APJ Abdul Kalam said investment in food processing and infrastructure development, besides promotion of tourism were key for building Nepal as a peaceful and prosperous country.
KATHMANDU: Former President of India and renowned scientist APJ Abdul Kalam has said investment in food processing and infrastructure development, besides promotion of tourism were key for building Nepal as a peaceful and prosperous country.
He also underlined the need for value based education as the basis for social transformation of Nepal, post abolition of monarchy.
Delivering a lecture on the 'Dynamics of Societal Transformation' attended by dignitaries in Kathmandu yesterday, Kalam said Nepal and India share a common civilisation heritage and have strategic partnership in multiple areas.
"As close neighbours, India and Nepal share a unique relationship of friendship and cooperation characterised by open borders and deep rooted people-to-people contacts of kinship and culture," he pointed out.
Suggesting a five-point formulae for Nepal's speedy development and prosperity, Kalam who was accorded an endearing welcome here, said the Himalayan nation should focus on developing food processing, tourism and information technology.
To increase Nepal's per capita income from present USD 380 to USD 2,000 as envisaged by the government, Nepal should focus on large scale herb plantation for producing drug, promoting eco-tourism and mountain tourism, large-scale commissioning of
hydropower plants, development of software and information technology and crating PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural
Areas) complexes in its 3,000 villages.
The former President who visited various Buddhist shrines in Nepal and India for his religious quest concluded that inner peace, tranquility, tolerance, a sense of giving, forgiveness, suppression of ego are the main elements that result in personal happiness, wellbeing and world peace.
Former Prime Ministers Sher Bahadur Deuba and Surya Bahadur Thapa, CPN-UML's former general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal, Nepali Congress general secretary Bimalendra Nidhi, Maoist central leader Barsha Man Pun and Indian Ambassador to Nepal Rakesh Sood were present at the event.
Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav hosted a dinner in Kalam's honour on Monday night. The former Indian president also called on President Ram Baran Yadav on Tuesday morning and addressed the 14th convocation function of the Kathmandu University in Dhulikhel.
On the occasion, he said, "Youths can turn impossible into possible" and that Nepalese students can make significant contributions towards bringing stability and lasting peace in the country.
Some 1378 graduates took part in the convocation ceremony in which Prime Minister Prachanda, the chancellor of the university, was also present.
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