IFMGA General Assembly kicked off in Kathmandu on Tuesday.

IFMGA General Assembly kicked off in Kathmandu on Tuesday

IFMGA General Assembly –an international association of mountain guides kicked off in Kathmandu on Tuesday, November 28, 2017.

Participating countries in IFMGA General Assembly were Austria, Bolivia, Canada, Czech Republic, Ecuador, France, Georgia, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovakia and Spain.

At least 65 applicants from 24 member countries have been attending the assembly, according to Sunar Bahadur Gurung, President of the Nepal National Mountain Guide Association (NNMGA). “Over 100 Asian representatives from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Mongolia, and Pakistan among others also joined the conference as invitees.”

During the workshop, domestic and foreign stakeholders of mountain guiding highlighted the prospects of mountaineering and the need for mountain guiding in Asian countries, including Nepal. “The main objectives of the conference are to acknowledge and promote mountain guiding and to give maximum visibility to the possibilities and platform that Nepal can afford,” he added.

IFMGA General Assembly. Image Source: The Himalayan Times

IFMGA General Assembly. Image Source: The Himalayan Times

NNMGA has been a member of IFMGA since 2012. It was the first time that the IFMGA general assembly is being held in Nepal. There are 50 IFMGA-accredited Nepali mountain guides in the country while NNMGA has 21 more trained national candidate mountain guides who are working in the field of mountaineering till date.

“The program also highlights the possibilities that Nepal in future can be a platform for providing mountaineering professionalism and Adventure tourism to other Asian countries,” NNMGA’s administrator Sobit Kunwar said.

IFMGA was founded in 1965 by guides from Austria, France, Switzerland, and Italy. IFMGA aims in the regulation of the mountain guide profession on a global scale, support of a standard law and regulation for the mountain guide profession, determination of mandatory international training standards, providing services and assistance for mountain guides.

 

Reference: The Himalayan Times