President Hamid concludes Nepal visit

Kathmandu, Nov. 15

President of Bangladesh Mohammad Abdul Hamid concluded his 4-day goodwill visit to Nepal and returned to his home country on Friday. 

President Bidya Devi Bhandari bid farewell to her Bangladeshi counterpart at the VVIP Lounge at the Tribhuvan International Airport in the afternoon. 

Minister for Home Affairs Ram Bahadur Thapa, Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Yogesh Kumar Bhattarai were also present at the airport to see off the visiting guest. 

A troop of Nepal Army presented guard of honour for the Bangladeshi President while artistes had performed music and dances representing all seven States in the country. 

Meanwhile, President Hamid's delegation had visited Chandragiri Hills in a brief trip. Chairman of Chandragiri Hills Limited Chandra Prasad Dhakal, General Manager Abhisek Bikram Shah and Proprietor Ambika Prasad Poudel welcomed the delegation. 

The visiting President's scheduled programme to visit the touristic spot atop Chandragiri Hills was cancelled in the last minute. 

Earlier, President Hamid had held a meeting with President Bhandari on Wednesday where the two heads of the states discussed the issues of the mutual interest and strengthening the bilateral relations between the two nations. 

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, Chairman of the National Assembly Ganesh Prasad Timilsina, Chairman of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda and president of the Nepali Congress Sher Bahadur Deuba paid a courtesy call on the visiting President on the same day. 

In a meeting, President Hamid and PM Oli talked about transforming the existing cordial and traditional relations into economic partnership so that both the countries benefit from it.

They discussed about enhancing the relations network, energy cooperation, using ports in Bangladesh, infrastructure construction, tourism development and trade promotion between the two countries. 

The meeting had also emphasised on enhancing the bilateral trade between Nepal and Bangladesh by utilising the ports and border entry points provided by the latter and supply Nepali goods to the Bangladeshi market. 

Issues of cooperation in waterways, aviation, education, transportation and agriculture were discussed between President Hamid and PM Oli. 

President Hamid went to Pokhara, the capital city of Gandaki State, on Thursday and went for boating in the Fewa Lake and sightseeing around the Pokhara Valley. 

Speaking at the luncheon organised by the State government in his honour, President Hamid said that he was hypnotised by the beauty of the Pokhara Valley. 

Nepal and Bangladesh are engaged in various multilateral platforms like SAARC, BIMSTEC and BBIN (a sub-regional network of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal) as well. 

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 16 November 2019.