State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md. Shahriar Alam has laid emphasis on greater collaboration with Nepal in sectors like hydroelectricity, tourism, connectivity, trade and people to people contacts.

He interacted with the members of the parliamentary delegation from Nepal at the state guesthouse Padma on Thursday and hosted a lunch in honor of the visiting delegation.

The State Minister highly appreciated Nepal and expressed the optimism that the two countries will explore newer areas of cooperation in addition to the existing areas.

Delegation leader Pabitra Niroula Kharel said Bangladesh and Nepal need to gear up for the development partnership through meaningful cooperation in the areas of trade, tourism, connectivity, education and clean energy.

“We should enhance our bilateral trade and work on trade promotion so as to make it beneficial for both countries,” she said.

Kharel said Nepal is blessed with tremendous potentials of hydropower and similarly Bangladesh has huge potentials of natural gas. “Both countries can benefit from cooperation in the energy sector.”

She is the Chairperson, International Relations Committee House of Representatives of the Federal Parliament of Nepal.

State Minister for Power, Energy & Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid, Md. Habibe Millat MP, Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen, Secretary (East) Mashfee Binte Shams, noted freedom fighter ASM Shamsul Arefin, senior journalist Manjurul Ahsan Bulbul, Editor of Dhaka Tribune Zafar Sobhan, DCAB President and Executive Editor of the Daily Sun Rezaul Karim Lotus and senior officials of the Foreign Ministry and Nepal embassy attended the luncheon.

Mentioning that Nepal welcomes investment from Bangladesh, Kharel said she is happy to learn that discussions and cooperation have been moving forward positively on energy cooperation through bilateral mechanisms of the energy sector.

Similarly, she said both Nepal and Bangladesh are attractive tourist destinations and called for strengthening cooperation in this promising sector, including through joint packages and publicity.

The Nepalese parliamentary leader said the environment for foreign investment in Nepal is very conducive and the government of Nepal has revised relevant laws and introduced some new laws in order to attract foreign investors.

“Nepal welcomes investors from Bangladesh to invest on a greater scale in the national priority sectors of Nepal, such as hydropower, tourism, infrastructure, ICT etc,” she added.

The delegation had the opportunity to visit Bangabandhu Memorial Museum and pay their profound homage to the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

“To learn more about the life of the greatest Bengali leader of all time who has been the chief architect of Independent Bangladesh, my delegation will also pay a visit to the Mausoleum in Tungipara, Gopalganj,” Kharel said.

The two countries have been enjoying cordial relations since the establishment of the diplomatic relations on April 8, 1972, she said, adding that this year also marks the 50th years of relations between the two countries.

The relations have been further strengthened by the recent high-level exchange of visits, she said, expressing the confidence that the parliamentary relations and cooperation between Nepal and Bangladesh can be further strengthened in the coming days by activating the parliamentary friendly groups of both countries.