Kathmandu, August 16

The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has completed all the preparations for the 56th Director Generals of Civil Aviation (DGCA) Conference, which is going to be held from August 19 to 23 in Kathmandu.

Preparations have been made under the guidance of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), as per CAAN. According to the authority, a team of ICAO is arriving tomorrow to inspect the conference preparations.

With a theme of ‘Harmonising Efforts to Meet the Challenges of Capacity Constraints’, Nepal is hosting this conference for the third time. Prior to this, the conference was held in 1976 and in 1998 in Nepal. The major objective of this event is to maintain cooperation and harmonisation among countries of the Asia Pacific region to ensure safe, secure, efficient and economically sustainable development of civil aviation, said Trilochan Poudyal, information officer of CAAN.

“After 21 years, Nepal is again hosting this event and we are hopeful that it will be as successful as it had been in the past,” he said. “Our major motto of organising this event in Nepal will be to promote the country as a safe destination for flight operation, and also to disseminate the information that air safety is improving in the country.”

As per Poudyal, CAAN had requested to organise 56th DGCA Conference in Nepal during the 55th conference that was held in Fiji last year.

“Focusing on the Visit Nepal Year 2020 campaign, we had requested to organise the 56th conference in Nepal,” he said, adding, “This conference is going to play a significant role in conveying a message that Nepal is a safe destination and to promote the country’s tourism sector.”

As per Poudyal, around 350 foreign guests from 46 different countries will participate in this conference. Similarly, representatives from 14 different international organisations associated with ICAO, including European Union, Boeing, Airbus and International Air Transport Association will participate in the event.

There will be a number of presentations, interactions and discussion sessions in the five-day-long event, he added. The major agendas of these activities will include issues like air navigation, air security and facilitation, economic development of air transport, aviation and environment as well as technical and regional cooperation, among nations.