MoFA asked to monitor Nepali missions abroad

Kathmandu, July 27: International Relations and Labour Committee of the Legislature-Parliament Thursday directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) to monitor the Nepali embassies, ambassadors and missions abroad to ensure they were working as per the guidelines and in the national interest.

Committee chairman Juth Bahadur Khadgi (JB Tuhure) also asked the government to organise a ‘Foreign Employment Summit’ to find solutions to the problems of Nepali workers in the foreign land.

“This committee directs the government and the Ministry of Labour and Employment (MoLE) to invite all embassies and missions as well as Gulf countries’ representatives and hold an employment conference,” read the decision of the committee.

Speaking at the meeting of the committee, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara said that the MoFA was mulling the summit so that the government could find ways to resolve the issues of the Nepali labourers in the Gulf countries and Malaysia at the earliest.

“We are planning to hold the conference of Nepali diplomatic missions and labour attaches. In addition to it, the MoFA is in favour of developing a coordination mechanism among all Nepali missions in the Gulf,” he said.

The committee directed the MoLE, MoFA, Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) and Ministry of Finance (MoH) to develop integrated software that allows the concerned ministries to feed and acquire data when necessary.

“The government should keep the details of Nepali workers working in the Gulf and other countries,” said Khadgi.

The house panel asked the MoHA to initiate a study in order to make Nepal a party of UN Protocol.

The protocol, a supplement of the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, supports the country to prevent, supress and punish trafficking in persons especially women and children.

The Protocol was adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession on November 15, 2000 but Nepal has not signed it yet.

The committee also asked the government to allow Nepali workers go to only to those countries with whom Nepal had signed bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

Concerned ministries expressed commitment to increase cooperation and coordination among them.

DPM Mahara said that a joint mechanism of MoFA, MoHA, MoLE and MoF was created and it would resolve the issues through dialogue.

Home Minister Janardan Sharma Pravakar and Minister for Labour and Employment Farmullah Mansoor were also present in the meeting.

Foreign secretary Shankar Das Bairagi pointed towards the necessity for the amendment of the Labour Act.

Bid to include Bhimeshwor temple in World Heritage Sites

Dolakha, July 26: The Bhimeshwor Temple Management Committee (BTMC), in collaboration with the newly elected representatives, is initiating a process to include the temple in the UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites.

“The process started a couple of years ago. The Temple Management Committee had submitted an application to the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) about four years ago, and mapping of the temple was done before the Gorkha Earthquake 2015,” said Bharat Shrestha, chairman of the BTMC.

Although many of the locals complained that even though the temple was older than many temples in the Kathmandu Valley, it received little government’s attention.

But, Shrestha said that the MoCTCA and Department of Archaeology (DoA) had also tried to make it a part of World Heritage Sites.

Mapping of the temple was completed more than two years ago with government support of Rs. 400,000.  

“To list the temple in the UNESCO list, recommendation from the national agency, DoA, is needed. But, the new structure, constructed by the DoA itself, is against the UNESCO standards,” he said.

Historically, the temple was roofless. The DoA had constructed additional walls around the ancient stone wall and roof.

Director general of the DoA Bhesh Narayan Dahal said that the process was initiated to list the entire Dolakha Bazaar in the Heritage Sites, not only the temple.

He said that the department was very positive about restarting the process and urged the representatives, civil society and locals to create solidarity for the same.

“At first, the municipality should hold a meeting with the local stakeholders and come to us. We need commitment from the community, political parties and other concerned people. The DoA is ready to work jointly in this regard,” he said.

According to Dahal, in order to list the Dolakha Bazaar in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the entire community should follow the norms, such preserving the traditional Newari structure of houses, culture, food and religious practices.

Ward chairman of Bhimeshwor Municipality – 2, where the temple is located, Biraj Man Shrestha, stated that the municipality would support the BTMC for conducting satellite mapping of the temple.

“Newly elected representatives are positive about expediting the process to include the temple in the World Heritage Sites. It is one of the major tourist attractions in the country, so we need to protect it, and promote it in the international markets,” he said.

The temple has simple triangular stone as the statute of Bhim, a mythical character from the Mahabharata epic and one of the Pandava brothers is famous as the wish-fulfilling god.

The temple is said to be built during the Lichchhavi era, and legend has it that if the statute sweats, it augurs bad in the country. 

It has many other deities and temples, such as Shiva, Kalinchowk, Bhairava, Ganesh and goddesses around the main temple which offer additional attraction.

