Vice president of Nepal Nanda Bahadur Pun attended the Opening Ceremony of the 23rd Lanzhou Investment and Trade Fair and High-end Forum for Cooperation and Development along the Silk Road in Lanzhou, China.

While attending the Opening Ceremony of the Fair, Vice President Pun delivered a keynote speech on “Cooperation and Development along the Silk Road”. In his speech, Vice President expressed belief that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) would be instrumental to pursue the agenda of common priority.

He said that BRI has been taken as an opportunity for improving cross-border connectivity between Nepal and China and utilizing the natural resources for the economic transformation of Nepal with more capital investment transfer of technology, long term cooperation with BRI participating countries and experiences sharing for mutual benefit. He also invited entrepreneurs from China and also from the participating countries of the BRI to invest in Nepal and make decent return on their investment.

Vice President also thanked the Government of the People’s Republic of China for declaring the year 2017 as Nepal Tourism Promotion Year in China. In order to make the year successful, he urged the Chinese Government to encourage the Chinese people to visit Nepal.  He also assured of Nepal’s commitment to realize the potentials of B&R initiative with concerted efforts of all the stakeholders.

According to a press release issued by Embassy of Nepal in Beijing, Vice President Pun declared opening of Nepal pavilion jointly with the Governor of the Gansu Province Tang Renjian by touching the “launching ball” amidst a ceremony at Gansu International Conference Center earlier this morning.

Vice President Pun along with the senior officials of Gansu Provincial People’s Government and Nepali delegates visited Nepali stalls in the exhibition center. Before the opening of the Nepal Pavilion, Nepal promotional video was screened in front of pavilion. All together 16 booths from 13 Nepali enterprises are participating in the Fair.

Ambassador of Nepal  to China Leela Mani Paudyal, Secretary to the Office of the Vice President Narayan Gopal Malego, Joint Secretaries Ganesh Prasad Dhakal and Rabi Shankar Sainju with other officials from Nepali delegation were present in both the occasions.

Thirty-six countries and two intergovernmental organizations are participating in the 23rd Lanzhou Investment and Trade Fair and Nepal is guest of honour country this year.