Minister Thapa emphasises development of hydro sector
KATHMANDU:
Commerce Minister Sunil Bahadur Thapa addressed the Global Business Summit in New Delhi, India, today and emphasised on hydroelectricity development in Nepal as a reliable anchor for the country’s development as it has already signed power trade agreement with India to ensure the market for electricity.
“Nepal has a lot of potential in terms of its hydroelectric power capacity and we’ve ensured the market in India, which is the fourth largest energy consumer of the world,” The Economic Times, the leading business newspaper of India as well as the organiser of the event quoted Thapa as saying during live updates of the summit. The two-day summit which commenced from Friday was participated by business leaders, seasoned politicians and veteran economists from around the world.
Talking to The Himalayan Times from New Delhi, Minister Thapa said that Nepal should reap the benefits of economic reform initiatives of the Indian government by delivering constitution within the deadline.
Since India has targeted to improve its rank in the top 50 in doing business environment by this year to attract more foreign investment, as per Thapa, “Nepal would definitely benefit through spillover effects if we also expedite reforms in our country as well and delivery of the new constitution within deadline is the primary condition to disseminate positive message to foreign investors.”
Thapa had met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on the sidelines of the summit yesterday and met National Security Advisor Ajit Doval today. Reportedly all of them stressed on delivery of constitution within the deadline. “Political parties will have to deliver the constitution to the Nepali people as promised,” Thapa quoted Modi as saying to him during the meet.
While addressing the inaugural session yesterday, Indian PM Modi had said that Nepal would supply huge hydro energy to India to meet its mid-century’s demand citing recently signed Power Trade Agreement between two countries.
Source: THT
