KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 10

President Bidhya Devi Bhandari today addressed the Federal Parliament for the last time as the head of the state. In her address, she drew the attention of the government and the lawmakers towards the problems the country is facing.

While addressing, Bhandari also expressed concerns about the overall development of the country, including improvement in education, employment sector, trade deficit and law and order. President Bhandari also pointed out the problems farmers are facing for long such as shortage of fertiliser and seeds.

She was equally concerned about the increasing cases of violence against women despite all the efforts from the government bodies.

She also urged the government to explore and create job opportunities for the youths in the country itself in order to keep the youth force in the country and benefit from their skills and knowledge, adding that the government should focus on developing the tourism sector, building infrastructure and making government services easily accessible to all.

Speaking in the Parliament, she viewed that the Nepal government should prioritise the need to protecting and preserving the cultural heritage sites. She also underscored the need for the collaboration between the public and private sectors for creating employment opportunities in the country and stop the outflow of the migrant workers.

Likewise, she pointed out the need to improve public service delivery in order to make the people feel the presence of the government.

Similarly, President Bidya Devi Bhandari underscored the need for short and long term strategies to address the economic crisis the country is facing. Expressing her concern over widening trade deficit, President Bhandari pointed out the need for investing in the production sector and work as per the demand of the present time. She was of the opinion that the government must invest in agriculture sector to strengthen the economy.

She said that the government should think about modernising and commercialising the agriculture sector to make the country self-sufficient in agricultural produce and start export of such goods.

She also said that the country's trade deficit could be reduced by introducing the programmes which would help the country become self-sufficient in food.

She further said that the country should stick to its non-aligned foreign policy and strengthen the relations with all the neighbouring nations.

At last, she thanked all the government apparatus for helping her complete two terms as the president successfully.

President Bhandari's five-term is ending on 12 March 2023. She was elected to the post on 12 March 2018 for the second time.

The Election Commission has scheduled the election of the new president for March 9 and nominations for the same will be filed on February 25.

A version of this article appears in the print on February 11, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.