Pradeep reelected as the VP of CACCI

Kathmandu, Dec. 5: Former president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) Pradeep Kumar Shrestha has been re-elected as the vice-president of the Confederation of Asia-Pacific Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CACCI).

The 30^th conference and 50^th annual general assembly of the CACCI held in Taiwan last week elected Shrestha to the post of the umbrella organisation of commerce and industries in the Asia-Pacific region.

He is managing director in Panchakanya Group, an industrial and trading house.

He is honorary consul of South Korea, director of Butwal Power Limited and had already served as the CACCI executive committee member and vice president of the SAARC Chambers of Commerce and Industry (SAARC CCI).

He had held various important positions in many public and private organizations such as the board member of the Nepal Rastra Bank, past president of Rotary Club of Kasthamandap, Nepal Golf Association and Nepal Rolling Mills Association, past chairman of Nepal China Non-Government Cooperation Forum, and Small and Medium Enterprise Development Project (SMEDP).

Shrestha holds a post graduate in Business Administration and had been awarded by the Man of the Year 2003 by the American Biographical Institute, Nepal Samman 2059, Gorkha Dakshin Bahu and many other prizes and awards.

Established in 1966 with the aim of enhancing economic prosperity and commercial cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, CACCI has 28 associated members from 26 nations.

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Motivation centre for entrepreneurs afoot

Kathmandu, Dec. 5: Minister for Industry Nabindra Raj Joshi Monday said that the government was in the process to establish motivation centre in every district to promote entrepreneurship and investment climate.

Speaking at a meeting with the representatives of the Development Partners in Nepal and national and international non-government Organisations at the Ministry, he said that the employment generation was the topmost priority of the country at present.

"Creating jobs is not possible with the efforts of the government alone, we need to collaborate with the private sector, development partners and civil society organinsations. Therefore, this meeting has been organised," a press statement issued by the Ministry quoted Minister Joshi.

Recognizing the contribution of the I/NGOs in poverty alleviation and job creation in Nepal, he said that the government aimed at engaging the youth power within the country to achieve higher economic growth.

Secretary of the Ministry Shankar Prasad Koirala said that the discussion was organised to find ways to make enterprise development and entrepreneurship promotion programmes more effective.

The representatives of the I/NGOs urged the government to review the skill development training that are currently implemented as per the local requirement.

They suggested removing the VAT bill system for the transaction of the goods produced by the micro-entrepreneurs.

They also recommended to create a basket fund to integrate the money mobilized by the I/NGOs in the districts for tangible results. 

Over 8000 Quake-hit families complete house construction

Kathmandu, Dec. 1: Amidst criticism that the government was indifferent towards rebuilding structures damaged in the devastating earthquake last year and rehabilitating the people rendered homeless, the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) has said that the construction of approximately 8,333 private houses had been completed by the end of November.

Similarly, more than 15,000 houses are under construction in various districts severely hit by the quake.

According to the Central Programme Implementation Unit at the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD), 15,861 houses were being reconstructed.

"Approximately 1,623 houses are under construction in Sindhupalchowk, while 2,165 houses in Dhading, 1,004 in Kavre, 4,330 in Nuwakot, 1,271 in Gorkha and 2,890 in Dolakha are being built with grant money," said the ministry.

Likewise, house construction has started in Ramechhap, Sindhuli, Makwanpur, Okhaldhunga and Rasuwa.

The NRA said that the government had signed house reconstruction grant agreements with 527,466 households by the end of November.

The reconstruction body has informed that the grant agreements were signed with about 53,425 households in the Kathmandu Valley, and the first installment of the grant money, Rs. 50,000, had been deposited into the bank accounts of 444,452 households from 11 districts.

However, the NRA is facing challenges in addressing the complaints registered with various government agencies, including Hello Sarkar.

"About 108,077 complaints have been registered at the NRA central office. We have studied half of them," said NRA spokesman Ram Prasad Thapaliya.

However, he said that MoFALD had updated the local development officers and executive officers at the NRA field offices about the formulation of community committees to assist in reconstruction, inspection work procedure, grievance hearing method, process and their responsibilities.

The government has completed its survey in 14 districts, including the Kathmandu Valley, severely hit by the devastating earthquakes in April and May 2015.

It is to commence damage surveys in the remaining 17 districts moderately hit by the tremors.

The NRA had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom a couple of months ago for financial assistance to conduct the survey, which will be implemented by the United Nations Office for Project Service (UNOPS).

UNOPS is an operational arm of the UN to support the successful implementation of peace building, humanitarian and development projects around the world, and had conducted post- quake surveys of damaged structures in 14 severely-hit districts in the country.

The survey will be conducted as per the verification model, where the surveyor doesn't collect fresh data of damaged houses again but verifies the data collected by the government earlier.

Thapaliya said that an additional incentive, up to 70 per cent, would be given to the employees and engineers deployed at the quake hit areas.

Hyundai launches heavy equipment in Nepal

Kathmandu, Nov. 29

Construction Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Tuesday launched two mining machines – R340LC-7 and R390LC-9 excavators – in the Nepalese market.

The R340LC-7 excavator has 148 horsepower (HP) engine with 2000 rpm and has 21,930 kg operating weight while R390LC-9 has 105 HP engine with 2200 rpm and has 13,500 operating weight.

Hyundai has a strong presence in Nepal in heavy equipment segment with various excavators.

Speaking at the product launching programme, sales and marketing general manager of Hyundai C. H. Kwak said, "Nepal was a promising and upcoming market in Asia with a special emphasis on roads and infrastructure development. During the year 2016, the country has seen a surge for the infrastructure products across the spectrum."

