Kathmandu, Mar. 1: Minister of Industry Omkar Prasad Shrestha, addressing the inaugural session of the second South Asia Print Congress (SAPC) today that the government recognises private sector development as a key element in the process of industrialisation. Assuring government assistance and co-operation for the interested foreign investors, he claimed that the liberal industrial policy adopted by the government is “flexible enough to accommodate the interest of the investors”.

Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Pradeep Kumar Shrestha said that “lack of co-ordination and co-operation” among the South Asian countries is preventing the region from getting itself noticed on global economy and business scenario. “Apart from sharing many cultural similarities we are also in similar stages of economic development,” he said. He also hoped that the congress would be fruitful for the printers of the region to get acquainted with the common problems and issues and benefit from sharing experience.

With a claim that the congress was a platefrom for developing a common South Asian prospective, co-operation and fellowship among printers of SAARC region, SAPC Steering Committee Chairman Vivek Chhabra said the print industry have great role to play in the new millennium which is also known as the “Knowledge” millennium.

DK Roy, President of All India Federation of Master Printers, said that education was key to eliminating development problems of the developing countries. “We are proud that we are engaged in printing which imparts education to the masses,” he said.

SAPC Steering Committee Co-chairman Bikash Sarkar pointed out the need of enriching human resources to strengthening the technical know-how of the region. “Apart from importing technology, to develop our industry we have to reinforce the strength within us to solve our problems on our own,” he said.

Suresh Bahadur Malla, Chairman of the SAPC, welcomed the participants and delegations to the four-day congress.