Kathmandu,
Aug. 13:
Regardless
of various policies and strategies that have been developed to promote and
enhance the export of Nepali goods in the international market, the export of
silver jewellery has been witnessing a downward trend for the past one decade.
Nepal
exported silver jewellery worth Rs. 377 million in 2006/07, but the
international trade of the white metal has gone down to as low as Rs. 135 million
in 2016/17, according to the statistics of the Trade and Export Promotion
Centre (TEPC).
During those
past 10 years, the government developed and implemented at least four trade-
related policies – Trade Policy 2009, Nepal Trade Integration Strategy (NTIS)
2010, Trade Policy 2015 and NTIS 2016 - with the aim of promoting and exporting
Nepali goods.
The
export of silver jewellery reached a ceiling of Rs. 389 million in 2010, and it
never returned to level again. The Trade Policy 2010 gave priority to silver
goods and had provisions for various incentives, tax cuts and promotion.
The
government implemented NTIS 2010, which included silver jewellery as one of the
major exportable products, but in the subsequent year, its exports plunged to
Rs. 227 million went further down to Rs. 194 million in 2012/13.
Similarly,
NTIS put silver jewellery in the prioritised sector and announced programmes
for quality control, research and development, testing facility, technology and
training, supply chain development and sales promotion, said trade expert
Bijendra Man Shakya.
Likewise,
Trade Policy 2015 recognised it as a potential export product but did not
announce a sector-specific programme. But NTIS 2016 excluded silver jewellery
from the priority list.
Silver
goods have a market advantages in the United States and European Union and
other countries as many of them offer duty and quota free entry for Nepali
silver jewellery under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP).
The
export of silver goods has not been faring well as compared to other handicraft
products, such as Pashmina, woollen and paper goods, and other handicraft items,
whose exports grew significantly in the decade that went by.
TEPC
said that the share of silver goods in the total handicraft exports has come
down to 2.02 per cent in 2016/17 from 4.39 per cent in 2013/14.
In
2017, 57 per cent of silver goods were exported to the USA, 14 per cent to
Japan, 6 per cent each to France and Germany, 5 per cent to Switzerland and 12
per cent to other countries.
According
to the silver jewellery entrepreneurs, lack of quality testing lab and skilled
human resources, non-availability of good quality silver, lack of branding
initiatives, and troublesat the customs were the causes behind the ever
decreasing exports.
Shakya
said that the country immediately needed a quality testing lab so that Nepali
silver goods wouldn’t have unwanted and harmful elements such as cadmium and
nickel.
President
of the Federation of Nepali Handicraft Association (FHAN) Dharma Raj Shakya
said that the ‘low volume, high value’ silver goods were facing trouble at the
Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) customs as the entrepreneurs were allowed
to carry the goods only worth US$ 150. They faced trouble in carrying jewellery
in their hand-carriage.
Director
of Nepal Board of Standards and Meteorology Deepak Gyawali said that a committee
has been formed to make suggestions about the standards to be maintained in
silver goods.
The committee will recommend the parameters after discussing with
the silver entrepreneurs and the Gold and Silver Council at the Federation of
Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI).
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