"We are proud that the country has become the first least developed country to become a member of the global trade regime by virtue of negotiations-based accession," said Hari Bahadur Basnet, Minister for Industry Commerce and Supplies.

Speaking at a program organized to mark the WTO Accession Day, he however, noted that the country now has got to deal with number of challenges that has come subsequent to the membership.

"Our major challenge is to translate trade opportunities into economic and social transformation; and to do so it requires a range of activities from overcoming supply side constraints to implementation of WTO agreements," he said.

Stating that the government alone has no capacity to divert its resources in capacity-building, he requested all bilateral and multilateral donors to provide technical assistance (TA) in areas as identified and recommended by the Trade Competitiveness Study of the World Bank.

Dinesh Chandra Pyakuryal, Secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (MoICS) said that the WTO membership is going to be an opportunity for Nepal to achieve the development objectives to reduce the poverty. "It will increase trade and investment, which helps generate employment by mainstreaming the trade in poverty reduction program," he said.

However, he cautioned that the country has to seriously deal with the supply side constraints. It is also important to see that entrepreneurship be enhanced among local players to meet the international requirements, he added.

Prachanda Man Shrestha, Chief of the WTO Cell at MoICS, who led Nepal’s negotiations to WTO accession, said that the tough days of negotiation has now become a history and the country has a tough job to comply with WTO agreements. "It has also follow the legislative action plan and enhance capacity to take advantages offered by the WTO," he said.

In the same token, Bimal Koirala, Chief Secretary said that the country should focus on developing products and services in which it has competitive advantages and develop capacity to maximize the benefits of the membership. "For this, we should also focus on capacity-building of the stakeholders," he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Chandi Raj Dhakal, First Vice President of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FNCCI) asked the government to create conducive-environment wherein the local businessmen can work competently.

"The real challenge for the business community is to turn the opportunities coming out of the WTO into real gains," he said.

Rajendra Khetan of CNI viewed that the real challenges for the business community is coming in the days ahead when it needs to compete with the global players. "We need to work on areas of comparative advantages and enhance competitiveness to sustain the challenge," he stated.

Surendra Bir Malakar, Vice President of Nepal Chamber of Commerce said that Nepal should identify the sector of comparative and competitive sectors to turn the WTO-challenge into opportunities.

"The government, creating trade-friendly environment should attract the foreign direct investment with special aim of curbing the poverty of the nation," said Malakar.