As per the immigration department, 1,985 Indians touristed Nepal last month while 2,192 SAARC tourists landed in Nepal.

Additionally, 1,244 US travelers, 416 tourists from England, and 253 Chinese travelers visited Nepal during August.

Nepal’s tourism sector, which is one of the most significant sectors in the country, was impacted adversely by COVID-19.

After the first wave ended, the hospitality sector was gathering steam. However, the country’s second wave emergence dashed the hopes of the sector.

Stay Tuned to NepaliSansar for Latest Nepal Tourism News Updates!

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According to the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), Nepal on Sunday has reported only 1.7 percent active cases, the lowest among the South Asian countries in terms of the ratio of total recoveries to total infections.

In the past 24 hours, around 400 patients were recovered from the infection, taking the country’s total number of recoveries to 261,444. This accounts for 97.8% of the total infection cases (267,322). According to the MoHP, there are as many as 3,919 active cases in the country.

As of today, the nation’s COVID-19 tally stands at 267,322, while the deaths reached 1,959. A total of 266 new infections and five fatalities were reported in the last 24 hours.

Among the eight countries in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Nepal reports the highest recovery rate while Bhutan reports the lowest.

Active Cases in SAARC Countries

• Bhutan – 36%
• Pakistan – 22%
• Sri Lanka – 13.6%
• Afghanistan – 11.7%
• Bangladesh – 9%
• Maldives – 5.7%
• India – 2%
• Nepal – 1.7%

Stay Tuned to NepaliSansar for Latest Nepal COVID-19 Updates!

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Currently, Nepal has a recovery rate of 72.7%, the lowest rate among the eight member states of the SAARC.

COVID-19 Recovery Rate in SAARC Countries:

• Pakistan – 95.5%
• Sri Lanka – 94.1%
• Maldives – 86.3%
• Afghanistan – 83.3%
• India – 81.6%
• Bhutan – 75.1%
• Bangladesh – 73.1%
• Nepal – 72.7%

According to the Nepali Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), 457 COVID-19 patients were discharged across the country upon full recovery in the last 24 hours, taking the total recovery cases to 50,411.

On Thursday, Nepal has reported 1,497 new positive cases, pushing the nation’s COVID-19 caseload to 69,301. The death toll from the pandemic has reached 453 with 17 new fatalities in the past 24 hours.

There are currently 18,437 actives cases, with 9,823 patients in home isolation and 8,614 in institutional isolation.

Province-wise recovery cases:

• Bagmati Province – 13,072
• Province 2 – 12,805
• Province 5 -7,825
• Sudur Paschim Province – 6,370
• Province 1 – 4,600
• Gandaki Province – 2,948
• Karnali Province – 2,791

However, on a positive note, Nepal is among the three SAAC countries that have recorded less than 1% COVID-19 mortality rate. Only 0.7% of the total patients in Nepal have lost their lives as of Thursday.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan has recorded the highest COVID-19 death rate of 3.7%, followed by Pakistan with 2.4%.

Stay Tuned to NepaliSansar for Latest COVID-19 News!

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Prime Ministers of Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka and a representative of the Pakistani PM participated in the first ever video conference on March 15, 2020.

All the leaders agreed to establish a joint response mechanism to stave off Coronavirus (COVID-19) threat in the region. They also agreed to evaluate the long-term implications of the coronavirus on the regional economy and find the best strategies for early recovery.

Initiating the conference from New Delhi, Indian PM Narendra Modi proposed a rapid response team of doctors and specialists, surveillance software, online training and common research mechanism at the disposal of the SAARC to combat the COVID-19.

He also proposed to establish a ‘COVID-19 Emergency Fund’ and agreed to provide USD 10 million as initial contribution. He, then, requested the other leaders to voluntarily contribute to the fund.

Other countries including Nepal approved the ‘Emergency Fund’ proposal initiated by India and agreed to contribute to the fund.

Meanwhile, Nepal PM KP Sharma Oli proposed to establish a SAARC emergency medical facility to deal with the identical health challenges in the region.

He shared the strategies and policies initiated by the Nepali Government to impede the coronavirus spread in the country.

“Even though we had detected one suspected case, the COVID-19 test proved negative. Yet, we are aware of the high risk of possible outbreak at any time. We remain alert to prevent it,” said PM Oli.

Likewise, all the other leaders expressed their opinions on the coronavirus outbreak.

This was for the first time the top South Asian leaders have participated in the SAARC summit since 2014 when the last summit took place in Nepal.

