By Modnath Dhakal
Kathmandu, Mar. 22: President Bidya Devi Bhandari is leaving for Dhaka, Bangladesh for a two-day state visit from 22 to 23 March.
She is paying the visit at the invitation of her Bangladeshi counterpart Mohammad Abdul Hamid. This is the first top-level visit from Nepal to Bangladesh in one-and-a-half decades.
President Bhandari will leave Kathmandu for Dhaka in a special chartered plane of Nepal Airlines Corporation. President Hamid will welcome her in Dhaka. She will be accompanied by Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali, secretaries and senior officers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), Office of the President and other relevant ministries, said the MoFA.
During her visit, the two countries will sign agreement on the amendment of transit mechanism. Bangladesh is likely to allow Nepal to use the Rohanpur-Singabad Railway route for transit.
Likewise, Memorandum of Understanding on sanitary and phytosanitary measures, bilateral tourism promotion and cultural exchanges will be signed.
Similarly, the two countries will discuss energy cooperation as well. Nepal is making preparations to export about 200 megawatt of electricity within four months, by the end of the current Fiscal Year 2020/21.
Bangladesh has said that it could import as much as 9000 MW electricity from Nepal while the Upper Karnali Hydroelectricity Project had also signed an agreement to export electricity to Bangladesh.
President Bhandari will attend the celebration of the birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the Father of the Nation of Bangladesh, in Dhaka, the capital city. She is scheduled to deliver a statement on 'Nepal-Bangladesh Relations and Bangabandhu's Birth Centenary'.
The President is also scheduled to hold talks with her Bangladeshi counterpart Hamid at Bangabhaban and attend a State Banquet hosted by the latter in her honour.
During her stay in Dhaka, she will visit National Martyrs Memorial at Savar and Bangabandhu Museum at Dhanmondi. She will also visit the Embassy of Nepal in Dhaka and meet Nepali nationals in Bangladesh.
According to the MoFA, a cultural troupe will also be a part of the Nepali delegation which will show a cultural performance during the birth centenary celebration programme in Dhaka.
Earlier in November 2019, Bangladeshi President Hamid had paid a four-day goodwill visit to Nepal.
Then, he had pledged support and partnership to realise Nepal's national aspiration of 'Prosperous Nepal, Happy Nepali' and stressed on increasing the frequency of high-level exchanges between the two countries. Bangladesh also wants to develop partnership at global and regional platforms like the United Nations, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and BIMSTEC.
Last year in February, during the visit of Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali, Nepal and Bangladesh had made agreements in bilateral trade and investment, infrastructure, waterways, agriculture and education.
The President is scheduled to return on 23 March, Tuesday.
In the first eight months of the current Fiscal Year 2020/21, Nepal imported goods worth Rs. 37.1 billion from Bangladesh and exported goods worth Rs. 407 million incurring a trade deficit of Rs. 33 billion. The bilateral trade with Bangladesh is witnessing deficit for the past many years.
Bangladesh was the 26th largest trade partner of Nepal in the fiscal year 2018/19 with Rs. 4.24 billion import and Rs. 1.29 billion export.
Trade between the two countries was promoted following the opening of the Kankadbhitta-Phulbari-Banglabandh transit route in 1997, and Nepal had trade surplus with Bangladesh till 2013/14.