NICCI News and Events

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Today the meeting between the officials of Nepal-India Chamber of Commerce & Industry (NICCI) and North East Development Finance Corporation Ltd. (NEDFi) took place at NICCI Secretariat, Naxal, Kathmandu. The Meeting was chaired by President of NICCI Ms. Shreejana Rana. Mrs. Rana welcomed all the members of the NEDFi team and informed briefly about the NICCI, it’s establishment which was in 1993 (AD), its objective, work done in past, work being done at present as well as the future work plans of the Chamber. Since Ms. Rana is from the Tourism background she further informed the Indian team that NICCI has facilitated organizing 2nd Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting of Nepal and India in 6th June 2018 where the Government as well as the Private stakeholders were present from both the countries and discussed the points on Leave Travel Concession, Overland Travel issues-Air connectivity/Road Connectivity, Joint Promotion of Tourism between Nepal and India developing Religious Circuits in both the countries and agreed to promote Joint Tourism Promotion between the two countries and now NICCI has worked on developing a Coffee Table Book on Religious Circuits for the promotion of Tourism between Nepal and India. Ms. Rana further informed the Indian team that NICCI has constituted 9 different working committees to look after the issues of different sectors and they are working on the related issues respectively. Ms. Rana further emphasized on the prospects and opportunities and challenges in trade in various sector between the two countries as we have huge potential in Hydropower projects, Infrastructure, SMEs-Agriculture, Tourism etc and the collaboration in such sectors could be beneficial to investors as well as Government of both the countries. Mr. Rajan Sharma, Convener of Trade and Transit Committee highlighted the issues related to Trade and Transit saying that – at present the custodian right of Nepalese goods is in the hands of the Indian Clearing agents. This is a big problem as the legal provisions shifts the liability to the Clearing agent and therefore, dispute arises as the clearing agent cannot claim money from Importers of Nepal and can always shift the problem. The provisions should be to involve the Nepalese freight forwards and hold them liable with agency cooperation between the CHA and Nepalese freight forwarders. The electronic cargo tracking system between India and Nepal is of no use and involves at least INR 3400/- per container. This is too expensive and Nepalese importers should not be made to pay such charges for tracking the transit cargo within Indian Territory. Convener of Energy Committee Mr. Batu Lamichhane also highlighted the current status of Power generation, Power Trade status between Nepal and India. Mr. Lamichhane informed that Nepal has surplus energy during the wet season by producing 3339 MW (in year 2022) on which Nepal has surplus of 1205 MW and last year monsoon season NEA has exported 364 MW to India and Nepal has plans and policies to develop more than10,000 MW power by next decade, the potential demand is less than the potential supply and India has been fulfilling 50% demand of power generating through coal base energy and we see if the power could be supplied through Nepal the coal based power could be replaced in India and in India there is huge demand of power so there is huge prospects in Power sector, and for that there are big opportunities for the Indian investors to come and invest in Hydropower projects in nepal. In the meeting, From NEDFI side Chairman and Managing Director Mr. PVSLN Murty, Executive Director of NEDFi Mr. SK Baruha, Senior Professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University Prof. Mahendra P. Lama, Senior Consultant at NEDFi Mr. Abhijit Kumar Bezbarua, Manager at NEDFi Mr. Abhisek Lama, Manager were present where as President of NICCI Ms. Shreejana Rana, Vice President Mr. Harkirat Singh Bedi, Secretary General Mr. Ramesh Sharma, Convener of Trade & Transit Committee Mr. Rajan Sharma, Convener of Energy Committee Mr. Batu Lamichhane, Co-convener of SME Committee Mr. Dammar Khanal, Director General of NICCI Mr. Keshab Man Singh, Deputy Director of NICCI Marshal Rathour, Consultant of NICCI Ms. Luja Mathema were present in the discussion.