Coronavirus outbreak in SAARC countries

• India – 115 cases, 2 deaths
• Pakistan – 94 cases
• Afghanistan – 21 cases
• Sri Lanka – 18 cases
• Maldives – 13 cases
• Bangladesh – 5 cases
• Bhutan – 1 case
• Nepal – 1 case

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As part of his ongoing Russia visit, Gyawali said both sides have agreed upon that through enhanced political arrangement and mutual cooperation in diverse fields.

“The objective of my visit this time, in my capacity as Foreign Minister of Nepal, has been to bolster trust, deepen political understanding, promote economic, commercial and cultural ties and strengthen collaboration in dealing with regional and global issues of common concern,” Gyawali said at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.

Explaining about his meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov, Gyawali informed that they discussed on a wide range of matters such high-level exchange of visits, boosting the existing bilateral consultation mechanism and closing agreements on future cooperation.

Stating that regional cooperation is very important part of international relations, Gyawali said “Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is a new opportunity for institutionalizing a long-lasting environment for peace and prosperity in the region, and beyond.”

He said Nepal looks at SCO as an effective platform for effective engagement in wide range of sectors such as energy, agriculture, trade and investment.

“We attach importance to SAARC and BIMSTEC as principal vehicles for regional cooperation in our region. As I said earlier, we want to enhance our engagement in SCO. We are also pursuing the objective of sub-regional cooperation within the framework of BBIN-Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal. We are also a member of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue,” Gyawali noted.

Hope, the new discussions will take Nepal-Russian relations to the next level.

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Pushing ahead the decision on convening the 19^th SAARC Summit, Gyawali urged India and Pakistan to resolve issues and facilitate ways for conducting the Summit at the earliest possible.

Gyawali raised this issue of long-stalled 19^th SAARC Summit with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj during his recent two-day visit to India.

Gyawali has reportedly made it clear that Nepal, as a SAARC’s current Chair, is not willing to make any further delays in conducting the Summit.

Talking to Indian journalists, Gyawali questioned as to why the two countries could not sit and address the pending issues.

“Nepal is always in favor of broader regional and meaningful cooperation. There is no alternative to sitting together for talks and finding solutions to the problems. If [Donald] Trump and Kim [Jong-un] can meet, then why not countries in our region?” reads Gyawali’s statement.

The 19^th SAARC Summit due in 2016 has been cancelled after New Delhi rejected Pakistan’s invitation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the SAARC event in Islamabad.

The Background

Paving way for the stalled 19^th SAARC summit, Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli met Pakistan’s former PM Yousaf Raza Gillani on December 02, 2018.

This discussion took place on the side-lines of Gillani’s Kathmandu visit for the Asia Pacific Summit 2018.

During the meeting, Oli expressed his intention to make South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) effective and get the SAARC summit to commence at the earliest.

“We want to see the SAARC summit convening and handover the chairmanship at the earliest,” read the press statement issued by the Nepal PM Secretariat.

Oli opines that it is high time that the SAARC summit ’s 19^th edition is hosted. The important summit postponement in November 2016 over India-Pakistan indifferences.

In November 2016, Pakistan was supposed to host the summit. However, the meet was cancelled when SAARC nations such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and India boycotted stating that they lacked a friendly environment for holding the summit.

Pakistan was held responsible for promoting terrorism, a claim which Pakistan strongly denied.

Following the row, Nepal has been patiently waiting to handover chair to Pakistan and making significant efforts to hold the summit’s next edition there.

According to Nepal PM’s Foreign Affairs Advisor Rajan Bhattarai, Gillani expressed’s commitment to SAARC and its readiness to host the summit.

Besides the SAARC discussion, Oli and Gilani also spoke about strengthening trade and investment among South Asian countries.

Gilani also appreciated Nepal for its efforts on achieving political stability and progress.

Reviving 19th SAARC Summit

Days after the successful 4^th BIMSTEC Summit, Former Nepali PM and Chairman of ruling Communist Party of Nepal Pushpa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda) said Nepal was keen on taking ahead the SAARC Summit in its next move.

Prachanda made these sensational statements on the side-lines of his four-day bilateral visit to India in the last week concluding on September 09, 2018.

As part of his four-day visit that he called ‘productive’, the former Nepali PM reportedly expressed his government’s commitment to revive the stalled 19^th SAARC Summit at the earliest possible.

Ruling out misconceptions over BIMSTEC as replacement to SAARC, Prachanda said on September 07, 2018 that SAARC and BIMSTEC support each other and are not substitutes to one another.

