Nepal's Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Saturday afternoon left for a week-long visit to Norway and Finland.

The PM left for Norway at 5 pm by a special flight leading a 19-member government delegation. He is scheduled to come back home on April 4.

PM Dahal is scheduled to meet his counterparts, government officials and business leaders in Norway and Finland. An agreement on cooperation is expected to be signed between Norway and Nepal during the visit.

According to the Prime Minister's Office, the prime minister will leave for Finland on April 1 after four-day visit in the Norway.

Talking to journalists, Prime Minister Dahal said he will help garner support from these two countries for hydropower and wind energy development in Nepal during the visit.

Nepal, which is considered as the second richest country after Brazil in terms of water resource, is currently facing 16-hour a day load shedding. The government is looking for alternative sources for generating electricity to meet its immediate needs in the wake of criticism from various quarters including from industrialists.

Representatives of business community including Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FNCCI) President
Kush Kumar Joshi, President of Federation of Non Resident Nepalis (NRN) Upendra Mahato, industrialist Chandi Raj Dhakal and water resource expert Gyanendra Lal Pradhan in the PM's delegation.

Chief Secretary Dr Bhoj Raj Ghimire, PM’s advisors Hira Bahadur Thapa and Om Sharma, Chief of Protocol Arun Dhital, joint secretary at the foreign ministry Pradhyumna Bikram Shah, PM Dahal’s spouse Seeta Poudel and son Prakash Poudel are among those in the delegation.

Dahal is the Chairman of Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), that waged decade-long armed insurgency since 1996 in the Himalayan nation sandwiched between two giant neighbors, Indian and China. The party came into mainstream politics by forging agreement with the mainstream Seven Party Alliance after the success of democratic uprisings in April, 2006.

Some 13,000 people, majority of them civilians, were killed and billions-worth properties were destroyed in course of the armed insurgency. The United States still keeps the Maoist party in terrorist list.

This is the third foreign trip of Prime Minister Dahal after he was elected as the head of the government on August 15. He has already visited northern neighbor China and southern neighbor India after he assumed the top post of chief executive in the country.
The visit of Prime Minister Dahal was initially scheduled for January 17. He, however, had to shelve his visit due to new political development in Nepal.

- Asian Tribune -