Kathmandu, August 4: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has left for Turkmenistan Sunday night. He is visiting Turkmenistan to attend the 3rd United Nations Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDC).
Deputy Prime Minister and Urban Development Minister Prakash Singh, Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak, Foreign Minister Dr. Arzu Rana Deuba, Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Badri Pandey bid farewell to the PM at the VVIP Lounge of the Tribhuvan International Airport.
Oli has gone there to attend the summit at the formal invitation of Turkmenistan President Serdar Berdimuhamedov and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. The conference will be held from August 5 to 8 in Avaza, Turkmenistan.
Oli is scheduled to address the conference as the Chairman of the Global Coordination Bureau of Least Developed Countries. Oli is scheduled to co-chair a high-level roundtable as well as address various other programs during the conference. Nepal is currently the chairman of the LLDC Group.
The conference, which will be attended by 32 landlocked developing countries from Asia, Europe, Africa and South America, will discuss the lack of direct regional access to the sea, the problems faced by landlocked countries and the benefits that can be derived from global markets.
In view of the fact that international trade of these countries has to depend on transit through other countries, the conference will focus on enhancing the competitiveness of landlocked developing countries due to additional border crossings and long distances from major markets, cumbersome transit procedures and inadequate infrastructure, which will significantly increase the total cost of transportation and other transactions.
On the sidelines of the summit, Oli will hold meetings with the heads of delegations of various countries and high officials of the United Nations and other international organizations. Without direct territorial access to the sea, landlocked developing countries face challenges to international trade, connectivity and economic development.
Similarly, it is believed that the conference will be fruitful in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in the absence of direct access, not being able to benefit significantly from the global market, not having a global comfortable network of transportation and difficult to develop infrastructure.
The summit aims to enhance investment, including in strategic partnerships, to address the challenges faced by member states and help them realize their full potential.
The Summit will thus play an important role in helping these countries build a mutually equitable and prosperous future.
The 2nd United Nations Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries was held in Vienna, Austria, in November 2014. “The conference, which took place about 10 years ago, discussed “identifying international, regional, sub-regional and national and international trade and transit transport cooperation policies in terms of partnerships and opportunities to meet new and emerging challenges, including reviewing the implementation of the Almaty Plan of Action and transit transport systems.”
The high-level delegation led by the Prime Minister includes First Lady Radhika Shakya, Chief Adviser to the Prime Minister Bishnu Prasad Rimal, Member of the House of Representatives Surya Bahadur Thapa Kshetri, Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister Rajesh Bajracharya, Personal Physician Prof. Dr. Divya Singh Shah, Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Amrit Bahadur Rai, high-ranking government officials, official media persons and security personnel. Prime Minister Oli is scheduled to return home on Friday evening (August 8).
People’s News Monitoring Service.
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