Construction Expo to be held in the capital from 22 November

Kathmandu, Oct. 28:

The Building and Construction Expo 2075 will be organised at the Bhrikutimandap Exhibition Centre from November 22-25.

The exhibition is being organised with the vision of bringing the industry stakeholders and consumers together under one roof and assist them in making informed decision about building and construction works, materials and designs.

“We aim to provide up-to-date information about the building protocols to make our structure resilient to natural disasters and expanding the market for new entrepreneurs,” said Anand Subedi, President of Youth Community for Nepalese Contractors (YCNC), organiser of the event.

According to him, the fair will not be used only for exhibiting products and selling items, but also be used as a platform to assist in addressing the concerns of communities in building and construction. It is a platform to showcase available building materials and construction technologies and create awareness for their suitable and prudent application.

Land and housing, cement, furniture and furnishing, pipe and fittings, electrical and electronics, iron and steel, bricks and marbles, paints, interior designers, roof and flooring, sanitary and tiles, home security system, solar, heavy equipment and prefab companies will participate in the  four-day fair.

It will also feature earthquake resistance home, bank and insurance, vastu and contractors, developers, architect and engineers.

A seminar on the topic will also be organised during the expo, and people will have chance to ask their queries to the experts.

The expo will have 200 stalls, and the organisers have hoped that more than 200,000 visitors will observe the fair. The event is supported by Nepal Engineers’ Association (NEA), Society of Nepalese Architects (SONA), Society of Consulting Architectural and Engineering Firm (SCAEF) and Brandworth Pvt. Ltd.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 28 October 2018. 

Coca-Cola announces expansion of PET bottle recovery project

Kathmandu, Oct. 28:

Coca-Cola Nepal has announced the expansion of its PET bottle recovery project in Nepal.

As part of this initiative, Coca-Cola Foundation and Bottlers Nepal (Terai) Limited will set up a new PET collection centre near the manufacturing plant in Bharatpur of Chitwan district.

The company said that the initiative was launched in Nepal in line with Coca-Cola’s strategic focus on recycling and waste management.

“Coca-Cola plans to invest approximately USD 270,000 in the project to provide momentum to its existing PET waste recovery efforts in Nepal. In partnership with Creasion, the project aims to collaborate with the local municipality, business establishments, citizens and waste pickers to emulate a multi stakeholder approach towards finding a solution to recycle PET waste in Nepal,” it said.

According to John Murphy, President Asia Pacific Region at The Coca-Cola Company, the project is another step towards the Company’s larger strategy to grow with conscience and become a total beverage company that grows the right way.

“We will continue to work with our partners to strengthen our recycling and waste management efforts,” he said.

The company has announced ‘World Without Waste (WWW’ campaign with a global goal to help collect and recycle the equivalent of 100 per cent of its packaging by 2030.

In collaboration with World Wildlife Forum Nepal, Himalayan Climate Initiative and GIZ, the company is actively involved in activities, including raising awareness on recycling and exploring opportunities for a closed loop recycling solution in Nepal.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 29 October 2018. 

Daraz to organise biggest sale day

Kathmandu, Oct. 28:

Online marketplace Daraz is bringing 11.11, the world’s biggest sale day, to Nepal for the first time.

11.11 started in 2009 by Alibaba.com - parent company of Daraz - as the Asia’s answer to ‘Black Friday’ of the west.

“The new campaign is poised to disrupt Nepal’s e-commerce industry. It will bring entire digital ecosystem into play – a combo of artificial intelligence assisted personalisation, entertainment, massive deals and an assortment of millions of products,” said Rajeev Amatya, Managing Director of Daraz Nepal.

The company said that the customers could look forward to fully personalised shopping experience. The day happens on  November 11. 

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 29 October 2018. 

Box-office hits snag during full implementation

Kathmandu, Oct. 27:

Cinema halls have delayed the full implementation of the box-office system that the government brought into practice to avert siphoning off of revenues.

