Kathmandu, March 27:

Kush Kumar Joshi is elected 14th president of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) by 120 votes as he got 1,468 votes in a neck-to-neck competition against Chandi Raj Dhakal, who got 1,348 votes.

Similarly, Krishna Prasad Tamrakar (from Districts chambers with 95 votes), Bhaskar Rajrajkarnikar (from Commodity Association with 22 votes) and Pradip Jung Pandey (from Associate members with 158 votes) were elected vice-presidents. Suraj Vaidya is elected unanimously from bi-national chambers as vice-president.

The 42nd annual general meeting of the umbrella organisation of private sector has also elected its new executive committee.

Newly elected president Joshi — who was the second vice-president — after being declared the president, vowed to work unitedly towards strengthening of the FNCCI. “Security will be on top of our agenda for the time being,” he said, adding that without a business-friendly environment, industries cannot operate. He also urged the journalists to give economic news a high priority in the changed global context.

Bhawani Rana, from Nepalgunj Chambers of Commerce was elected with the highest 161 votes as an executive member from districts/municipality chambers. Similarly, Shaurav Jyoti was elected with the highest 232 votes as an executive member from associate category.

A total of 128 candidates had filed their nominations for the election of the executive committee of the apex body of the private sector. The executive committee has the representatives from district chambers, bi-national chambers, associate members and commodity associations.

The associate members have 376 votes, commodity associations have 64 votes and district chambers have 90 votes, bi-national chambers have 10 votes making it a total of 620 votes, whereas in terms of weightage the district chambers have 50 per cent, commodity associations have 20 per cent and associate members have 30 per cent.

Immediate past president Chandi Raj Dhakal congratulated all the winners and wished for their successful term in the FNCCI.

The newly elected president Joshi’s agenda was image-building as well as capacity building of private sector to compete in the current globalised economic system. He is for remodelling of public-private partnership (PPP) model for socio-economic development. Joshi — who

holds an Electrical Engineering diploma from Society of Engineering, UK — is leading the 19th executive committee.