The temple survived the devastating earthquake, most of the structures are intact although most of the other temples and historical heritages were damaged.

As much as 5,000 devotees and tourists visit the temple. Local entrepreneur Bharat Pradhan said that the temple was facing difficulties in managing the expenses needed for the renovation and construction of necessary structures like waiting room, water facilities.

The temple earns about Rs. 3 million annually.

 Bharat said that the money offered by the visitors was spent in the payment of the salaries to the priest, 7 staff and day to day management.

The temple has thousands of ropanis land in Bhedku VDC, but it is unable to receive any income from the land. Biraj said that the office of Ward No 2 would start the process to map the land to bring it into the temple’s management.

There are four heritage sites in Nepal – Sagarmatha National Park and Chitwan National Park, Kathmandu Valley and Lumbini.

According to Dahal, other 15 sites are considered as the prospective World Heritage sites.

FNCCI to hold Nepal-India Investment Summit

Kathmandu, July 23: The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) Sunday announced that it would organise ‘Nepal India Investment Summit’ in September this year.

Speaking at a programme organised to inform the achievements of the present leadership of the FNCCI in the first 100 days after assuming the post, president Bhawani Rana said that the business body was organising the summit in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) with an aim of making economic diplomacy and international relations result-oriented.

“In addition to it, Nepal-India Investment and Trade Promotion Unit will be established in Kathmandu with the support from the Indian Embassy here, and Cross-border Trade and Tourism Expo will be organised in West Bengal in collaboration with the government there,” she said.

According to her, a plan to organise programme to enhance inclusion of female in business and their capacity is in the pipeline.

Likewise, the FNCCI is forming a policy advisory group to recommend the government on economic policies.

“On behalf of the leadership of the FNCCI, I commit to work to expand the economic diplomacy and international relations, enhance the capacity of the private sector and service expansion, reform the policies and institutional development of the chamber,” she said.

She said that the business body had new leadership had been elected in all provinces except one.

On the occasion, the FNCCI has launched a toll free helpline service for its editors.

According to her, in the past 100 days, the FNCCI has worked for the policy advocacy in favour of the private sector, provided its suggestions for budget and monetary policy of the current fiscal year, and participated in World Reconstruction Summit in Brussels, International Labour Organisation’s assembly and other international forums.

'Nepal should adopt the Madrid Protocol'

Kathmandu, July 22: Director general of the Department of Industry Shankar Aryal said that Nepal need to adopt the Madrid Protocol – a one step solution for registering and managing trademarks worldwide – at the earliest.

The Madrid System is a one stop solution for registering and managing marks worldwide. It allows filing one application, in one language, and pay one set of feed to protect the trademark in the territories of up to 98 member countries, says the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

“We should have adopted it earlier since it facilitates the foreign investors to check the situation of the trademarks that they own. But we are initiating the process in the near future,” he said speaking to The Rising Nepal at the ‘Regional Trademark training programme’.

According to him, the Department is updating its infrastructure for the IT automation which will also facilitates in implementing the Madrid System.

Speaking at the training, the experts said that in order to attract the foreign investors Nepal should facilitate them with simplified trademark registering process through the Madrid Protocol.

“Any investors coming to Nepal wants to protect his trademarks here, and through the protocol, it is easier to check the information about it, including the registration process,” said Nancy Omelko, attorney-advisor at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) under the Office of Policy and International Affairs in the US.

She said that the USPTO had planned to support the stakeholders in Nepal in their capacity building.

“The Government of Nepal and other stakeholders wanted us to come here to enhance the capacity of various organisations and professionals,” she said.

Attiya Malik, another attorney-advisor of the USPTO said that the Madrid Protocol was a mechanism for taking the trademark applications to the right office.

However, to implement the Madrid System, the country needs sophisticated IT system which Nepal should develop.

“More than 99 per cent of the work related to trademark and patent registration is electronic in the US, and 65 per cent work is handled by the system without any human interference,” said Malik.

Filmmaker and Executive Committee member of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) Akash Adhikari said that as such integrated system of trademark registration facilitate the investors, Nepal should not delay to adopt it.

The training programme was organised by the USPTO.  

More than 35 prticipants from various organisations like the Department of Industry, FNCCI, line ministries, film industry, copyright office and others had attended the two day training.

Responsible Business Summit on Aug 3-4

Kathmandu, July 20: The National Business Initiative (NBI) is organising the second Responsible Business Summit on August 3 and 4 in Kathmandu, with an aim of promoting Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and good business practices in Nepal.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba will inaugurate the summit amidst a plenary of nearly 500 top executives, business people and activists engaged in responsible business, said Padma Jyoti, president of NBI.