The system was introduced also to promote transparency and support the film producers to secure their investment. 

Following long lobbying and protest by film producers, the government had implemented the system in the cinema-halls of the Kathmandu Valley in the first phase from July 17 this year. It was to be expanded to all cinema halls across the country from November 19.

But citing technological shortage and inability to put in additional costs, cinema halls have been pushing the date of box-office implementation, say the producers.

Nepal Film Association (NFA) has said that the cinema halls outside the Kathmandu Valley will apply the new system from January 15 next year.

Many cinema halls other than the multiplexes have been still using manual ticketing system.

Even after the introduction of the digital box-office system, the ticket sales data was taking an hour to be public. Box-office collects the exact number of tickets sold and the income made. In the absence of such a system, the exhibitors were accused of misappropriating the producers’ share of income.

President of Nepal Film Producers’ Association (NFPA) and cinema director Akash Adhikari said that the tax administration should conduct monitoring of the cinema halls in order to make the new system more effective, and ensure the government gets the revenue and the producers get their share of income.

“At the same time, the cinema halls should be supported with the necessary technology. NFPA is ready to launch an awareness campaign in collaboration with the tax administration, and we are going to have a dialogue for the same, soon,” said Adhikari.

He said that the data should be made available in real time.

Director of Team Quest, a company that operates QFX Cinemas, Nakim Uddin said that the multiplexes had no problem with the adoption of the new system since they had been issuing digital tickets and online services for a long time.

“We have been using e-ticketing from the beginning of the multiplex business. But, in the absence of an expert data management company, there might be some troubles in the system as the software of the cinema exhibition companies varies from company to company,” he said.

According to him, the entrepreneurs had warned the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology about the technological challenges of the box-office system.

He pointed out a need of a dedicated company for data management and coordination.

Mohan Saraf, owner of Bishwa Jyoti Cinema, said that since the expenditure of the cinema hall has increased due to the implementation of the box-office system, the government should support hall owners with relevant technology and software.

He also said that the box-office should be implemented across the country at the earliest.

“Effective networking, new technological set-up and additional cost are the challenges to the cinema exhibitors, mainly smaller film halls outside the valley,” he said.

Saraf also said that there were some weaknesses on the part of cinema halls as well and this will be overcome with better coordination among the government, film producers, Film Development Board and NFA.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 28 October 2018. 

China pledges support for Defense University in Nepal

Kathmandu, Oct. 27: China’s State Councilor and Defense Minister Gen. Wei Fenghe has pledged Chinese support to Nepal in establishing a defense university.

In a bilateral meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Ishwar Pokhrel in Beijing on Saturday, Wei agreed to provide necessary support to Nepal as proposed by Pokharel.

The details of such cooperation would be finalised through mutual consultation between the two countries, Nepali Embassy in Beijing said.

Wei appreciated Nepal’s One-China policy and support on the Tibet issue, and China’s willingness to further strengthen cooperation between the armies of the two neighbours.

DPM Pokhrel mentioned that the exchange of high-level visits between the two countries, including that of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli in June 2018, have contributed in elevating bilateral relations to new heights by helping enhance trust and confidence at highest political level.

He also highlighted the importance of military cooperation in military training, hardware in humanitarian and disaster management, and medical equipment and peace-keeping operations.

The two ministers signed an agreement whereby China will provide an assistance of RMB 150 million to Nepal over a period of five years for humanitarian and disaster relief equipment.

Earlier on Friday, DPM Pokhrel had addressed the plenary session on UN Peacekeeping: Challenges and Cooperation at the 8^th Xiangshan Forum of Defense Ministers in Beijing.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 28 October 2018. 

‘Address deviation in microfinance principles’

Kathmandu, Oct. 27:

Centre for Self-Help Development (CSD) has organised its 27^th Annual General Assembly in Kathmandu.

Chairman of CSD Shankar Man Shrestha, Friday, said that the microfinance had significantly contributed to poverty reduction.