He said that Nepal was an important market for Hyundai and the company was working closely working its dealer partner Construction Solutions in adding value to Nepal's infrastructure growth.

Sandeep Sharda of Construction Solutions said that the company had sold over 300 excavators in Nepal this year.

"The application of our machines has been varied from roads, cement, mining, quarry, hydropower, irrigation and other application," he said.

te and formulation of sanitation action plan," read the report.

Local Bodies not serious for developing income resources

Kathmandu, Nov. 29

A recent monitoring of the District Development Committees, VDCs and municipalities has shown that the local bodies did not pay due attention to developing internal sources for sustainable income.

The summary report, prepared after the monitoring of 27 DDCs, 27 municipalities and 32 VDCs by various study teams led by the joint-secretaries, has concluded that the local bodies were weak in developing sustainable sources of income, implementing local and property taxes and clearing arrears.

It has asked them to formulate an action plan for the speedy clearance of arrears and discourage the employees from demanding money in advance.

According to the report released by the Department of Monitoring and Evaluation at the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development, the study teams found that the local bodies were implementing many small projects, instead of some large-scale projects, making them difficult to manage, which resulted in poor outcome.

"Therefore, the local bodies should implement large-scale projects. Besides, there should be an effective system for quality inspection and maintenance of infrastructure projects. There has to be a sustained fund for the maintenance of the projects under construction and those which are completed," read the report.

The report has recommended the municipalities to establish laboratories to maintain quality in physical infrastructure, formulate master plan for the municipal transportation, construct buildings for their offices and procure fire engines.

"The municipalities should also take initiatives for the immediate implementation of land-use policy, identification of land-fill site and formulation of sanitation action plan," read the report.

VP urges for investment climate

Kathmandu, Nov. 30: Vice President Nanda Bahadur Pun Wednesday said that to achieve the higher rate of economic growth, Nepal should attract more domestic and foreign investment.

“The country has huge potential in agriculture, tourism, hydropower, industry and infrastructure sector. These are the foundation of our development, progress and prosperity,” he said at the Annual Day ceremony of the Society of Economic Journalists-Nepal (SEJON).

He was of the view that the development of agriculture, tourism and hydropower was the key to the poverty alleviation through employment generation.

However, he maintained that in order to achieve the higher rate of growth, Nepal should attract investment by improving business environment and developing infrastructure such as hydropower and road network.

Saying that the government had given due priority to improving the investment climate and infrastructure development, the Vice President pointed towards the need of cooperation and coordination between the government and private sector.

 VP Pun said that the youth should look for entrepreneurship opportunities in the country rather than leaving it in search of jobs abroad.

“This is our country and we should develop it. Banks are offering concessional loans for the tourism and agro-enterprises, youth should utilize the opportunity and help to crate employment instead of being a worker abroad,” he said.

He expressed serious concerns about the growing trade deficit and import of vegetable and rice. “It is shameful that Nepal, a country with the potential to grow almost everything on its soil, has been importing agro-products in a large quantity,” he remarked.

Minister for Energy Janardan Sharma said that the energy was the basis for other economic development.

“Therefore, the government has launched a scheme ‘Nepal’s water, Nepalese investment’ to attract investment to develop hydropower projects,” he said.

Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Ramesh Lekhak said that the government was serious about conducting the three elections within the timeframe spelt out in the constitution.

He said that without the principle of distribution and discipline, democracy would be lame and wouldn’t function properly.

Nepal Rastra Bank governor Dr. Chiranjibi Nepal said that the inflation was under control at the rate of 6.7 per cent and the central bank had reserve of foreign currency sufficient enough to buy goods for 14 months.

He urged the youth to utilize the concessional loans and create business.

On the occasion, SEJON Award 2016 was conferred to Ramesh Kumar of Himal Khabar Patrika and Hari Prasad Adhikari ‘Kiran’ of Radio Kantipur for the best investigative economic stories in the print and electronic media respectively.

Likewise, SEJON awarded fellowship to four journalists – Udhav Thapa of nepalipatra.com, Sunita Karki of Arthako Artha, Sagar Ghimire of Republica and Binaya Banjara of Naya Patrika. The fellowship was given with the financial assistance of the Himalayan Bank Limited.

On the occasion, VP Pun unveiled SEJON’s annual publication ‘Arthaneeti’.

  

Book on public management launched

Kathmandu, Nov. 30: An anthology of articles on administration and management, ‘Sarbajanik Bewasthapanka Antarbastuharu’, was launched amidst a programme here Wednesday.

Vice-president of the CPN-UML Bhim Rawal unveiled the book, which is edited by member of Press Council Nepal Govinda Chaulagain.  

The book consists of investigative articles on finance, administration, and management by various scholars and experts in the respective fields.

Rawal said that poor management had created problems in various sectors in the country.

“In this time of political transition, administrators and managers have a role to play to keep things on the right track,” he stated.

He said that the efforts at political management by the government was not in the interest of the people and country.

According to Rawal, by keeping the UML, which has 182 seats in the parliament, at bay and moving forward with the constitution amendment proposal suggesting multiple nationalities would not make the constitution acceptable but would give rise to new conflict.

Commissioner of the National Information Commission Krishna Hari Baskota pointed towards the lack of think tanks to lead the country on the path of progress and development.

He asked the government to appoint the Chief District Officer and Local Development Officer through open competition.

President of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists Dr. Mahendra Bista, secretary of the Ministry of Supplies Prem Rai and former secretary Yuba Raj Pandey also expressed their views on the book in the programme.