PM Oli to visit India Next week

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli will visit India from 19 to 24 February, informed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), Friday.

Issuing a press statement, the Foreign Ministry informed that PM Oli was visiting the southern neighbour at its Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s invitation and both would hold official talks on matters of mutual interest.

The Prime Minister is also scheduled to call on Indian President Pranab Mukherjee and Vice-President Mohammad Hamid Ansari as well as leaders of various political parties.

“He will also interact with the business community and address an event of the Indian Council of World Affairs while in Delhi,” read the press release.

PM's foreign affairs advisor Gopal Khanal informed that the visit would focus on normalizing the bilateral relations between Nepal and India.

PM Oli will meet Indian business community in New Delhi and Mumbai, and will attend a dinner hosted by the Nepalese Embassy in Delhi.

The bilateral relations between the two countries witnessed an upset when India expressed its dissatisfaction over the promulgation of Nepal’s constitution on 20^th September last year and tightened the customs points on the southern border.

Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel concluded his three-day trip to India this week to make necessary arrangements for PM Oli's maiden foreign sojourn.

During his visit, Minister Paudel held meetings with the Indian Home Affairs Minister Rajnath Singh, his counterpart Arun Jaitley and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, and discussed Nepal’s post-quake reconstruction, bilateral trade and economic cooperation and other issues of bilateral interest. 

Indian leaders pay tribute to Koirala

Indian Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj Tuesday said that former Prime Minister and Nepali Congress President late Sushil Koirala was a man of ‘high thinking and simple living’.

After paying a tribute to late Koirala Swaraj has written in the condolence book, “The sad demise of former PM of Nepal and leader of NC Koirala has deeply saddened the leadership, government and people of India. A dedicated leader he was a man of high thinking and simple living.”

She also has written that Nepal’s crucial political transformation was successfully concluded under his leadership and said that India has lost a true friend.

Swaraj arrived Kathmandu Tuesday afternoon leading a delegation of Indian parliamentarians and political leaders to pay tribute to late Koirala.

The delegation included Indian National Congress leader Anand Sharma, general secretary of Communist Party of India (Marxist) Sitaram Yachury, Presiednt of Janata Dal – United Sharad Yadav, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s national defense advisor Ajit Doval, Nepal Desk chief at the Ministry of External Affairs Abhaya Thakur and Indian Ambassador to Nepal Ranjit Ray.

All leaders paid tribute to late Koirala and have written their remarks in the condolence book.

Likewise, they met Koirala family and expressed condolence. During the meeting they remembered the contribution of Koirala family in the freedom movement of India.

Meanwhile, the delegation met Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli at his official residence in Baluwatar.

During the meeting PM Oli praised Indian support during the time of crisis in Nepal.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affiars Minister Kamal Thapa was also present in the meeting.

Meanwhile, the delegation also met acting president of NC Ramchandra Paudel where senior leader Sher Bahadur Deuba, general secretaries Praksh Man Singh and Krishna Prasad Sitaula and leaders Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat, Mahesh Acharya and Minendra Rijal were present.

Meanwhile, Indian President Pranab Mukharjee, in condolence message, expressed condolences on the death of Koirala and lauded the role of late Koirala during Nepal’s political transition and promulgation of new constitution.

According to Koirala’s aide Prakash Adhikari, Indian ambassador to Nepal Ray, Chinese ambassador Wu Chuntai and chief of other diplomatic missions in Kathmandu paid tribute to late Koirala.

Bhutanese Home Minister Lyonpo Dawa Gyaltshen and Nationalist Congress Party of India’s general secretary D. P. Tripathi are scheduled to arrive Kathmandu to pay tribute to him. 

China expressed Condolence to late Koirala

China expressed condolence over the demise of former Prime Minister and Nepali Congress President late Sushil Koirala.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi Tuesday sent a letter of condolence and sympathy to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Kamal Thapa and said that China was sad to learn the unfortunate news of passing away of Koirala.

He sent a message of sympathy to the Koirala family members and people of Nepal.

“Koiral was a prominent political leader of Nepal who was committed to developing a good Chinese and Nepali relationship of cooperation and friendship,” Wang said in his message.

