Kathmandu – Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Badri Prasad Pandey and Secretary General of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Indramani Pandey had a courtesy call.

A delegation led by Secretary General Pandey met Minister Pandey at the Ministry of Tourism. During the meeting, issues including visa facilitation between BIMSTEC countries, development of tourism infrastructure in religious, cultural and tourism circuits were discussed.

During the meeting, Minister Pandey stressed on making Nepal’s aviation sector dynamic and promoting tourism to the international community through affiliation and mutual exchange among tourism boards of BIMSTEC member countries.

Minister Pandey also urged the BIMSTEC Secretariat to be made active and effective, stating that SAARC is inactive due to the various reason.

Secretary General Pandey stated that an important agenda of BIMSTEC is ‘connectivity’ and expressed his commitment to support the development of Nepal’s tourism sector. He also said that Nepal’s tourism and other potential sectors will be raised institutionally at the upcoming BIMSTEC summit.