Same hotel runs with two different names

Kathmandu, Mar. 6: A hotel at Kamal Binayak in Bhaktapur has got two different names following a row between the investors.

The same hotel has been registered as Hotel Yatu Pvt. Ltd. and Hotel Yechu Pvt. Ltd, and two different websites are in existence for the same.

Both the websites display the photo of the same building and mention the same facilities.

Two shareholders Krishna Prasad Tamrakar and Saru Mahat and her company Hotel De Courtyard Pvt. Ltd., registered Hotel Yatu in March 2017, with 52 per cent and 48 per cent shares respectively.

But Tamrakar registered another company, Hotel Yechu, last October which is under his sole ownership.

According to the Share Registration Book maintained at the Office of the Company Registrar, Tamrakar has an investment worth Rs. 10.4 million, and Mahat and her hotel have Rs. 4.8 million in investment in the hotel.

Tamrakar is the former vice-president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) and Mahat is the owner of Hotel Courtyard.

"We had no idea that the hotel, which was built with joint investment, was registered in the name of Tamrakar. We never thought that such a reputed person could do such a thing to us," said Mahat, who organised a press meet to inform the press about the event. Her husband Mani Bikram Shah was with her during the event.

According to them, they came to know about it after an advertisement of Hotel Yechu appeared on the souvenir issue of Bhaktapur Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

"We felt that we were deceived. Tamrakar has registered a different company and running publicity campaigns with different phone numbers. We contributed in creating a state-of-art hotel, and we have been ousted from the same company illegally," said the couple.

They said that they had paid more than Rs. 13.2 million to Tamrakar for the equity and to purchase various construction materials.

They claimed that though they tried to contact Tamrakar, he neither entertained their telephone calls nor met them in person.

"We had said to him that if he wanted to run the hotel on his own, he should pay Rs. 600,000 per month to us, and if he let us run it, we would pay him from Rs. 600,000 to 800,000 a month. If he wants to buy it, we want our Rs. 13.2 million investment back, but if the hotel is sold to a third party, double the money should be paid to us as our creative design, concept and time have been invested in it," said Mahat.

But Tamrakar said that the Mahat and Shah couple had only invested only Rs. 1.8 million in the whole project.

"They escaped with various excuses while investing in the project but created another hotel similar to it at another location in Bhaktapur. We had agreed to pay Rs. 400,000 in rent per month for the land, and their investment was consumed as they had to pay half of the rent. And I registered another company," said Tamrakar.

He argued that te Mahat and Shah couple wanted to use his property worth Rs. 560 million with just Rs. 10 million investment. He challenged them to show proof of their investment.

Tamrakar also blamed Mahat and Shah of trying to defame him.

"I am still urging them to bring the money they pledged to invest, and run the hotel smoothly. However, I have told them that the management would be looked after by my men," he said.

Tamrakar said that he would bring the whole story to the press very soon while the Shah couple is opting for legal remedy. 

Published in The Rising Nepal on 7 March 2018. 

NTIF stalls booked

Kathmandu, Mar. 6: The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) said that all the stalls of the Nepal International Trade Fair (NTIF) 2018 have been booked.

The annual international trade fair will feature more than 300 stalls where goods and service producers of Nepal, China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and other countries will showcase their products.

Major attractions of the fair will be products featured in the Nepal Trade Integration Strategy (NTIS), handicraft, tourism, information technology and business information, agricultural products, energy, building and construction, education, pharmaceuticals, iron and steel and vehicles.

The seventh edition of the NTIF will be held from March 8 to 12.

The FNCCI said that the fair will play an important role in attracting the foreign investment and enhanceing international business relations.

Discussions on the bilateral trade promotion, investment and business meetings will be held during the fair.

The fair is being organised with the theme ‘Showcasing Nepal and the Globe’ by the FNCCI with the support from the Ministry of Commerce, and Trade and Export Promotion Centre (TEPC).

It is jointly coorganised by the Lalitpur Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Federation of Handicraft Association of Nepal (FHAN).

Published in The Rising Nepal on 7 March 2018. 

HR Meet from 19 March

Kathmandu, Mar. 6: The 11^th HR Meet 2018, the conference of human resources experts and personnel and other stakeholders, will be held in Kathmandu on 19 and 20 March.

This year the meet will be organised with an aim to develop human capital and empower them. “The organisers want to convey a message to all for prioritising human resources to have a positive change in the organisations and drive to foster the nation,” said Growth Sellers – the organiser of the event.