Early in the morning Tuesday, Chinese ambassador to Nepal Wu Chuntai went to NC Headquarters and paid tribute to late Koirala.

NEA 14th National Convention starts on 17th February

Nepal Engineers Association (NEA) Thursday informed that it was going to organize its 14^th national convention with the slogan ‘Engineering Excellence: Impetus for National Advancement’ in Kathmandu from 17 to 19 February.

NEA president Dhruba Thapa informed in a press release that Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli will inaugurate the convention to be attended by about 1,500 engineers across the country and 50 foreign delegates.

The convention’s major focus would be the post-quake reconstruction and rehabilitation, along with disaster management and solution to the energy crisis.

“The convention will try to find out the reasons behind Nepal’s underdevelopment and the steps that the government needs to take specially in the reconstruction and rehabilitation process,” said Thapa.

On the occasion, a SAARC level seminar on ‘Regional cooperation and knowledge management for innovation’ will be organized jointly with Federation of Engineering Institutions of South and Central Asia (FEISCA) – an association of SAARC member countries’ engineering institutions.

Thapa said that senior foreign engineers would address the seminar.

Meanwhile, Engineering and Development Expo – 2016 will also be organized on the occasion where various service providers, construction companies, investors, information technology companies, businesses and various government and non-government organization will participate, informed the NEA.

“We are hopeful that the convention would bring out a resolution which will help in building modern and prosperous Nepal,” said Thapa.

He informed that on the occasion of national convention, the NEA will felicitate the best engineers, architect and organizations in seven various categories.

The NEA has set up a 217-member Main Organizing Committee in the chairmanship of Thapa and various sub-committees are set up for technical management, resource mobilization, publicity, hospitality, food management, registration, publication, transportation and convention venue management.

The NEA, which is one of the oldest professional associations in the country, was established 53 years ago. 

NRA to use line ministries in reconstruction

Acting Secretary of the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) Madhu Sudan Adhikari Thursday said that the reconstruction and rehabilitation works would be executed through the line ministries as the Authority did not have administrative structure required to implement the task.

“The reconstruction works would be carried out in a faster and efficient way if it is given to the ministries that have been long involved in the same type of job. We hope that this implementation model will work,” he said while addressing a two-day seminar on ‘Media sensitization on post-earthquake green recovery and reconstruction’ jointly organized by the USAID, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists.

However, he said that present structure and working-style of the ministries lacked efficiency.

“Therefore, new project implementation units would be created in respective ministries as per the directives of the reconstruction body, and programs will be launched to enhance their capacity and empower them with latest knowledge and technologies.”

Those units will have the administrative structure as that of a government department, he said.

 According to Adhikari, there will a central level project implementation unit to execute bigger projects while small projects of reconstruction will be carried out by the district level project implementation unit.

While presenting the execution concept of the reconstruction programmes and institutional structure to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Wednesday, NRA chief executive officer Shushil Gyawali said that the reconstruction body would directly disburse the budget to the project implementation units in the ministries in order to carry out the impending task of rebuilding the structures damaged by the devastating earthquake in April and May last year.

The NRA also planned to bring skilled and efficient manpower from other sectors if required.

Adhikari assured that green reconstruction concept would be applied in the reconstruction as far as possible. “There is a challenge to balance between environment and conservation. We are working with other stakeholders to expedite the reconstruction while considering the environmental aspects.”

Sadhana Ghimire, team leader of Conflict Prevention Programme, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said that permanent job creation, improved quality of life and adequate income should be the post-quake sustainable development goals.

Raju Man Manandhar, superintendent engineer of the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction, said that the government would initiate land pooling projects in some of the core city areas in order to build quake-resistant buildings, and also to create space and maintain green environment.

He informed that the government was planning to develop Barpak village of Gorkha as a model human settlement.

Dr. Pralad Thapa, team member of Rapid Environment Assessment conducted by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment in the aftermath of the quake, urged the government and NRA to develop livelihood opportunity of the people and resettlement simultaneously.

He also stressed to carry out the reconstruction works without affecting the biodiversity.

Rajendra Dahal, press advisor to the former President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav, said that every transition period in the country had detrimental impacts to its natural resources including forest, water and sand.

