Kathmandu, September 29, 2005

The Tourism Ministry has issued permits to 17 expedition teams to scale eleven mountain peaks this season. Three mountaineering teams have been granted permission to scale the 8167m Mt Dhaulagiri I, three teams to scale the 6920m Mt Tukuche and two teams to climb the 6812m Mt Amadablam, the Tourism Ministry’s mountaineering division said in a statement. Similarly, one team each has been permitted to climb the 8091m Mt Annapurna, 7038m Mt Gyazikang, 7952 m Mt Gyachung Kang, 7090 m Mt Janak, 6251m Mt P2, 6244m Mt Pangbunk, 7246 m Mt Putha and 6012m Mt Dhampus. The seventeen teams are from 11 different counties – Japan, Slovenia, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Holland, France, Russia, Slovakia, Spain and Ukraine. The statement further said seven members and six high altitude workers of the Japan Alpine Club Toyama Gyajikang Expedition 2005 team successfully scaled the 7038 m Mt Gyajikang on September 26. Tsuji Hitoshi, 64, the leader of the team, along with Tanimura Masanori, 68, Murakami Kiyomitsu, 64, Itabashi Akira, 56 and Kanao Seiichi, 54 of Japan scaled the peak, the statement said. The others to conquer the peak included Tanabe Toshio, 34, Kido Shigeyoshi, 70, Man Bahadur Gurung, 43 of Sankhuwasava, Pasang Chhiring Sherpa, 43, of Lamabagar.

Fair to help boost economic ties

Kathmandu, September 29, 2005

High-level officials from Nepal and Bangladesh, including business persons have underscored the need to effectively use the five day long Bangladesh Single Country Trade Fair that kicked off today at Birendra International Convention Centre (BICC) to explore business and economic opportunities. Inaugurating the fair, Kirti Nidhi Bista, vice-chairman of the council of ministers, commented that it is an effective platform to explore trade and economic opportunities in a changed globalised context as global institutions like WTO and BIMSTEC have already started influencing our economies. Keeping this in mind, we should try to exploit the immense potentials of the economic and trade benefits. As Nepal and Bangladesh have signed agreements related to trade and transit in 1976, there is a need to explore further economic opportunities by addressing issues of concerns, said Bista. Ambassador of Bangladesh to Nepal, M Humayun Kabir talking about the fair said that it is multidimensional in nature because three important components namely trade, tourism and education are being focused. Ambassador Kabir, while talking about the importance of the fair, opined that there is a need to familiarise Nepali consumers with Bangladeshi ‘quality and cost competitive’ products. The fair would be an effective forum for business leaders and entrepreneurs to know and interact with their counterparts on a mutually beneficial basis, said Kabir.