“The 2-day summit will cover 16 different sessions, and various corporate groups, small and medium enterprises, banks, government agencies, development partners and other stakeholders will discuss about the scope, nature, benefits and challenges of business responsibility in Nepal,” said Jyoti at a press conference organized to inform about the summit.

The summit is also expected to motivate and facilitate businesses to implement the new CSR laws of Nepal.

According to the organisers, the conference will deliberate on ‘Internal business practices’ to improve management system, ‘Stakeholder engagement’ to manage needs of close stakeholders of business, ‘Fostering partnership’ to improve business improvement, and ‘Academia and regulation’ to shape the future agenda of responsible business in Nepal.

“Each session will have one prominent international speaker and two national speakers of which at least one will represent the case of Nepali companies,” said Jyoti.

Some of the key international dignitaries addressing the sessions include managing director of Bhutan Power Corporation Gem Tshering, head of the Asia and the Oceania Region of United Nations Global Compact Meng Liu, head of Institutional Partnerships and Corporate Communications of Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs AtulDevSarmah, chief executive officer of SOL Analytics and former head of marketing of Nokia Corporations in the Middle East Sudhir Nair, vice-president of National University of Singapore SeeramRamakrishnan, and former president or World University Association Prof. Dr. Dzul.

Similarly, the domestic speakers include representatives from corporates such as Jyoti Group, Vaidya Organization, Panchakanya Group, Golchha Organization, FNCCI and many other innovative enterprises including small and medium businesses.

Likewise, government speakers include representatives from Ministry of Industry, Nepal Rashtra Bank, Election Commission of Nepal, Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority and Nepal Electricity Authority whereas civil society representatives come from labor union, environmental activists, youth activists and anti-corruption activists.

Tribhuwan University and Kathmandu University have partnered in organizing the summit. 

Top five nominees of Crity Awards announced

Kathmandu, July 19: The Advertising Association of Nepal (AAN) Wednesday announced the top five nominees of 25 different categories of the Crity Awards.

President of AAN Santos Shresthasaid that 27 advertising agencies had registered 252 advertisements for those categories.

The ninth edition of the advertising awards is slated for the first week of September this year.

Chairman of the Jury Committee Prof. Dr.Bijay KC, dean at the South Asian Institute of Management and Prof. Dr.Bhoj Raj Aryal, head of Central Department of Management at the Tribhuvan University, BinodDhakal, president of CAN Federation and other experts and professionals announced the name of the nominees of different categories.

The awards categories include television commercials (TVCs), radio, print, digital, outdoor, mobile advertising, model and sectoral such as education, infrastructure, automobile and FMCG.

Top five nominees for the best print advertisement are Ace Institute of Management, Arghakhanchi Cement, Republica, Ncell – Night Call and TVS Motor Company created by Business Advantage, Prisma, Creo Communication, Max L’agence and ANS Creation respectively.

Similarly, Real Burst Guava and Real School of Nepal from Outreach Nepal, Kantipur and Shivam Cement from Avani Advertising, and Bonus Noodles from Welcome Advertising and Marketing are fighting for the best radio advertisement.

Likewise, nominees of the best TVC are Lifebuoy and Ncell – Paisa Back from Business Advantage, Coca-Cola from Prisma, Pashupati Paints from V-chitra and Bonus Noodles Welcome Advertising and Marketing.

According to AAN, Real Burst, Lifebuoy, Ncell – Paisa Back, Jagadamba Steel and Bonus Noodles are the nominees for the best TVC director award, and Shikhar Shoes, Ambe Steels and HC3 – Family Planning from Outreach, Mangalam Water Tank from Avani and Nepal FeriUthneChha by Prisma are fighting for the best print copywriter.

Other categories of the awards are best art director, best sound (radio), best animation (TVC), best camera work, best editing (TVC), best photographer, best face of male and female, best digital promotion, best event, best outdoor and best integrated ad campaign.

In the same way, the sectorial categories are telecom and mobile, educational, consumer electronics/home appliance, financial sector, FMCG, automobile, infrastructure and construction and social communication.

Speaking at the Announcement of Top 5 Nominee programme, past president of AAN Bhaskar Raj Rajkarnikarsaid that it was unfortunate that the government backtracked from implementing clean feed.

“We have been demanding to apply clean feed policy for a decade. But we failed to reap its benefits.

We must settle the conflict among the advertising agencies, advertisers and broadcasters and implement clean feed as soon as possible,” he said.