He criticised the government for delaying the post-quake reconstruction, and urged the media to be more vigilant in order to create pressure on the government to conduct reconstruction works at the earliest possible.

Yubaraj Ghimire, editor of the Annapurna Post daily, said that environmental concerns might occasionally halt the development work.

MEDEP and Gandaki Bee to jointly promote Honey-based enterprise

Micro Enterprise Development Programme (MEDEP) and Gandaki International Pvt. Ltd. have reached an agreement to jointly develop and promote honey-based enterprises.
According to the agreement, at least 250 new Micro Entrepreneurs will be created and 100 existing Micro Entrepreneurs will be supported to expand their business.
"The MEDEP will provide social mobilization, entrepreneurship and trainings while Gandaki International will provide technical training, technology support, counseling and market linkages," read a press release issued by the MEDEP.  
Gandaki will provide 1,800 beehives and other technologies such as gloves, honey extractor and honey processors to the Micro Entrepreneurs in 50 percent subsidy.
MEDEP informed that the Gandaki had also assured buyback guarantee of the honey produced by the micro entrepreneurs.
The MoU was signed by MEDEP National programme manager Dr. Ramji Neupane and chairperson of Gandaki International Dev Gurung.
After signing the contract, Dr. Neupane said that the ongoing fourth phase of MEDEP aimed at bringing contribution of private sector in Micro Enterprise Development and the MoU with Gandaki was a major milestone towards that end.
Gurung said that the agreement would help in establishing sustainable honey eco-system in Nepal and eventually contribute to increase in production and quality.
MEDEP is a poverty alleviation initiative of the Government of Nepal and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), currently funded by Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) Australia.
It has created over 75,000 Micro Entrepreneurs since 1998 and about 5,000 of them are bee-keeping and honey based entrepreneurs.
Likewise, Gandaki International is a joint venture between Gandaki and a Dutch company, Honey International. It is established with an objective to promote honey enterprises in Nepal and to export honey from Nepal.

NRA completes Reconstruction Policy draft

The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) has prepared the National Reconstruction Policy, execution concept and institutional structure for sectoral reconstruction agencies at different ministries.

NRA Chief Executive Officer Sushil Gyawali informed that the draft of the policy had been prepared and soon it would be presented to the National Reconstruction Steering Committee led by the Prime Minister.

While presenting the execution concept of reconstruction programmes and institutional structure before Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and other Ministers at the PM's residence, Baluwatar, Wednesday, he said, "We hope that the committee will endorse the policy within a week. Respective ministries and donor agencies have the common viewpoint on the policy."

He also informed that about 600 engineers had been mobilized in every district with the commencement of National Reconstruction Campaign while more 430 were obtaining training.

The campaign was launched on 26^th January by laying a foundation stone of a temple at the Ranipokhari by President Bidya Devi Bhandari.

 "Rural Residence Reconstruction will be launched on 24^th February from a Resource Centre in Dolakha. By 25^th March, reconstruction will be initiated in one Resource Centre in each quake-affected district, and by 28^th April, reconstruction will be started in every village," Gyawali said.

Gyawali said that the Authority would directly disburse the budget to the project implementation units in the respective ministries. "We need to apply the fast-track approach in reconstruction process as it has been delayed for more than 10 months."

Meanwhile, NRA Executive Committee Member Dr. Chandra Bahadur Shrestha said that the Authority would promote green recovery and reconstruction practices in the reconstruction drive, and urged the concerned stakeholders to suggest suitable model for the same.

He was addressing a seminar on 'Media sensitization on post-earthquake green recovery and reconstruction' organized by Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists in Kathmandu.

He said that the NRA would try to meet the expectation of the society and stakeholders. "There is a gap between what need to be delivered and what is being delivered. Therefore, people are not satisfied."

Bhuwan Karki, under-secretary at the International Economic Cooperation Division, Ministry of Finance (MoF), said that the budget disbursement was very slow due to the poor implementation of development projects.

According to the MoF, the government was so far unable to spend a single rupee from the reconstruction budget.

Then Finance Minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat allocated Rs. 74 billion for the NRA while Rs. 17 billion for the concerned ministries to initiate reconstruction works until the establishment of the Authority.