Servia positive for visa-free entry of Nepalis

Kathmandu, May 5: Serbian first Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacic said that Serbia was positive to allow Nepali citizens to enter the Balkan nation without any visa.

“We want to take the relations between Serbia and Nepal to a newer height with enhanced economic and regional cooperation. Therefore, Serbia will hold discussions with Nepal government about visa-free entry,” he said while delivering a lecture on ‘Serbia in the region, Europe and the world’ organised by the Nepal Council of World Affairs (NCWA).

He said that Serbia had given high importance to the bilateral relations with Nepal, and it should be further strengthened with enhanced relations in trade, investment, tourism, education, culture and technology.

According to Dacic, Serbia is exercising balanced and proactive foreign policy for international peace, development and prosperity.

Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ghana Shyam Bhandari said that both the landlocked countries were expressing similar views in the international forums.

He urged the private sector of both the countries to initiate developing business and trade relations between them.

Meanwhile, speaking at a programme organised by the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), the Serbian DPM indicated towards the possibility of Serbian investment in Nepal.

“Nepali industrialist Binod Chaudhary has expanded his Wai Wai production to Serbia which has deepened the business relations between the two countries. There should be mutual promotion of investment and business between Nepal and Serbia,” he said.

CNI President Hari Bhakta Sharma urged the Serbian business community to invest in Nepal and get benefits from the two largest markets in the world – China and India.

Dacis was accompanied by Serbian Ambassador to Nepal Vladimir Maric, his Foreign Affairs Advisor Nikola Nedijkovic and other high government officials.

Dacic had met his Nepali counterpart Pradeep Kumar Gyawali on Friday afternoon and both the leaders deliberated on the bilateral relations between the two nations. Gyawali had organised a dinner on Friday evening in Dacic’s honour.

He also called on President Bidya Devi Bhandari and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

He is on a 3-day visit to Nepal and will return to Belgrade on Sunday.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on May 6, 2018. 

Indian PM Modi to pay two-day visit to Nepal from May 11

Kathmandu, May 4

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is paying a two-day state visit to Nepal on May 11 and 12. His visit will begin from Janakpur, the capital of Province No. 2.

The Indian Prime Minister is scheduled to visit the Muktinath Temple in Mustang district and attend civic receptions to be organised in his honour by the Kathmandu Metropolitan City and Janakpur Sub-Metropolitan City in Kathmandu and Janakpur, respectively. He will perform worship at the Janaki Temple on May 11 and at the Muktinath Temple on May 12.

The Indian Prime Minister will be accorded a ceremonial welcome at Tundikhel in Kathmandu on May 11. He will also receive a guard of honour there.

During his visit, Indian PM Modi will call on President Bidya Devi Bhandari and Vice-President Nanda Bahadur Pun, and will hold official talks with Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, exchanging views on matters of mutual interest, on May 11.

Both the Prime Ministers will jointly lay the foundation stone of the Arun-3 hydropower project.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali will call on the Indian Prime Minister, and Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba, CPN-Maoist Centre chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ and leaders of the Madhes-based parties will also call on Modi.

This will be Modi’s third visit to Nepal as Indian Prime Minister in five years. He had visited Nepal twice in 2014.

He is visiting Nepal at the invitation of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. He will be accompanied by Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Kumar Doval, Secretary of External Affairs Vijay Keshav Gokhle, Northern Division Chief at the Ministry of External Affairs Sudhakar Dalela and other high ranking officials.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 5 May 2018. 

Teen Conference on September 1

Kathmandu, May 4: The fourth edition of Glocal International Teen Conference (GITC) is to be held on September 1, 2018, said the organizer, Glocal Khabar Pvt. Ltd.

It said that the conference was an opportunity for teenagers to authentically address issues that are important to them without having to overcome generational barriers.

The conference will showcase ideas, experience and stories of the teenagers from countries like India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Jamaica, Malawi, Vietnam and Ghana through a series of panel discussion.

The participants will also give presentations on entrepreneurship, empowerment and socio-perspective.