“Some of India’s neighbours are jealous about the progress of BIMSTEC. SAARC is not an alternative to BIMSTEC. India has to improve its diplomatic outreach in Nepal backed by timely implementation of bilateral and BBIN projects,” says an expert who closely followed BIMSTEC.

Prachanda had informed that the Pakistan Government already urged India for its decision on rescheduling of the SAARC Summit.

Explaining more on his India visit, Prachanda informed that they discussed various key issues pertaining to Indo-Nepal bilateral ties and the region.

“It is rare to have long discussions with top leaders during bilateral meetings but this time it was a good opportunity for me. I had a discussion with PM Narendra Modi and other Indian leaders on various issues related to the two countries. This has given a very positive message to both countries,” said Prachanda.

Speaking to Nepali media on his return, Prachanda said they also discussed on past leadership agreements agreed upon by India and Nepal along with issues pertaining to trade deficit, cross-border and post-quake reconstruction.

Revival of SAARC gains significance in view of the 4^th BIMSTEC Summit that reportedly addressed some of the key issues that SAARC couldn’t.

Will have to wait to see what the latest Nepal-India bilateral discussions will lead to pertaining to further actions on the 19^th SAARC Summit that was supposed to take place on November 2016 and got postponed due to some reasons.

Nepal is currently the SAARC Chair, which will be handed over to Pakistan in the 19^th SAARC Summit.

Also Read:

• New SAARC Center To Boost Nepali Handicrafts
• Nepal, Pakistan Seek Strong SAARC, Sector-wise Cooperation

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Interview by Sai Nikesh D

Woman is key to any society. However, her true potential has been taking a backstep all across, because of various reasons, which could be social inequality, lack of freedom of expression and enough social support, among various others.

In quest of research for special coverage on women and success stories, Nepali Sansar came across the inspiring woman, successful entrepreneur and the current Founder President of South Asian Women Development Forum (SAWDF), Ms. Pramila Acharya Rijal.

In an exclusive interview with Nepali Sansar Bureau, the SAWDF President shared her views on wide range of topics pertaining to women & her participation in social development. Here are some excerpts from the interview:

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With a theme entitled ‘Equality begins with Economic Empowerment’, the summit aims to bring onto a single platform, many influential women business leaders, international service providers, professionals and organisations, government representatives and other stakeholders to discuss on innovative economic transformation through collaboration.

Inaugurating the event on September 03, 2018, the Vice-President of Nepal Nanda Bahadur Pun stressed on the need for women empowerment in all social, political and economic aspects.

In this regard, he called on for effective public participation to fight violence and illicit acts against women.

The main goal of the summit is to bring together achievers, women business leaders, professionals, international service providers, resource organisations, relevant sectoral experts, government representatives and other stakeholders from various fields, with a focus on innovative economic transformation through cutting- edge discussions and collaborations. The summit will be participated by delegates from the People’s Republic of China, SAARC, ASEAN, EU, African and the Arab regions –South Asian Women Development Forum (SAWDF) in an official release

In its release, SAWDF highlighted key objectives of the Summit as:

• Multiple collaborations and partnerships with a consortium of international organizations
• To address the challenges associated with advancing and promoting gender-responsive trade facilitation policies
• To promote business women through policy sharing for actionable reforms which can be developed as regional instruments for advocating the economic issues of women
• To create a more efficient, effective channel to identify, develop, and scale high-potential women entrepreneurs
• Learning and replication of an entrepreneurial model projects
• B2B meetings with suppliers and manufacturers in the textile sector (Pashmina and felt)

Under various programs, the event will see special sessions on:

• Women Entrepreneurship Development
• Promoting Economic Empowerment of Women in Africa and the MENA regions
• Role of Institutions in Fostering Women Entrepreneurship
• Gender Inclusive Trade & Industrialization
• Leveraging Technology for Women Entrepreneurship Development
• Sustainable Tourism for Socio-Economic Development
• Importance of Including Businesses Women in Value Chains

According to the SAWDF President Pramila Acharya Rijal, the event will most likely see delegates from nearly 27 countries. She expressed hope that the event will act as a platform for various collaborations with international and national organisations.

As per the organizers, the Summit will end on September 05, 2018 with the signing of MoUs and key announcements on new collaborations.

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Nepal Foreign Secretary Shanker Das Bairagi will lead the meeting, which will be attended by all BIMSTEC member countries foreign secretaries— Nepal, India, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Thailand, Bhutan and Sri Lanka.

