Raju Shrestha appointed Consul of Laos

By A Staff Reporter Kathmandu, July 16: The People's Republic of Laos has appointed businessman Raju Shrestha as its Consul for Nepal.

The Deputy Chief of the Mission of the Lao Embassy in New Delhi, India, Kio Sengdavong, and Chief of Protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nepal, Durga Bahadur Subedi presented the consular certificate to Shrestha in a programme held in Kathmandu on Thursday. Shrestha is a tourism entrepreneur.

With the appointment of Shrestha as consul, the Consulate General of Laos has been established in Kathmandu. 

Sengdavong inaugurated the Consulate General established at the Nepali House in Thamel.

In the programme,  newly appointed Consul Shrestha recalled the expansion of bilateral diplomatic relations established between Nepal and Laos in 1960 and promised to further strengthen the diplomatic and economic social relations between the two countries.

Stating that Nepal's famous eye surgeon Dr. Sanduk Ruit had conducted a camp for the treatment of the eyes of Lao residents, he said that he would continue to expand mutual relations in this way in the future as well.

Sengdavong said that Lao people wanted to cooperate with Nepal in the fields of tourism, trade and investment.

The Lao government also thanked Nepal for allocating an area for the establishment of a monastery in Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha.

The participants of the event, which had a large presence of consuls from various countries in Nepal, were of the opinion that there is a possibility of religious tourism in Nepal as Laos is a country of Buddhist pilgrims.