Minister Bhandari: Handicraft business for import reduction 

Kathmandu: Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies, Damodar Bhandari, has recognized the role of handicrafts business in reducing the country’s imports.

Addressing an interaction organized by the Federation of Handicraft Associations of Nepal on Friday, the Minister said the handicraft business itself carries a great potential for contributing to the discouragement of imports, for which the use of capital and technology is essential.

As Minister Bhandari said, the handicraft business is not just a trade, but a visibility of the country’s culture and heritage. It has also a role in employment creation.

On the occasion, Minister Bhandari shared about the government’s preparations for implementing the draft of the Handicrafts Development Policy submitted by the Federation.

According to him, the government is making efforts to establish the SAARC Handicrafts Design Centre in Nepal on the public-private partnership model in a bid to provide necessary guidelines and services to handicraft entrepreneurs in an integrated way.

Such services include design, development, quality certification, marketing and entrepreneurship schemes, and so on. He shared that a building for the proposed SAARC Handicrafts Design Centre has been readied at Tripureshwor and the government is preparing to endorse the procedures to operate the facility.

Minister Bhandari pledged that the government would leave no stone unturned to promote handicraft items listed in the Nepal Trade Integration Strategy formulated by the Ministry to promote industry and enterprises properly.

RSS