The Nepal-India Economic Conference has started in New Delhi, the capital of India. The conference was jointly organized by Nepal Contemporary Studies Center under Kathmandu University and India's Foundation for Economic Growth and Welfare (Agro Foundation) on Friday.

In the conference, experts emphasized that Nepal-India relations should be strengthened not only economically but also socially and culturally.

They said that Nepal-India relations should be developed as an exemplary concept for regional cooperation in South Asia. They emphasized that the economic, social and cultural relations between the two countries should be further strengthened as the India-Nepal Economic Conference provided an opportunity to deepen the cooperation between the two countries. Experts have pointed out that there is a need for both sides to take concrete steps to remove trade imbalances and structural barriers between the two countries.

Foreign Minister Arju Rana has urged Indian investors to expand investment in Nepal. Speaking as a keynote speaker at the conference, she recalled that India has the largest number of foreign direct investments (FDI) in Nepal and requested for more investment expansion.

Director of Agro Foundation of India Dr. Ashok Visandas said that this conference is important to promote regional unity and cooperation and not limited to educational achievements. He claims that the role of this conference will be to provide suggestions on cooperation at the policy level for sustainable and inclusive development. He expected to draw important conclusions about the possibilities of cooperation in the fields of bilateral investment, infrastructure construction, trade, tourism and others. He also highlighted the positive aspects that Nepal can learn from India's economic liberalization.

Egro's chief executive Dr. Charan Singh also mentioned that the economic conference between the two countries was organized for the first time and said that priority should be given to the practice of cooperation, learning and teaching with the neighboring countries. He believes that this conference can play an important role in cooperation in the field of educational research.

Kathmandu University Registrar Dr. Achyut Wagle clarified that this conference was organized to identify the possibilities of educational and regional cooperation between Nepal and India. Explaining this conference as an example of 'Track to Diplomacy', he expressed the view that studies and data from the academic field can be used to contribute to policy cooperation. Pointing out the imbalance of foreign trade between Nepal and India, he presented the fact that the remittances imported by India from Nepal are 40 percent more than the remittances imported by Nepal from India.