Thapa announces candidacy for President

Patron of the Non-Resident Nepalese Association (NRNA), Ram Pratap Thapa, has announced his candidacy for the post of President of the NRNA International Coordination Council.

In a statement, Thapa, who lives in Cologne, Germany, said the NRN movement had come at an important crossroad and that he had decided to contest for NRNA presidency in order to give it a new direction in its second decade.

The Association was established in 2003 in Kathmandu with a view to unite Nepalese diaspora living around the world.

In his statement, Thapa said registration of NRNA in Nepal as a socio-cultural non-profit organization and realising the mantra of “Once a Nepali Always a Nepali” by pushing the agenda of retention of Nepali citizenship would be his top agenda.

He said if elected for the 2013-15 term, he would work towards managing the large scale collective investment that the current leadership has so well mobilized by further rallying investments from across Nepali diaspora including ex-Gurkhas and creating significant projects in finance, education and technology transfer areas in Nepal.

He said he would also work towards helping Nepali diaspora deal with the often challenging situation in many countries, such as in the Gulf countries and Malaysia and formulate targeted programmes to promote participation of women and youth in the NRNA movement. “There is a need to encourage Nepalese diaspora to impart Nepali culture and values to their children by organising Nepali language classes, among others,” he said.

Honorary consul of Nepal for three states of Germany, Thapa is also chairman of the German Nepal Friendship Association.

Sixth global conference of the NRNA in Kathmandu in October this year will choose a new leadership of the Association. Nepalnews.com

Source: www.nepalnews.com