“The main objective of this conference is to bring global teenagers onto a single platform and showcase an example of teenagers who have worked in countries with more difficulties and spread positivity that things are possible with efforts,” said Asish Thakur, executive director of Glocal.

According to him, the conference is a platform for knowledge and experience sharing where teenagers can learn about leadership, empowerment and social impact through a participatory and interactive environment with their peers from all over the globe.

The conference will be followed by the Grand Finale celebration of WaiWai Glocal Teen Hero award.

Bipana Sharma of Nawalparasi, Shantosh Lamichhane of Lalitpur and Sachin Dangi of Dang are the winners of the first, second and third Teen Hero Award respectively.

The company said that it would reach to around 400 schools across the country and interact with about 60,000 students of Classes 8-12 directly.

 The participants of WaiWai Glocal Teen Hero will be judged by a 5-members jury team comprising of Ambuj Singh, Country Director of Coca Cola Nepal, Renaud Meyer, UNDP Country Director to Nepal, Suraj Vaidya, President of Vaidya’s Organization of Industries, Upaul Majumdar, General Manager of Soaltee Crowne Plaza, Srijana Jyoti, Chief Branding Officer of Syakar Trading Ltd. and Ranjit Acharya, CEO of Prisma Advertising.

Published in The Rising Nepal on 5 May 2018.

'Improve doing business climate'

Kathmandu, May 3:

The private sector said on Thursday that it had been raising the same issues and questions for more than a decade and had been responded with the same answers, and urged the government to come out of the ritual and find innovative ways to address the challenges in doing business.

The government has given more priority to revenue collection, and less attention has been paid to creating a better business environment with subsidies and tax waiver to domestic products, they said at an interaction organised by the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) here today.

“As the nation has entered an era of political stability, we have lots of expectations from this government,” said Shekhar Golchha, senior vice-president of FNCCI.

According to him, the country is entering fiscal federalism from this year, but it is marred by widening trade deficit, poor performance of the manufacturing sector and nominal export.

FNCCI executive committee member Krishna Prasad Dulal demanded that the Black Marketing Act and customs reference value of goods be scrapped.

FNCCI vice president Umesh Lal Shrestha said that a separate policy should be formulated and implemented to develop the manufacturing sector and increase its contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from the existing 5 per cent.

Director of Golyan Group Pawan Golyan urged the government to provide cash subsidy on goods exported to India as it would improve the balance of payments with India.

“The yarn industry needs more incentives. This is one of the industries with the highest value addition, but the government has given only 5 per cent protection,” he said.

Akash Adhikari, chairperson of Film and Entertainment Forum at the FNCCI,  urged the government to implement the ‘Box Office’ system in the movie theatres.

“The audience is paying 13 per cent VAT while watching the movie, but it doesn’t go to the state coffers. Similarly, the producers don’t know the exact income of their cinema. It will increase the size of the Rs. 3 billion Nepali cinema industry,” he said.

Senior vice-president of the Federation of Handicraft Association of Nepal Kiran Dangol demanded the implementation of the Domestic Goods Procurement Directives. The directives have a policy to buy Nepali goods even if they were 10 per cent expensive but the current procurement law bars the government agencies to buy expensive goods through competitive bidding.

President of the Federation of Nepal Brick Industries Mahendra Bahadur Chitrakar requested the government to extend its support in developing human resources needed for operating modern brick kilns.

Responding to the businessmen’s concerns, Revenue Secretary at the Ministry of Finance Shishir Kumar Dhungana said that the budget of the coming fiscal year 2018/19 would give priority to the productive sector.

"More sensitive measures will be adopted in goods import, we don’t want to make the country a dumping site," he said.

Published in The Rising Nepal on 4 May 2018. 

Expert team formed to recommend location for airport in Kavre

Kathmandu, May 2: The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) has formed a Technical Study Team to recommend the government about the appropriate location to build a domestic airport in Kavrepalanchowk district.

The team has a mandate of 15 days to submit its findings to the ministry.