He shared his experiences as one of the pioneers of microfinance movement in the country. CSD is the first non-government organisation in Nepal to get approval to run microfinance programme.

“It has helped in economic and social development, employment generation and entrepreneurship across the country. But there has been some deviation in the microfinance principles in the recent years which must be addressed immediately,” he said.

He urged all the stakeholders to put their joint efforts to develop the sector sustainably.

Khatiwada for applying e-payment system nationwide

Kathmandu, Oct 26: Minister for Finance Dr. Yuba Raj Khatiwada on Friday said that the electronic payment and revenue collection system should be applied at all levels of government.

Launching connectIPS e-Payment System developed by Nepal Clearing House Limited (NCHL) in the capital, he said that the new technology should be simple and accessible so that all the governments, businesses and individuals could benefit from it.

“The new technology should be efficient, immediate and cost-effective while being secure at the same time. Therefore, you need to establish the system first,” he said.

He also said that the government was planning to implement the smart identity card from the beginning of the Fiscal Year 2019/20. “This card will replace all other personal identification documents combined, so preparation should be made to apply e-payment system fully by then,” said Dr. Khatiwada.

The newly launched connectIPS e-Payment System has combined various features of online banking and payment. Its features include mobile wallet top up, online fund transfer, government revenue payment, share broker payment, credit card payment, creditor/biller payment, multiple bank accounts and payment processor.

“It is a convenient, trusted and secure system that will help banks and financial institutions, businesses and individuals,” said Nilesh Man Singh Pradhan, Chief Executive Officer of the NCHL.

connectIPS is a standardised single payments platform that facilitates online payment directly from/to the bank account of the customers.

The system was initially soft launched by piloting the online government revenue collection payments and online fund transfer.

“The service now can be availed by the customers of the member Banks and Financial Institutions (BFIs) from www.connectips.com for the enrollment where they have to link their bank account(s) with one-time verification from their respective bank(s) after which they can use the system for the services including online fund transfer, government revenue payments and creditor payments,” said Pradhan.

The system has now been extended with the new services such as credit card bill payments, mobile wallet top-up and share brokers payments through both online (web) version and mobile application.

Per transaction limit for online payment is Rs. 100,000 and up to Rs. 5,000 through mobile application.

According to Pradhan, the connectIPS e-Payment system has already been subscribed by 44 banks and financial institutions among which 32 are now in operations and the company is still in the process of adding more banks within its network.

And with an objective to establish connectIPS as a single payments platform, it has now extended the payments infrastructure access to the Payment Service Providers (PSPs) as well.

Governor of the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) Dr. Chiranjibi Nepal asked all the BFIs to use online banking and electronic transaction.

“Without promoting electronic payment system, BFIs and businesses will not prosper in the days to come. To make it even more effective, we are holding dialogues with the telecom companies,” he said.

He also said that the NCHL should run an awareness campaign to educate people and companies about the product.

“With the complete operation of connectIPS with NCHL-IPS system, the company believes that it will support in strengthening the financial market infrastructure for payment systems in Nepal and will facilitate for processing of expenses and revenue of the Government of Nepal,” said Jhalak Sharma Acharya, Chairman of the company.

NCHL is a company promoted by Nepal Rastra Bank and BFIs.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 27 October 2018. 

IT entrepreneurs urge the govt to support them

Kathmandu, Oct. 26: Young IT entrepreneurs have urged the government to give priority to the information and communication technology (ICT) sector and create a mechanism to support IT start-ups in the country and attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the business.

Bishwas Dhakal, president of F1 Soft International that operates popular online payment e-Sewa, said that the country should create some case studies in order to attract FDI in the sector.

He also pointed the need for creatinge an international network and linkage in order to attract FDI.

Mahabir Pun, Social Entrepreneur and founder of Nepal wireless Networking Project, urged the government to create a mechanism to support the young IT entrepreneurs, and other start-ups.

