating Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Shankar Bairagi said policy-level decision and structures were prepared for economic diplomacy and asked the stakeholders to accomplish their responsibilities and roles.
During the interaction programme, joint secretaries at the Ministry Dipak Dhital and Prakash Kumar Subedi presented their separate working papers.
Joint secretary at the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation Mohan Krishna Sapkota and Director at Nepal Tourism Board Hikmat Singh Air, tourism entrepreneur Basanta Mitra and others commented on the working papers, suggesting for massive publicity for Nepal´s tourism brand.
The commentators also said that Nepal´s tourism promotion should be done more in India and China as well as bring diversities in our services.
Source :RSS