According to Nepal Foreign Affairs Ministry (MoFA) Assistant Spokesperson Ram Babu Dhakal, this ‘plan-of-action’ meeting will discuss the following matters:

1. All areas of preparation for BIMSTEC Summit
2. Nepal government’s views on taking forward the regional integration initiative
3. Member countries’ VIPs and VVIPs discussion agendas and their outcomes
4. Other Issues including poverty alleviation, climate change and cross-border crime

BIMSTEC to Promote Regional Cooperation:
Gyawali is eagerly looking forward to this meeting as it presents an opportunity to discuss connectivity through road, railways, and power grid network.

The BIMSTEC summit will also play a key role in establishing regional cooperation between SAARC and Southeast Asian Nations’, as the seven countries from both regions are members of BIMSTEC.

Additional Preparations for the Upcoming Summit:
Nepal MoFA says that the preparations are under full swing and official invitations have been sent to all member countries heads and their governments.

As part of the preparations, Nepal has formed several committees including a steering committee led by Nepal PM, KP Sharma Oli and preparation & co-ordination committee lead by Nepal Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali.

Conclusion:
Nepal became a BIMSTEC member in 2004, after its formation in 1997.  We hope that the Fourth BIMSTEC Summit will drive the desired regional cooperation and encourage the development of member countries with each other’s support.

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Oli’s New Delhi visit gains significance in the light of a long-awaited political transformation in Nepal following the Communist Alliance’s grand victory in the recently-concluded Nepal general elections.

This visit holds high value for the Indo-Nepal bilateral relations which have been facing little odds in the recent times owing to a misconception that Nepal is moving pro-China.

At this juncture, Oli’s three-day bilateral visit to India is coming as a needed boost to the Indo-Nepal diplomatic ties strengthening the ties to the next level.

Constructive and Development-Focused

In a recently-held parliamentary meeting, Oli informed about his agenda and key priorities to be raised with the Indian side in his upcoming visit.

“We will go unified for the development and the promotion of the nation. We obviously will go forward in the developmental activities and will maintain harmonious relations with our neighboring nations for the purpose of development and prosperity,” Oli said in his address to the Nepali Parliament.

Oli assured of taking up no such activity that fragments the unity or spring up the feeling of disparity developing the relation of mutual benefit and understanding between the two countries and pressed on bringing up piled-up issues in the discussions for early completion.

“Our Southern neighbor is ready to assist in Nepal’s development,” Oli said in a statement, adding that the focus will be more on the pending projects.

“Rather than piling up new agreements and forgetting about them, we’ll focus on how to make tangible progress on past agreements and in areas of cooperation,” said Oli.

Nepali Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali said, “There is no alternative to excellent bilateral relations between Nepal and India despite some twists & turns in the recent past.”

“Expect a visit that sets the course for the future of ties between India and Nepal. This won’t be about the nitty-gritty of agreements, but about putting the past behind us and presenting big ideas for moving ahead,” said an Indian official.

Matters on Priority

As part of his visit, Oli is expected to hold special discussions with his counterpart Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, followed by meetings with businessmen and Nepali diaspora in New Delhi.

“I will discuss the projects that were committed to be reconstructed by India after the devastating earthquake,” Oli said in his address to the Nepali Parliament.

He laid due priority to railway and reconstruction projects, Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project (PMP) and postal highway completion, among others.

Connectivity is also expected be in the top priority list in the Oli-Modi discussion with special focus on border management, cross-border railways, trade and energy.

Agreements related to agriculture sector, inland water navigation through Koshi River and cargo movement through transit points are also likely to be signed.

Demonetization is another major area that the Nepali PM is keen on discussing about with the Indian side. Towards this end, Oli is most likely to push India to exchange billions of banned demonetized Indian currency notes held in Nepal. Nepal has around Rs 950 crore worth demonetized notes lying with its individuals and informal sectors.

“The Indian demonetization has hurt Nepali nationals. I will raise this in my meetings with Indian leaders and request them to resolve the issue,” Oli said in a statement.

As a Chair for SAARC and BIMSTEC, Nepal is also expected to seek India’s regional and sub-regional cooperation with special emphasis on the upcoming SAARC Summit.

Both the Prime Ministers are set to jointly lay a foundation stone of the 900 MW capacitive Arun III hydro project and will also inaugurate the Integrated Check Post at the Birgunj-Raxaul border built over a seven-year period.

Overall, Oli’s visit is expected to open new ways for strengthening Indo-Nepal cooperation.

“The visit will provide an opportunity to the two sides to review wide-ranging cooperative partnership and progress it further for the benefit of people of two countries. The entourage of the Prime Minister will comprise Ministers, Members of Parliament, Secretaries and other high-ranking officials of the Government of Nepal,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nepal said in a statement.

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