By IANS,
Patna : Nepal Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai Friday stressed the need of regional economic integration for development of the South Asian region.
“Nepal is a strong advocate of economic integration of South Asian region,” Bhattarai said in his speech here after inaugurating a three-day Bihar global meet on changing Bihar.
Bhattarai expressed his unhappiness over no progress on the issue. “We have discussed so much, but there is hardly any progress on economic integration. It is because of poor economic integration that border regions of all countries in South Asia remain least developed. This applies to bordering areas of Nepal and India as well,” he said.
Bhattarai said that “we are for strong economic cooperation between India and Nepal and particularly with bordering states. There are lots of complementarities between our two economics. Huge hydro power potential of Nepal can be harnessed for mutual benefit. There is tremendous scope for joint venture investments on both sides,” he said.
He said it is “just a matter of understanding, goodwill and vision on the part of political leadership of both the countries”.
“Let the lands of Buddha and Ashoka cooperate for the betterment of humanity and to lead the world in the 21st century,” Bhattarai said.