Global Meet on Bihar
Patna, Feb 17 : Nepal Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai stressed the need of regional economic integration for development of the South Asian region.“Nepal is a strong advocate of economic integration of South Asian region,” Bhattarai said in his speech here after inaugurating a three-day Bihar Global Meet on Changing Bihar.
Bhattarai expressed his unhappiness over no progress on the issue. “We have discussed so much, but there is hardly any progress on economic integration. It is because of poor economic integration that border regions of all countries in South Asia remain least developed. This applies to bordering areas of Nepal and India as well,” he said.
Bhattarai said that “we are for strong economic cooperation between India and Nepal and particularly with bordering states. There are lots of complementarities between our two economics. Huge hydro power potential of Nepal can be harnessed for mutual benefit. There is tremendous scope for joint venture investments on both sides,” he said.
“Pashupatinath, Lumbini and Janakpur are religious tourist attractions for both the peoples. There is tremendous scope for joint-venture investments on both sides,” he added, “It is just a matter of understanding, goodwill and vision on the part of political leadership of both the countries. Let the lands of Buddha and Ashoka cooperate for the betterment of humanity and to lead the world in the 21st century.”
Emphasising the strong bond between Bihar and Nepal, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar remarked that there was natural symbiosis between people of the two regions.“Our problems are interlinked and despite some issues at the administrative level, the feeling among the people of Bihar and Nepal is one of intense amity,” he said.
The 3-day meet to develop strategies for the growth of Bihar is being jointly organized by the Bihar Foundation, Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI), and the Institute of Development, New Delhi.