John Snowden, General Manager of Cloud Factory, said that the IT sector in Nepal did not have human resource shortage, but the government needed to simplify the visa process to attract more investors.

Richan Shrestha, Senior Vice-President of Leapfrog Technology, said that the developed countries like Japan and the United States were facing human resource shortage in the IT sector and they were visiting Nepal in search of forging partnerships.

“They are watching us, so the government should recognise and facilitate this industry,” he said.

Upendra Pradhan, General Manager of Verisk Nepal, said the cost of resource in Nepal is cheaper by almost 33 per cent as compared to India.

Likewise, Sixit Bhatta, Chief Executive Officer of Tootle, said that the government should change the mindset and start supporting the IT industry than other large industries.

They made the comments at an interaction organised by the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry on Friday in the Capital. 

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 27 October 2018. 

 

Mayors in the Valley vow to improve air quality

Lalitpur, Oct. 25: Mayors of the18 municipalities of the Kathmandu Valley have expressed solidarity to fight against the menace of growing air pollution.

Stating that the individual efforts of any municipality would be insufficient to resolve the long standing problem, they expressed commitment to making the valley a livable place.

“We have long been waiting for the support from the central government, but there has been very little progress in mitigating the problem of pollution. So, we should initiate programmes to fight with the problem,” they said at the Mayors’ Summit on Air Pollution on Thursday.

They also said that they did not want to waste the remaining four years of their tenure as the mayors of the municipalities.

Mayor of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) Bidya Sundar Shakya said that collaboration should be forged among the cities in the valley as well as with the concerned government agencies to manage the garbage and address the problem of air pollution.

“There is confusion as the government policies are not clear. First of all we need better policies in place,” he said.

Mayor of the Lalitpur Metropolitan City (LMC) Chiri Babu Maharjan termed the summit as the beginning of a good initiative.

“The environment was in bad condition since long, but we have become the target of criticism as we are the elected ones. Therefore, remedies should be found at the earliest,” he said.

Mayor of the Madhyapur Thimi Municipality Madan Sundar Shrestha said a forum of the valley’s municipalities was created last week which would be instrumental in forging collaborations among them.

The mayors also demanded technology and funding from the central government to fight pollution.

Scientist at the International Centre for the Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) Dr. Arnico Kumar Pandey said that tailpipe exhaust, road dust, burning of garbage and agricultural residue and brick kilns were the major air pollutants in the valley.

In addition to it, polluted air from the neighbouring Indian states also comes to the valley.

“Every year 9,000 people die due to diseases caused by external air pollution and 22,000 die from internal air pollution,” he said.

Mexican Ambassador to Nepal Melba Pria said that many little steps were needed to combat the existing air pollution in the valley.

She said that the capital of her country, Mexico City, made a significant progress in terms of reducing air pollution by implementing various policies in two decades.

“The World Health Organisation (WHO)’s report on 1992 said that Mexico City had only 8 days of good air in a year which increased to 248 days in 2012 days,” she said.

Mexico City was termed as the worst city in terms of air quality in 1990 but in 2013 it was awarded as one of the best 40 cities in the world.

Pria suggested creating Bus Rapid Transit system, working on metro system, coordinating with the government and private agencies and generating awareness among people to address the problem of air pollution.

“You can’t have a large number of people and industry at the same place,” she said.

Mexico City is just like a bowl as the Kathmandu Valley but has 72 municipalities within it.

Executive Director of Clean Energy Nepal (CEN) Bhushan Tuladhar urged the government to give priority to the pedestrians while developing road infrastructure in the cities.

The programme was jointly organised by the KMC, LMC, CEN and ICIMOD.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 26 October 2018. 

Senior citizens felicitated

Kathmandu, Oct. 25: Jagdol Resident Group has felicitated 20 senior citizens of Gokarneshwor and Budhanilakantha municipalities on the occasion of Bada Dashain, the largest festival of Nepali people.

Centenarian Cultural Expert Satya Mohan Joshi felicitated them and said that to live to celebrate the old age was God’s blessing.

