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A Talk Programme on Nepal-Egypt Relations
As part of celebrating the 50th anniversary of the
establishment of the diplomatic relations between Nepal
and the Arab Republic of Egypt, a half-day talk programme
on "Nepal- Egypt Relations to Commemorate the
Golden Jubilee Celebration of the Establishment of
Diplomatic Relations between Nepal and Arab Republic
of Egypt" was organised by the Institute of Foreign
Aff airs (IFA) at the Hotel Malla, Lainchaur, Kathmandu on
24th July, 2007.
The programme was chaired by Prof. Dr. Gopal Prasad
Pokharel, Executive Director of IFA. Hon'ble Minister
for Foreign Aff airs, Mrs. Sahana Pradhan graced the
programme as the Chief Guest, while the Guest of
Honour was H.E. Mr. Abdelhamid Mahmod Soleiman,
the Ambassador of Arab Republic of Egypt to Nepal.
Mr. Hira Bahadur Thapa, Joint Secretary at the Ministry
of Foreign Aff airs (MoFA), presented his paper entitled
"Nepal-Egypt Relations: Present Reality and Future
Prospects".
Addressing the programme, Ms. Pradhan said that ever
since the establishment of bilateral relationship between
Nepal and Arab Republic of Egypt, the two countries had
remained closer and exchanged regular visits.
She expressed the hope that the bilateral relations between
the two friendly countries would be consolidated through
frequent contacts of not only high-level delegations but
also of businessmen, entrepreneurs, traders, industrialists
as well as tourists.
Emphasising the need for promoting tourism between
Nepal and Egypt, she said that the former would be able
to reap benefi ts if it attracted even one percent of tourists
visiting Egypt.
Recalling her recent visit to Egypt, said that she was very
much delighted to visit the Agriculture Research Center,
Electricity Centre, National Council of Safe Motherhood and
Child, and Sports Council there.
She disclosed that she had requested the Government
of Egypt to do something special in Nepal for mutual
benefi ts.
Appreciating the technological advancement of Egypt in
harnessing the Nile River, she opined that if Nepal could
adopt the Egyptian technology to generate hydroelectricity,
Nepal would be able to achieve its economic progress
soon.
Delving on agricultural progress of Egypt, she said that
Egypt had only 4 percent arable land until four decades
ago. "With the technological advancement, Egypt has been
able to increase its arable land to 8 percent.
Highlighting the importance of cultural heritage, she called
for establishing a library of cultural importance in Nepal as
Egypt had recently set up in Alexandra.
According to her, a cultural group from Egypt would be
visiting Nepal in September 2007 to mark the Golden
Jubilee Celebration of the establishment of the diplomatic
ties between the two countries.
Lauding Egypt for maintaining gender equality, she said
that the country was successful enough to have 33 women
judges in the courts, 20 percent of women ambassadors
and 15 percent of women Member of Parliaments (MPs).
Shedding light on the Egyptian Government's eff ort to make
available consumer goods at subsidised rates, she said that
one could buy 20 pieces of bread with one pound there.
"If we are able to adopt such a policy in Nepal, we could at
least reduce the rate of hunger in the country," she said.
Revealing the two agreements, which were recently signed
between the Ministries of Foreign Aff airs of Nepal and Egypt,
she expressed her belief that the Agreement on Economic
and Technical Cooperation and the Bilateral Consultation
Mechanism would help facilitate and enhance the bilateral
relationship and cooperation.
In his address, Egyptian envoy Mr. Soleiman said that
Nepal and Egypt had been maintaining their bilateral ties,
mutual cooperation and friendship since the Bandung
Conference held in Indonesia.
"Nepal and Egypt have excellent relationship, which can
be enhanced further through regular exchange of visits
between the two countries," he said.
Citing the importance of the role played by the two
countries in the movement of African and Asian Solidarity
and the Non-Alignment Movement (NAM), Mr. Soleiman
said that the role was more important during the period of
cold war and decolonisation.
He commended Nepal's support to Egypt on political
level. "Nepal supported us during the war of 1956 and
helped in passing the 242 resolution. We appreciate Nepal
for extending its continued support to Egypt at diff erent
international forums," he added.
