Nepal Engineers’ Association (NEA) is scheduled to organise a national convention in the Capital on April 11-13. The 14th national convention, which is being conducted under the theme ‘Empowering Engineers for Prosperous Nepal’, is expected to see the presence of around 1,600 delegates.

According to NEA, around 1,500 of the participants are domestic engineers, while around 100 are from abroad.

Papers on political empowering, legal empowering, institutional empowering, managerial empowering, entrepreneurial empowering, social empowering and technical empowering of engineers, including others, will be presented at the convention.

NEA General Secretary Dhruba Raj Thapa said the convention will focus on empowering engineers in different areas including bureaucratic reservation, higher level management and other related issues. “NEA will recommend the government to implement the findings of the national level conference,” said Thapa. He added that the convention will also discuss continuing infrastructure development amid the ongoing political instability.

As per the NEA statistics, around 13,000 engineers are linked with the association. More than 5,000 engineers pass out every year. “Half of the graduates go abroad due to lack of opportunity in the country,” said NEA Vice President Bhagat Man Singh Pradhan.

The convention will also see an international seminar on Regional Cooperation for Energy Security. Engineers from the South Asian Engineers’ Association will make their presentations in the seminar, said NEA.

source: The Kathmandu Post(2011),"Engineers' convention from April 11", The Kathmandu Post,27 March 2011