He suggested the senior citizens not to worry about their life and day to day affairs but to involve in spiritual thinking.

He urged the local and central governments to develop the Yagyadol as the religious tourism place.

The location lies between the Gokarneshwor Temple and Budhanilakantha Temple and is believed to be the place where Lanka King Ravana performed the religious rituals.

Mayors of Gokarneshwor and Budhanilakantha municipalities Santosh Chalise and Uddab Prasad Kharel, and chairman of Jana Jagriti School Management Committee and Felicitation Programme Coordinatior Trilochan Poudyal honoured Joshi.

Chalise said that his municipality had allocated Rs. 10 million to develop Jagdol-Tarebhir-Sundarijal hiking and cycling route, and dialogue was underway with the officials of Budhanilakantha municipality to connect the route with the latter.

Kharel said that both the municipalities would coordinate in developing and promoting religious tourism.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 26 October 2018. 

Biotech MNC Alltech enters Nepali market

Kathmandu, Oct. 25:

Alltech Biotechnology Pvt. Ltd., a United States-based multinational company, has officially entered Nepal with the inaugural of its Sales and Support Office in Lalitpur on Thursday.

It has made entry to the Nepali market to offer modern products required for the animal feed manufacturers.

“We decided to inaugurate an Alltech regional office in the Kathmandu Valley, to best serve our customers. Milk and meat are always in demand, and we expect this demand will continue to grow in the future. Animal feed manufacturers are our business partners,” said Dr. Mark Lyons, Chief Executive Officer and President of the company.

He said that as the industry was growing in Nepal, the company wanted to start the business close to customers with an aim of providing better service.

Alltech witnessed a 60 per cent business growth in Nepal last year.

“The growth of feed market here is quite significant, and we are the first animal health company to enter into the market,” said Dr. Lyons.

He said that they would consider about technology transfer in the future and next step of the company would be having local production and using local resources.

The solution provider for the sustainable nutrition of plants, animals and people is one of the largest companies in the agriculture sector and operates in more than 120 countries.

It has been operating in Nepal for 15 years.

“Kathmandu was a sensible choice for us and for our clients. Our main goal is to ensure that our existing clients get the timely service and support they need,” said Dr. Aman Sayed, Managing Director of India and Regional Director of South Asia.

The company was founded by Irish entrepreneur and scientist Dr. Pearse Lyons in 1980.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 26 October 2018. 

NTA piles pressure on govt to resolve VAT issue immediately

Kathmandu, Oct. 24: Nepal Textile Association (NTA) has warned the government that they would shut all the textile industries across the country from November 1 if their demand for the adjustment of the Value Added Tax (VAT) was not addressed immediately.

A meeting of the textile producers on Wednesday decided to shut about 200 industries in case their demands were not met by the end of October. The NTA has sent its decision to the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply (MoICS), Ministry of Finance (MoF), Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security (MoLESS), and business associations such as Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry and Confederation of Nepalese Industries.

If the industries are shut, more than Rs. 20 billion investment in the spinning mills and Rs. 7 billion in the textile sector, and 250,000 employees will be affected.

"We have urged the government to reconsider its decision to annul the VAT refund facility, which was made through the budget of this fiscal year," Shailendra Lal Pradhan, President of NTA, said.

Textile entrepreneurs had been expressing their discontent with the government regarding the removal of VAT refund since the announcement of the budget of this fiscal on May 29.

“But the government has turned deaf ears to our genuine demands. Due to the bad decision of the government the textile mills are forced to cut their production by almost 50 per cent since the production cost went up suddenly,” said Pradhan.

Due to the reduced production, the industries missed the marketing opportunity during the largest festive season. According to the entrepreneurs, they have lost almost 40 per cent business opportunity.

They accused the government of being indifferent towards the entrepreneurs’ demand pushing the industries towards their death.

“The industries were getting 70 per cent VAT refund, and removal of this facility has increased the textile production cost by almost 9 per cent,” Pradhan said.