Showing Egypt's support to the ongoing peace process
in Nepal, he expressed the commitment that his country
had already deployed seven monitors to observe the
forthcoming Constituent Assembly (CA) polls.
"Egypt will make every eff ort to restore permanent peace in
Nepal," the envoy said.
He termed the recent offi cial visit of Minister Ms. Sahana
Pradhan to Egypt as a milestone in consolidating the bilateral
ties between the two countries. He also emphasised the
need for exchanging frequent visits of experts.
He said that there were many things to be done in the fi eld
of medicine, agriculture, industry, commerce, etc in Nepal.
He also made clear that the Arab Republic of Egypt would
do something concrete by establishing Egyptian products
in Nepal and inviting Egyptian businessmen's delegation to
Nepal in the days to come. "The delegation members will
get the opportunity to meet their counterparts and share
their experiences," he said.
He also suggested that Nepal should send similar delegations
to Egypt so as to enhance economic cooperation.
Presenting his paper, Mr. Hira Bahadur Thapa, Joint
Secretary at MoFA, said that celebration of the 50th
anniversary of the diplomatic relations between Nepal and
Egypt this year would open up new avenues of cooperation
to strengthen the bilateral relations to a new height.
He said that political relations between the two countries
became stronger and closer, as both the parties were able
to consolidate them opening up a wide range of avenues
of cooperation such as culture, trade, investment, tourism,
etc.
He equally emphasised that Nepal would remain eff ortful
to capitalise on the Golden Jubilee Celebration of the
establishment of the diplomatic ties between the two
countries by forging new trading relationship.
Highlighting the future prospects of the Nepal-Egypt
ties in cultural aspects, he called for exchanging cultural
troupes of both the countries, which, in his view, would
not only educate audiences in each country. "This will not
only help enhance people-to-people contact but also play
an important role in promoting tourism between the two
countries," he said.
He conceded the fact that Nepal and Egypt were unable
to strengthen economic ties to the desired extent due to
physical distance.
He said that Nepal needed to accelerate its trade ties with
Egypt by exporting a number of items like garlic, tea and
coff ee, among others with the country having certain
comparative advantages.
He suggested that that the businessmen and entrepreneurs
from Nepal and Egypt should exchange their visits in order
to explore prospects of economic cooperation.
"Transportation costs do not necessarily make every
tradable item expensive. Business prospect should be
considered in terms of comparative advantage of the
products themselves," he said.
Shedding light on the role played by Nepal and Egypt in contributing
to world peace, he said that both the countries had been doing their
best by sending peacekeepers, which included civilians, police and army
personnel in many UN Missions.
He added that the bilateral ties between the two countries had remained
cordial and warm ever since the establishment of their diplomatic
relations. "Its evidence is that both the countries have received continued
cooperation from each other on a mutual basis in various forums,
including United Nations (UN), NAM, G77 and others," he said.
Earlier, delivering his welcome address, Prof. Dr. Gopal Pokharel said
that the bilateral relations between Nepal and Egypt had been marked
by mutual trust and understanding ever since the establishment of
diplomatic relations in 1957.
"As both Nepal and Egypt are the founding members of NAM, the
former appreciates the pioneer role of the latter for the promotion of the
movement and the implementation of its principles", Prof. Pokharel, who
also chaired the function, added.
He was of the opinion that Nepal and Egypt shared almost identical
views on the issues related to the promotion of world peace in UN and
many other international forums.
He also recalled Nepal's endorsement of the Camp David Accord between
Egypt and Israel in 1978, which led to the signing of peace treaty between
them in 1979. Appreciating the invaluable assistance provided by Egypt
to Nepal in the fi elds of agriculture, medicine and animal health, he said
that Nepal would remain thankful to the people and the Government of
Egypt for their continuous support.
Talking about scholarships provided by the Egyptian Government to the
Nepalese students to study Islamic religion at the Al Azhar University in
Cairo, Prof. Pokharel said that the Arab Republic of Egypt was willing to
support in a number of areas in Nepal's development eff ort.
"In today's world of globalisation, Nepal and Egypt should strive sincerely
for exploring more avenues of mutual cooperation. He also stressed the
need to explore and derive comparative advantages to the best possible
extent.
