Kathmandu, January 16
A team, including a Member of Parliament and former minister of state Taira Masaki of Japan's ruling 'Liberal Democratic' party, recently paid a visit to high-ranking leaders including Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal.
A three-member team that had arrived here on Wednesday with the aim of further deepening Nepal-Japan relations met and held discussions with Prime Minister Dahal, Chairman of Nepali Congress Sher Bahadur Deuba and Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel on Friday.
During the meeting, Prime Minister Dahal acknowledged Japan as Nepal's oldest ally and thanked Japan for its continuous support in the economic and social development of Nepal. He said that Nepal has received a lot of support from JICA and other organisations along with the Japanese government.
Prime Minister Dahal said that Nepal has now entered the stage of development and Japan's support will be very important in the coming days.
Informing that favourable environment will be created for investment in Nepal, Prime Minister Dahal urged Japanese businessmen to invest in Nepal.
Meanwhile, MP Masaki informed that Japan is interested to invest in water resources, tourism and other sectors in Nepal as these sectors have huge potential. He said that Nepal would benefit if the electricity produced in Nepal could be exported to India and Bangladesh.
During the meeting with Finance Minister Paudel, Masaki informed that Nepal's neighbouring country India has received loan assistance from Japan at low interest rates for various projects and urged Nepal to take initiative to seek such loans from Japan.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Paudel informed that there is a lack of resources for development projects and said that he would immediately take initiatives to get Japan's soft loan assistance.
Informing about creating a favourable environment for foreign investors in Nepal, Paudel urged the delegation to help in bringing Japanese investors to Nepal.
The same team had met two former prime ministers, KP Sharma Oli and Madhav Kumar Nepal, on Thursday.
A version of this article appears in the print on January 17, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