According to him, the government was getting 30 per cent of the VAT anyway. Apart from that, raw materials producers and forward industries like garments in the value chain have also been contributing to the revenue.

India has imposed only 5 per cent VAT on textile.

Textile maladies in Nepal do not end up there. About 80 per cent, about 800 million metres of cloth is imported to Nepal illegally from China and India.

A recent study of the NTA showed that Nepal needs 1 billion metres of cloth for body wear and other commercial products like curtains, bags and cushions.

Of the total cloth requirement, about 70 million metres are produced in the country and about 130 million metres are imported legally.

“If the government didn’t adjust the tax rates, there is no chance for us to compete with the illegally imported clothes. If there are difficulties to address the tax adjustment demand, equal amount of grant should be provided to the industries through other channels,” demanded the NTA.

Pradhan said that the government should establish a dedicated textile department to promote this labour intensive sector and generate reliable database required to create development strategy.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 25 October 2018. 

Govt’s capital spending shows improvement

Kathmandu, Oct 23: Government’s capital expenditure for October has significantly improved, according to the daily budgetary situation report of the Financial Comptroller General Office (FCGO).

The development expenditure witnessed a momentous growth this month and reached 7.20 per cent on October 22 from 2.61 per cent on September 29.

According to the treasury operation agency under the Ministry of Finance (MoF), the development expenditure was just 2.07 per cent on September 19. FCGO is responsible for overseeing all government expenditures against budget and tracking revenue collection.

It said that the sudden increment in the expenditure was the ‘Dashain effect’ as the government paid the money to the contractors.

Spokesperson of the FCGO Jagannath Devkota said that it was a regular phenomenon, and capital expenditure witnessed a sudden jump during Dashain every year.

However, the MoF maintained that the government’s expenditure capacity had also improved.

“Dashain is not the onlyreason for the increment in capital expenditure. Work at development projects is gradually picking speed. First two months of the fiscal year were consumed in preparatory works and the capital expenditure will increase in the next months,” said Sishir Kumar Dhungana, Revenue Secretary at the MoF.

According to him, a huge amount of grant money sent to the local and provincial governments is counted as recurrent expenditure but a significant part of it is used for developmental projects.

It means that the actual capital expenditure could be higher than 7.20 per cent as reported.

In addition to this, there is no proper reporting system for the newly formed local governments, which makes it difficult to track the exact expenditure made at the local units.

“The Treasury Single Account (TSA), a system built to report and track the budgetary activities of the government, is being implemented only to the provincial level, and the local governments have no reporting system,” said Dhungana.

He said that the government was improving the monitoring system with the introduction of digital technology for the real time monitoring and assessment of the development performance.

The MoF is also mulling to enhance the capacity of the governments at all levels regarding expenditure framework development and expenditure capacity improvement.

The FCGO said that the total budget expenditure till Monday was 15.20 per cent with recurrent expenditure 20.66 per cent and financing 1.67 per cent.

Similarly, the government collected Rs. 231.85 billion revenue, which is about 24.52 per cent of the annual target for the FY 2018/19.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 24 October 2018. 

Yadav urges WTO for technical support

Kathmandu, Oct. 23: Matrika Prasad Yadav, Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies held a meeting with Director General (DG) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Roberto Azevedo on Monday at the latter’s office.

A number of trade related issues ranges from challenges of multilateral trading system, state of play in trade negotiations at the WTO and the issues and concerns of LDC in general, and Nepal in particular were discussed during the meeting, said the Permanent Mission of Nepal to Geneva.

Appreciating Azevedo’s supportive role to the LDCs, Minister Yadav asked the WTO to provide continued technical support to Nepal in enhancing trade-related capacity.

He also underlined the coordinating role of the WTO for multi-donor support to implement the trade facilitation agreement.