According to Mohan Ojha, chairman of the HR Meet Steering Committee, prominent international speakers Dr. Tanaya Mishra, Managing Director of Accenture and NS Iyer and former HR Head of Asian Paints Ltd. (India) will deliver their speeches on ‘the design thinking way’ and ‘employee engagement’ respectively.

There will be panel discussions of Chief Executive Officers and HR experts, parallel sessions, panel interview and individual sessions on stress management and work life balance.

“There are more than 1,500 HR professionals working in various organisations. We must understand that only people can change and drive the company, institution and the nation. We all need to understand and imply for more productivity,” said Ojha.

The organisers said that more than 250 HR professionals will participate in the event. 

Published in The Rising Nepal on 7 March 2018. 

Nepal-Pakistan to enhance economic and cultural relations

Pak PM Abbasi arrives Kathmandu

Kathmandu, Feb. 5: Pakistani Prime Minister ShahidKhaqanAbbasi arrived Kathmandu on Monday on a 2-day official visit.

He held a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli in the evening where both of them exchanged views on matters of mutual interest, and Abbasi congratulated Oli on being elected the PM of Nepal.

“He conveyed felicitation to the Nepali leadership on the successful conclusion of its democratic process, resulting in the formation of a new government,” said Pakistani Embassy in Kathmandu.

Following the bilateral meeting, PM Oli hosted a reception dinner in honour of the visiting dignitary.

Pakistani Embassy said that the visit was a part of Pakistan’s pro-active and outreach efforts to engage with regional countries.

It said that Pakistan has taken the visit as an opportunity to further expand and strengthen bilateral relations across all areas of mutual interest including trade, education, tourism, defence and people to people contact.

“Nepal is an important regional country and a close friend. Our ties with Nepal are characterized by cordiality, mutual respect and commonality of interest. Our support to each other at bilateral and multilateral fora has remained indispensible for both the sides,” said the Embassy.

The government offered ‘Guard of Honour’ to the visiting Pakistani PM at the Tundikhel. He has become the first foreign heal of government to receive ‘Guard of Honour’ at the Tundikhel as it was presented at the Airport till now.

Minister of Finance Yuba Raj Khatiwada welcomed PM Abbasi at the Tribhuvan International Airport while PM Oli welcomed him at the Tundihkel.

Abbasi is scheduled to call on President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Tuesday.

PM Abbasi will leave for Islamabad on Tuesday. 

Published in The Rising Nepal on 6 March 2018.

NRA to send complians to the local bodies

Kathmandu, Feb. 28: The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) is preparing to send the complaints it received from the quake-affected households that missed the chance to get included in the list of the beneficiaries, and collected during the re-examination of the quake damaged houses, to the local level.  

It said that more than 100,000 complaints received through both the channels would be sent to the local governments by February 14 for the final authentication.

A meeting of the Central Compliant Management Committee on Wednesday analysed all the complaints and included the respective families under the categories as ‘Potential Reconstruction Beneficiary’, ‘Retrofitting Beneficiary’ and ‘Non-eligible’. 

The meeting, coordinated by NRA Executive Committee Member Hari Ram Parajuli, took a decision to send the list to the local level for final authentication. 

In order to address the demand of the quake-affected families that couldn’t find their names in the government beneficiaries’ list due to various reasons, the reconstruction body had conducted re-examination and survey in all quake-affected districts. 

Joint Secretary of the NRA Netra Subedi said that the list would be finalised after the local bodies give their final say on it. 

About 130,000 complaints were registered during the re-examination in the severely-hit 14 districts.

Meanwhile, the reconstruction body has initiated its welfare works of constructing homes for the senior citizens and physically challenged persons. 

It has formulated a procedure to build home for the senior citizens above 70 years of age, single and disabled women above 65 years of age, physically challenged individuals such as visually impaired and those having red and blue cards, and minors. 

According to the primary data collection, there are 16,205 such individuals in 14 quake-hit districts. The NRA has asked the local bodies to send the data of citizens, who need government support in their respective area.

Once the data collection is concluded, the NRA will call various humanitarian organisations to support in building homes for those people.

“The NRA will hold discussions with national and international humanitarian organisations as well as non-government organisations regarding the house construction for the physically challenged quake-victims,” the NRA said. 

Published in The Rising Nepal on 29 February 2018. 

Stoping yough migrants not wise idea

Kathmandu, Mar. 1: The government should not try to stop the youth leaving the country for the first or second time in search of jobs abroad, say labour market experts. 

They said that for the youths, foreign employment was not only about earning money but also meeting the peer pressure, romanticism about boarding a plane and visiting a new and developed city as well as a dream of providing a good education, health and lifestyle to their families. 