Following his site visit to the three prospective areas – Nagidanda, Sano Thulichaur and Chisapani Thulichaur - selected for the domestic airport in Dhulikhel Municipality of Kavre on Tuesday, the MoCTCA had made a ministry-level decision to form a six-member expert study team on Wednesday.

He had assured the lawmakers from Kavre, local representatives and people that a domestic airport would be built in Kavre and pledged to form an expert team within a couple of days.

According to Ghanashyam Upadhyaya, spokesperson of the MoCTCA, Kamal Kumar KC – a member of the Expert Team recently formed by the ministry – will lead the team.

Members of the team are Directors of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) Dhruba Das Bhochhibhoya and Babu Ram Poudyal, Deputy-Directors of CAAN Subarna Upadhyaya and Sita Ram Bhandari, and CAAN’s Deputy Director General Nal Bikram Thapa is member-secretary.

In order to reduce the traffic congestion at the Tribhuvan International Airport, a domestic airport in Kavre was in talks for the last one-and-a-half decades.

“The traffic at the TIA is continuously increasing, which has forced the aircraft to delay, divert and even cancel the flights. The new airport in Dhulikhel can reduce about 20 per cent traffic at the TIA,” CAAN Director General Sanjiv Gautam said.

The airport in Dhulikhel can be built at a cost of Rs. 3.5 billion to Rs. 5 billion and will have a 800-1200m-long runway.

In his 100-day programme announced during his assumption of the post of Tourism Minister, Adhikari had pledged to finalise a location for an alternative domestic airport in and around the valley and conduct a feasibility study.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on May 3, 2018. 

Domestic airport to be built in Dhulikhel of Kavre

Kavre, May 1:

It has been confirmed that Dhulikhel Municipality in Kavrepalanchowk district will have a domestic airport.

Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Rabindra Adhikari confirmed that a domestic airport would be constructed on a hill of Dhulikhel in the near future, but he did not mention the location as the feasibility study is yet to be carried out.

Minister Adhikari together with the Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Gokul Baskota, high officials of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), lawmakers and local representatives made a site visit to the three prospective areas selected for the domestic airport – Nagidanda, Sano Thuichaur and Chisapani Thulichaur on Tuesday.

“An expert team will be formed within a couple of days, and it will conduct the feasibility study. All the work related to the feasibility study will be completed within 15 days. The best location will be selected for the airport construction,” said Adhikari.

Minister of State Baskota reminded him that it has been more than a decade since the government had been talking about developing an airport in Dhulikhel, but no progress had been made. Adhikari gave assurances that the airport would be built at one of the three locations.

The hill must be leveled, and high retaining walls need to be constructed on all sides as the airport would be built atop it. All the hills are about 1,700 m to 1800 m from the sea level.

“Nagidanda can have an 800-1,200-metre-long runway, but the ground should be leveled about 20 m for 800 m and about 50 m for 1200 m in length,” said Guru Dutta Adhikari, a consultant involved in the study.

The airport will expand over an area of 25 hectares and can accommodate 20 small aircraft and some helicopters. It will be 100 m-300 m wide.

Similarly, Sano Thulichaur can have a 1150-m-long run way. It has hard rocks 8 to 10 m below ground level.

However, details of Chisapani Thulichaur are not available yet.

Most of the land is covered by forests at all three locations, but Nagidanda would be the easiest in terms of land acquisition.

“Most of the land here belongs to the community forest. Only one third of the land is privately owned, but as there are no houses on the hill, it will be easy to acquire it,” said Jiban Prasad Banjara, one local.

Sano Thulichaur has a military camp, private houses and cultural monuments while Chisapani Thulichaur also has private houses within the proposed airport site.

Bishnu Dhital and Shiva Kumar Thapa, local representatives, pledged to extend every support needed for the project.

Director General of CAAN Sajiv Gautam said that the airport in Dhulikhel will have a two-way take-off and landing facility.

According to him, it would reduce about 20 per cent of the traffic burden on the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA).

“Internationally, aviation traffic doubles every 15 years. Nepal is also witnessing about 8 per cent growth in air traffic. So we need an alternative to the TIA as soon as possible,” he said.