"Such schemes may cover a wide range of fundamental issues like trade,
investment, tourism, etc", he added.
Focussing on the recent visit of Nepal's Minister for Foreign Aff airs, Mrs.
Sahana Pradhan to Egypt, he said that the exchange of visits at higher
level on diff erent occasions from both the countries would help in
consolidating the existing bilateral ties on the basis of mutual interest.
He also hoped that the Golden Jubilee Celebrations would be helpful in
enhancing bilateral cooperation.
He also called for both the countries to ponder over widening of technical
and economic cooperation to further consolidate their existing bilateral
relations. He suggested that the two friendly nations should develop
mechanisms in order to explore further prospects cooperation in the
days ahead.
Floor Discussion
Following Mr. Thapa's presentation, the fl oor was opened
for discussion.
Prof. S.M. Habibullah said that the paper could be more
eff ective if the author touched upon the present world
scenario. He further added that Egypt could help mobilize
the sentiments of Arab countries to ameliorate the
conditions of Nepali labourers there.
Responding to Prof. Habibullah's queries, Mr. Thapa said that
he was simply trying to present the historical perspective,
which led Nepal to establish diplomatic relation with the far
distant country, Egypt.
In terms of labour issue, Mr. Thapa said that a constructive
step had been initiated with the signing of bilateral labour
agreement between Nepal and the United Arab Emirates
(UAE). He further added that Nepal was keenly interested
in inking such agreements with other countries, especially
with the Gulf countries.
Prof. Dr. T. N. Jaiswal suggested that NAM had to adjust
with the changing world scenario from 1990. He wanted
to know about the areas of development that Egypt could
help Nepal in the changed context.
In his response, Mr. Thapa accepting the suggestion, and
said that the Egyptian technology could be applied in Nepal
for generating electricity, which would help a lot in making
New Nepal.
Another participant Dr. Meena Baidya Malla asked H.E.
Mr. Abdelhamid Mahmod Soleiman whether the Arab
Republic of Egypt had ever focused its attention on gender
development and women's empowerment in connection
with the Nepal-Egypt relationship.
Replying her query, the Egyptian envoy said that his
government had accorded due priority for gender
development and formed the National Council for Women
to deal with gender issues.
In his comment, Mr. Lal Babu Yadav said that the author
had mentioned that only Muslim students from Nepal
received scholarships in Egypt. Mr. Yadav commented that
the author had failed to explore other areas of study such
as medicine, engineering, agriculture and Information
technology (IT).
Mr. Prakash A. Raj asked the author whether Nepal had
consultation mechanisms with other countries.
Responding to Mr. Raj's question, the author said that the
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) would cover the
element of consultation mechanisms between Nepal and
other countries.
Mr. M.R. Josse viewed that Nepal could benefi t tremendously
from tourism if it could attract even a small share of tourists
visiting Egypt. Highlighting the rich expertise of Egypt in
the fi eld of cultural preservation, Mr. Josse suggested that
Nepal should apply the Egyptian expertise to preserve
cultural heritage of Nepal.
Agreeing with Mr. Josse's idea, the author opined that the
Nepalese tourism entrepreneurs should approach their
Egyptian counterparts with aggressive plans and policies to
attract tourists.
At the end of the programme, Ms. Anjan Shakya, Deputy
Executive Director of IFA, extended her vote of thanks to
the chief guest, the guest of honour, paper presenter and
other invitees.
Ms. Shakya said that Nepal and the Arab Republic of Egypt
had been maintaining their bilateral ties in the interests of
their people during the last 50 years.
Depicting some cultural similarities between Nepal and
Egypt, Ms. Shakya said that the people from both the
countries had taken the nature, the sun, fi re, water, wind,
etc. as symbols of god.
Laying her focus on the enhancement of economic relations
between Nepal and Egypt, she suggested that the chambers
of commerce and businessmen from the countries should
exchange their visits so as to establish business ties.
"There are enormous scopes for promoting bilateral trade
between the two nations," she said.
She was of the opinion that the celebration of the 50th
anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic ties
between the two countries would be instrumental in
enhancing economic cooperation.
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