ISLAMABAD: Nepalese Ambassador to Pakistan Sewa Lamsal Adhikari has said that his country is keen to promote trade with Pakistan as both countries have good potential to enhance bilateral trade in multiple fields.
Addressing the business community at the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), the ambassador said that trade had become an integral part of sustainable development in interdependent world. She said Nepal-Pakistan bilateral trade was not satisfactory despite having multiple consultative mechanisms and robust institutional as well as legal frameworks.
She said that both countries should make more efforts to promote frequent interactions between their private sectors and organise trade fairs, exhibitions and promotional activities to exploit all untapped areas of mutual cooperation.
She said many Nepalese products, including tea, coffee, woollen carpets, handicrafts, gold and silver jewellery, optical lenses, pulses, paper and paper products and medicinal herbs had good prospects in Pakistan.
Similarly, Pakistani textiles and leather products, machinery and parts, medicines and medical equipment, shoes, spices and dried fruits had a great potential in the Nepalese market.
She pointed out hydropower, tourism and agriculture as other potential areas of mutual cooperation between the two countries. The envoy said Nepal possessed around 83,000MW potential of hydropower generation, but was currently generating only around 700MW hydroelectricity while the domestic demand was more than 1,500MW, which was estimated to reach 3,600MW by 2027.
She said Pakistani investors should invest in hydropower, agriculture and herbal processing industries in Nepal to take benefit of its liberalised investment policies.