Gautam said that the construction of the new airport would be completed in about five years at a cost of Rs. 3.5 billion for a 800 m runway and Rs. 5 billion for a 1,200 m runway.

As the only international airport in the country is facing traffic congestion, which is forcing both international and domestic flights to hold up in the sky for several minutes, Minister Adhikari, in his 100-day programme, had pledged to complete the feasibility study of another domestic airport around the Kathmandu Valley.

In an effort to reduce the congestion at the TIA, he had directed the TIA to reschedule the domestic flights in order to make way for the long-haul international flights, planned to create regional aviation hubs and construct an alternative airport in Kavre.

Buddhist conference agrees to complete Lumbini Master Plan

Kathmandu, Apr. 29:

The International Buddhist Conference held in Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha, has agreed to complete the Lumbini Master Plan, designed by Kenzo Tange, as a global centre for peace and humanity.

The Kenzo Tange Master Plan covers an area of 5 by 5 miles with the central square being the Sacred Garden, within which is the UNESCO World Heritage Property. It includes the new Lumbini village, cultural/monastic zone and the Sacred Garden.

On his visit to Nepal in 1967, U Thant, then Secretary-General of the United Nations, had proposed to develop Lumbini as the major centre of Buddhist pilgrimage. An international Committee for the Development of Lumbini (ICDL) was formed in 1970,and Tange started his planning works in 1972.

 The ICDL approved Tange’s Master Plan eight years later.

The two-day conference, organised on the occassion of 2562^nd Buddha Jayanti with the theme ‘Lumbini Nepal: The birthplace of Lord Buddha and the fountain of Buddhism and world peace’ concluded on Sunday with a 10-point Lumbini Declaration 2018, which includes issues such as interfaith dialogue, infrastructure development, connecting Buddhist attractions in Nepal and India, and implementing the Greater Lumbini Area Master Plan.

“We agree to establish Lumbini as a gateway to the Greater Circuit of Asian Buddhist Pilgrimage by connecting Lumbini (Nepal) with Bodh Gaya, Sarnath and Kushinagar (India), and other great Buddhist Centres and heritage sites in other countries, such as Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Bangladesh, China and Pakistan,” reads the declaration.

Lord Buddha was born in the sacred garden of Lumbini during 6^th century B.C., he attained enlightenment in Bodh Gaya, gave his first sermon in Sarnath and died in Kushinagar.

The Buddhist Circuit has become an agenda in various Nepal-India bilateral forums, but there has not been significant progress in materialising the concept.

The conference also agreed to develop an integrated Greater Lumbini Master Plan, including pilgrimage destinations within the Buddhist Circuit of Nepal – Kapilvastu, Devadaha and Ramagram.

Tialurakot in Kapilvastu district was the home of the Buddha, Devadaha in Rupandehidistrict was his maternal home and Ramagram in Nawalparasi district has a relic stupa of the Buddha.

Similarly, the declaration announced that an integrated management plan would be created to safeguard the archaeological cultural and natural heritage of the Greater Lumbini area.

“We agree to safeguard the environment within the Greater Lumbini Area, and monitor and control sources of all forms of pollution, and to create an international centre for peace and conflict resolution in Lumbini,” reads the declaration.

The conference also aims at promoting interfaith dialogue and bringing the world Buddhist community together, addressing rising religious and ethnic violence in Asia and working together to find a Buddhist way to address and resolve conflict.

The summit has also recognised the great relevance of Buddha’s teachings of the Middle path as a sustainable future for humanity today as it faces unprecedented global challenges such as ecological crisis, climate change, widespread poverty, marginalisation, exploitation and violence in the world.

Addressing the conference Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli said that the Buddha and his teachings had played a significant role in showing light to millions of people around the world.

He pledged that the Lumbini Master Plan would be completed within the given time.

Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Rabindra Adhikari expressed his confidence that the conference would help in promoting Buddhist philosophy globally and religious tourism.

Buddhist scholars, religious leaders, monks, nuns and other stakeholders from 23 countries participated in the conference. 

Published in The Rising Nepal on 30 April 2018.