Kathmandu, Apr. 11:Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala today said that power was the key to industrial development and called forth initiatives on part of all to harness the water resources the earliest possible.
“If we fail to exploit the water resources within 25 years, we will be left only with water and no power,” Koirala said inaugurating the 10th Himalayan Expo 2000 at Bhrikuti Mandap this afternoon.
Koirala said that the government would review why the nation was unable to exploit the available natural resources during the last ten years to make an effective move ahead.
“I am inspired by the enthusiasm that the business community has shown lately,” Koirala said. “The government will extend total support and total co-operation to sustain this spirit.”
Commerce and Industry Minister Ram Krishna Tamrakar said that the private sector was playing a pro-active role to promote trade and industry in the years following the advent of multiparty democracy in 1990. “The adoption of the liberalisation policy by the state has been instrumental in institutionalising the private sector.”
Stressing the importance of technology, President of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Pradeep Kumar Shrestha said, “The Expo will serve as a site to introduce the Nepalese business community to the latest technology.”
British Ambassador Ronald Nash stressed the government’s role to create an investment friendly environment and to promote the private sector while the US Ambassador Ralph Frank said, “We can use Himalayan Expo to measure our progress on our promises form year to year.”
President of Nepal-USA Chamber of Commerce and Industry Narendra Basnet stressed policy reform to attract investment. President of Nepal-Britain Chamber of Commerce and Industry Rajendra Khetan said that the nation needed to go aggressively for industrialisation.
Organised by the House of Rajkarnicar (HoR), the Expo has brought together over 180 exhibitors from Nepal, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Portugal, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
HoR’s managing director Birendra Rajkarnicar said that Himalayan Expo was consolidating itself as a business event over the years. The composition of foreign participation grew slightly this year reaching around 60 per cent of the exhibitors. About 40 per cent of the exhibitors are joining the Expo for the first time.
Nepal-USA Pavilion, the British Pavilion, German Catalogue Show, the SAARC Information Kiosk and the National Small-scale Industries Corporation (NSIC) from India are the main attractions of the Expo.
The Nepal-USA Pavilion jointly organised by the Nepal-USA Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the US Embassy occupies about 300 square metres of space with about 23 companies. Catalogue show on infrastructure and environment will be one of the attractions of this Pavilion.
The British Pavilion, jointly organised by the British Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the British Embassy under the sponsorship of the British Trade International, also covers about 300 square metres of space with 22 companies and organisations. About seven of these companies have come directly from the UK.
The German Catalogue Show is organised by Nepal German Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The Show will be exhibiting numerous product catalogue of German companies. Similarly, the NSIC has 10 companies that have put on display small-scale industrial machines and equipment for the medium and small-scale industries of Nepal.
Expected to be visited by over 70,000 people with target 42,000 business visitors, the Expo will feature talk programmes on various business issues.
Shree Distillery, Radisson Hotel, Gorkha Brewery, Kwality Ice-cream and Bottlers Nepal are among the major sponsors of the event. Other sponsors include Gulf Air, Singapore Airlines, Qatar Airways, Biman Bangladesh, Pakistan International Airways, Standard Nursery and Nepal Samacharpatra.