Referring ‘prosperous Nepal, happy Nepali’ as the long-term objective of the present government, the Minister requested for continued support from the WTO and other development partners to achieve its overarching goal of sustainable development by exploiting its enormous untapped resources. 

Yadav indicated that the WTO could play a facilitating role, under the DG’s leadership, for global dialogue to find out the practical solution of the WTO impasse.

Indicating the global trade tension and impasse at the WTO negotiations, Azevedo underscored the need for support of all members as every country has to suffer from its systemic failure.

He also wished successful completion of the second trade policy review of Nepal which is taking place in December this year.

Minister Yadav is attending UNCTAD’s World Investment Forum, 2018 which is taking place from 22 to 26 October at Palais des Nations, Geneva.

His delegation includes Secretary of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies Yam Kumari Khatiwada, Ambassador of Nepal to the Permanent Mission in Geneva Deepak Dhital and Deputy Permanent Representative (Commerce) Mina Aryal.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 24 October 2018. 

Himalaya Airlines starts flight services to Chongqing

Kathmandu, Oct. 21:

Himalaya Airlines has entered into to the Chinese market with its maiden flight to Chongqing.

The new flight service is an every-Thursday charter service from Chongqing to Kathmandu.

Himalaya is the only airline operating direct flights between the two cities.

The inaugural flight departed from Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) on Thursday evening, 18 October, and landed at Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport (CKG).

The return flight from Chongqing was made at midnight on Thursday.

 “China is one of our target markets. We are confident that this route will boost passenger traffic as we expect a good demand from Chongqing, which has a sizeable population of affluent out-bound travelers,” said Vijay Shrestha, Vice President – Administration of the company.

“Himalaya will be instrumental in bringing more Chinese tourists to Nepal and helping the tourism economy of both countries,” he added.

Chongqing, one of the five centrally administered municipalities in China along with Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Tianjin, offers remarkable attractions to visitors.

Chongqing known for its rich history and cultural heritage, serves as an economic and manufacturing center apart from being the transportation hub for Southwest China.

China has placed Nepal as a new leisure destination, which is one of the driving reasons for increased Chinese visitors into Nepal over the past two years, said the company.

China is the second largest tourist source market for Nepal with 109,497 visitors in 2018 (Jan to Sept), showing the growth of 48.8% over the same period of 2017.

According to Shrestha, Himalaya airline plans to extend its focus on China connectivity by adding up other cities like Beijing, Haikou and Nanchang in the next phase.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 23 October 2018. 

Mobile importers to use hologram in every mobile set

Kathmandu, Oct. 7: The Mobile Phone Importers Association (MPIA) of Nepal is planning to use its own hologram in every mobile imported in the country.

It said that the move would discourage the illegal trade of cell phones and support the economy with fair trade.

The MPIA is planning to use their hologram on every mobile devices sold in Nepal in order to discourage the smuggling of the cell phone, said MPIA President and Vice-President of the Nepal Chamber of Commerce Deepak Malhotra at a press meet organised to announce the Dashain Mobile Fair at Tamrakar Complex, New Road.

“Using hologram will help the customers to get genuine products and support the economy as it will discourage the illegal trade of mobile phones,” he said.

He also urged the traders to sell the genuine and legal products, and the customers to buy legally imported goods.

Tamrakar Complex, one of the major mobile phones shopping destinations in the Kathmandu Valley, has announced a ‘Dashain Mobile Fair’ with up to 60 per cent discount and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities.

The fair will run from October 9 to 17. Customers will get 4 per cent to 60 per cent discount while purchasing mobile phones, said Jagat Saud, President of Mobile Traders’ Association, Tamrakar Complex.

Customers will receive a SIM card of Smart Telecom and a can of energy drink, as well. They will also get other prizes announced by the individual companies.

As per the CSR of the Association, Rs. 20 will be collected from every mobile sold and donated to Raskot Community Hospital which is being constructed in Kalikot district.

“We want to give something back to our society. We are happy to be associated with the health institution in the remote district,” said Saud.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 8 October 2018.