Nepal calls for early operalisation of BIMSTEC tourism fund

Kathmandu, Mar. 8

Nepal has underlined the need for an early operationalisation of BIMSTEC Tourism Fund and Tourism Information Centre.

Addressing the 23^rd Session of the BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) Senior Officials' Meeting, Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), Bharat Raj Paudyal also highlighted the plans of action prepared by Nepal on Culture and Tourism sub-sectors.

Nepal is the lead country in the People-to-People contact sector and Culture, Tourism and People-to-People Contact sub-sectors in the BIMSTEC. Paudyal shared the progress made in this sector led by Nepal, the MoFA said in a statement.

As the leader of the Nepali delegation, he also conveyed Nepal’s concurrence for the inclusion of poverty alleviation as sub-sector under the People-to-People Contact Sector.

The 23^rd Session of BIMSTEC's Senior Officials' Meeting was held virtually in Bangkok, Thailand on Wednesday.

The fifth Summit of BIMSTEC held in Colombo, Sri Lanka last year had reconstituted the areas of cooperation under seven sectors, each of them being led by a Member State.

According to the MoFA, the meeting endorsed and recommended the Rules of Procedures for BIMSTEC Mechanisms, Terms of Reference for Eminent Persons’ Group on the Future Direction of BIMSTEC, Concept Note and Text of the BIMSTEC Bangkok Vision 2030, among others, for approval and adoption by the 19^th BIMSTEC Ministerial Meeting.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 9 March 2023.