“Many people, include those in the government, keep on saying that youth out-migration must be stopped. But I think this is a flawed notion. We should let go the first or second timers and stop them back in the country afterwards,” said Ganesh Gurung, a labour expert. 

According to him, the young workers don’t have the money to start a business, skill to get a good job, are of comparatively small age and have a dream to earn money, so it’s not wise to stop them back here while those who have returned from foreign countries, after working there for 5/6 years, have the money and skills to start a business or join a job. 

Those who return are mature and have strong motivation to stay back with their family and bring their children up and look after the aged parents. 

“Therefore, the government should prepare policies and programmes keeping this in view,” said Gurung. 

However, he said that of the 1,200 to 1,500 youth who leave the country every day in search of a job in foreign lands, about 150-200 could be stopped from flying abroad with better employment and business promotion policies. 

Bharat Raj Acharya, vice-chairman of the Employers’ Council at the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), said that the youth thought working in foreign land or big cities as ‘glamorous’, therefore it was ‘not so good’ to stop them from going there. 

“Without a better plan and programmes or employment opportunities in the country, we shouldn’t try to stop the youth from going abroad,” he said. 

According to him, export promotion through the development of the manufacturing sector industries is the best way to generation employment and foreign currency income for a remittance-based country like Nepal. 

Employment can be generated in the manufacturing industry in comparison to the service sector.

Economist and former economic advisor to the government Keshav Acharya said that foreign employment had a positive impact on the education and wellbeing of the workers’ families as well as poverty alleviation. 

He stated that the country had largely failed to capitalise on the skills which the Nepali youth have developed while working in foreign lands. 

“At the same time, there is lack of financing instruments to support the youth in running their own business. Many youth shave good business idea but no money. The government and the private sector both have failed in this regard,” said Acharya. 

Remittance is the country’s major source of foreign currency followed by foreign assistance, export trade and in-bound tourism. 

Nepal received Rs. 695 billion in remittance last fiscal year 2016/17, and earned Rs. 73.05 billion in exports against the import of Rs. 990.11 billion. 

Remittance has a ratio of 26.8 per cent to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country while the import is 38.1 per cent. 

The size of the country’s economy is about Rs. 2600 billion (US$ 26 billion). 

Published in The Rising Nepal on 2 March 2018.

Demand of compost fertilizers grows

Pathari, Morang, Mar. 2: Farmers are unable to produce compost fertilizer despite its growing demand in the district.

Most of the farmers involved in vegetable farming and nursery businesses want to use compost fertilizers although chemical fertilizers are used in the large area to produce food grains, oil seeds and pulses.

Farmers in the villages of Morang are producing compost fertilizers and using it in vegetable farming. Likewise, with the expansion of nursery business, which was until now centred to the city areas, to the village, the demand of compost manure is surged, said Ratna Bahadur Basnet, Manager of Dhana Ratna Compost Fertilizers Enterprise.

“Those who want instant result don’t use compost fertilizers but as it increases the productivity of the soil and is less harmful to the environment and human health, organic vegetable producers and nurseries want to use it. We are unable to meet the demand of the compost manure,” said Basnet.

His Pathari Shanishchare based enterprise produced 200 quintals of organic manure last year while it has already produced 300 quintals fertilizers this year so far. Production will go even higher this year.

According to him, his enterprise is unable to supply the fertilizers as per the demand of nurseries in Dhankuta, Jhapa and Morang.

Such industry lacks modern technology. A donor had donated him a machine which can produce granules of fertilizers but it can’t come into operation due to electricity shortage.

About six compost fertilizers companies have been registered and come into operation in Morang, said Horticulture Development Officer of the erstwhile District Agricultural Development Office in the district, Kashi Kumar Chaudhary.

He said that the farmers are unable to meet the demand of compost manure and vermi-compost manure. The growing demand of organic manure has resulted in less import of chemical fertilizers.

“However, only six industries can’t meet the growing demand of organic manure in the region. So more enterprises are needed,” said Chaudhary.

According to the Trade and Export Promotion Centre’s Eastern Regional Office Biratnagar, chemical fertilizers worth Rs. 743 million was imported in the eastern region in the last fiscal year 2016/17 which is less by Rs. 591 million in comparison to the previous fiscal 2015/16.

In FY 2015/16 the eastern region imported chemical fertilizers of Rs. 1.33 billion.

Similarly, fertilizers of Rs. 2.30 billion was imported in FY 2014/15, said Krishna Regmi, Chief of TEPC Biratnagar Office.

However, farmers of the southern areas of the district counter the fact and say that the import was reduced due to the fertilizers smuggling from the bordering Indian villages.