Inaugural speech: Nepal- Bangladesh Business Forum: March 28, 2019.

Excellency, Ms. Mashfee Binte Shams, Ambassador of Bangladesh to Nepal.

Distinguished Chairs, Keynote speakers and Panelist of the Sessions 

Ladies and Gentlemen!

I am honored for being invited as a Chief Guest to inaugurate this 3rd Nepal- Bangladesh Business Forum which aims at deliberating on the theme of “Navigating the Next Phase of Socioeconomic Transformation”.

Ever since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Nepal and Bangladesh in the year 1972, our relations have been based on cordiality, goodwill, mutual understanding and cooperation that spread across political, economic, tourism and education arena.

It is in this context, today’s two sets of dialogue on “Media Cooperation for Enhancing Bilateral Ties” and “Expanding Multimodal Connectivity for Mutual Economic Growth” – I find another important attempt in enhancing our ever growing bilateral relations. For this, I would like to congratulate the organizers and wish for productive deliberation and outcome.

As I head the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and irrigation, I cannot help myself not deliberating on the cooperation that Nepal and Bangladesh has on the power sector which has a vital component on connectivity.

The need for cooperation in power sector was realized by us a long time back. The energy ministerial level visits during the period of 2014 and 2016 had laid a foundation to frame a cooperation in power sector between our two countries.

As we all know, the month of August last year in Kathmandu was very important milestone month for both the countries as far as cooperation in the field of power sector is concerned.

While memorandum of understanding signed between Nepal and Bangladesh to cooperate in the field of power sector is one initiative we both look at bilateral level, our willingness to collaborate on the grid interconnection among the member countries of BIMSTEC through another memorandum of understanding has demonstrated our commitment in achieving common goal of sub-regional/ regional electricity integration.

We, both the countries, share a common understanding that sub-regional/ regional energy connectivity is necessary for balancing energy supply and demand in the region.The complementarity and better management of electricity generating resources available in our region is formidable strength to enhance sustainable energy development in the region. 

Nepal has high voltage cross border electricity inter-connection with India through Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur 400kV transmission line which has been operational since 2017. We have also initiated another 400 KV Butwal-Gorakhpur cross border transmission line. In addition there some more planned cross border high voltage transmission lines with India.

Similarly, Bangladesh and India have 400 KV Bheramara-Baharampur High Voltage Transmission Line through which Bangladesh is importing 500 MW of power from India. We understand that there are future plans for additional cross border transmission lines for electricity trade between Bangladesh and India.

Once both of our grid systems is well connected with Indian Grid, we will be in a position to get interconnected and utilize the transmission network to open up electricity trade between our two countries.

This event, with the presence of eminent keynote speakers and distinguished panelist, I believe will provide a platform to discuss among ourselves importance of connectivity in the broader sense and the role media in order to figure out how the policies need to framed across our nations for further enhancing bilateral ties.

Thank You!