Invest in Nepal, PM tells NRNs

Kathmandu, Apr. 14

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has called the non-resident Nepalis to invest in Nepal and promote the inflow of foreign investment in the country by taking advantage of peaceful and favourable business environment.

Addressing NRNs in various countries in a Zoom meeting on Wednesday, Prime Minister Oli urged them to spread message to foreign investors that investing in Nepal in joint-venture projects would be a wise decision.

"Take the message to the investors in your respective country of residence that in Nepal labour challenges are jointly resolved by the workers and employers. There is no chance of strikes," he said.

Prime Minister Oli said that the NRNs will get all rights except the political one. "If you have not obtained citizenship in foreign countries, you can enjoy political rights in Nepal," he said.

The meeting in Zoom was attended by the PM’s Foreign Affairs Advisor Dr. Rajan Bhattarai, President of Prawasi Nepali Ekta Manch Bhakta Gurung, Nepali ambassadors deployed in various countries and officials of the Non-Resident Nepalese Association (NRNA).

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 15 April 2021. 

Poor mobilisation of capital budget persists

 Kathmandu, Apr. 14

The country has failed to come out of the chronic disease of poor capital expenditure even during the brief period of hopes for political stability, and following the implementation of federalism, which was touted as the remedy for all development maladies from the centre to the local units.

This is what the recent statistics of the Financial Comptroller General's Office on government spending, especially the mobilisation of development budget, has revealed.

Status of capital expenditure by the end of the third quarter in the three consecutive fiscal years is poor with it remaining below the one-third of the total allocated amount in the current and last year.

Capital spending in the current fiscal year 2020/21 is just 29.22 per cent and it was 25.88 per cent in FY 2019/20. The country had announced lockdown to check the spread of coronavirus on March 24 last year, just before 20 days of the end of the third quarter. However, the mobilisation of development budget was a bit better in the corresponding  period with 34.96 per cent in FY 2018/19.

Until Tuesday, April 13, development spending is Rs. 103.1 billion against the annual target of Rs. 352.9 billion. The amount was only Rs. 105.3 billion last year.

Former Finance Minister Dr. Yuba Raj Khatiwada had revised the annual target of development spending while incumbent Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel followed the same suite and brought down the annual expenditure targets to 94.5 per cent of the actual allocation in the mid-term review of the budget of the FY 2020/21.

According to him, as the COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected the development work in the first four months of the current fiscal year, there was a revision in the annual expenditure. Industry operation and development works were performing poorly till the end of the festival season in October 2020.

However, the revenue collection is almost up to the mark with 68.04 per cent total government receipts by April 13. The government has collected Rs. 729.5 billion revenue till Tuesday. Tax revenue collection is 69.74 per cent of the annual target. The size of the budget for the current fiscal is Rs. 1,474.6 billion and the target of revenue is Rs. 1,011.7 billion.

Last year's revenue collection till the end of the third quarter was 55.14 per cent.

By the end of the third quarter, revenue collection has surpassed the total government expenditure which is Rs. 686.6 billion. In the corresponding period last FY, revenue collection was Rs. 645.1 billion and expenditure Rs. 675.8 billion.

Finance Ministry said that since the revenue collection was executed by the agencies under the ministry, it could guide, direct or implement reforms to achieve the targets while development budget is mobilised by various agencies under the development ministries.

The Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Ministry of Urban Development, Ministry of Health and Population, and Ministry of Education, Science and Technology are among the ministries that mobilise large chunk of the development budget.

 Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 15 April 2021. 

KCL organises investment fair

Kathmandu, Apr. 14

Kumari Capital Limited announced an Investment Fair and online opening of beneficiary account on the occasion of Nepali New Year 2078 Wednesday.

It has offered consultation and marketing strategy-related services like investment planning, portfolio rebalancing and structuring and wealth management free of cost. Customers can get 5 per cent cash back while paying the fee for beneficiary account online if they use Khalti wallet to pay the charges.

The bank in a statement on Wednesday said that the fair will run for the whole month of Baishakh and the customers can be benefitted by its consultation about investments.

Customers can open online beneficiary by visiting the company's website and can reach the capital with the original copy of their citizenship card.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 15 April 2021. 

NIBL Ace to manage Excel's right issue

Kathmandu, Apr. 14

NIBL Ace Capital Limited is appointed as the issue manager for the Excel Development Bank Limited, for Right Share issue.

The right shares totaling 2,433,363.67 units will be issued to its shareholders.

The 14^th Annual General Meeting of the company held on July last year had endorsed a 10: 3 rights offering.

The shares will be issued to shareholders at a rate of Rs. 100 per unit. This offering will raise a capital of Rs. 243,336,367 for the company.

The agreement for the same was signed on April 09, 2021 between Dinesh Kumar Pokhrel, Chief Executive Officer of the bank, and Mekh Bahdaur Thapa, Deputy Chief Executive Officer and  Sachindra Dhungana, Assistant General Manager of the Capital.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 15 April 2021. 

2077 BS: A year of multiple ups and downs

Kathmandu, Apr. 13

The country was in lockdown when Nepali New Year 2077 begun on April 13, 2020, and it is on the brink of another similar restriction with the surge in coronavirus cases – 460 infection and five deaths – as the year concludes on Tuesday.

Confusion and apprehension prevail on the part of the government as well as in the private sector especially the service sectors like education, tourism and hospitality even on the eve of the New Year.

Opening school has become a contentious issue with doctors and large section of guardians suggesting their closure while school operators are openly voicing for the continuity of physical classes. Tourism sector was badly hit by the pandemic and this sector lost about 16 per cent of its annual Gross Domestic Product in the last fiscal year.

Economy

The economic growth witnessed a negative trend with -1.9 per cent in the last fiscal which is expected to rise to 2.7 per cent this year. However, this hope is fragile as it could be easily shattered if there is another lockdown or any sort of restriction in the last three months of the fiscal year since a major part of the capital budget is mobilised during this period and development work takes pace.

Meanwhile, in the last nine-months, until Monday, the government could mobilise only 46.5 per cent of the total annual budget with only 29.2 per cent capital spending, according to the Financial Comptroller General's Office.

 The pandemic has significantly affected the materilisation of the foreign investment pledges made in the Nepal Investment Summit held in March 2019, some weeks before the lockdown was imposed.

The Investment Board had recently finalised the feasibility study and Detailed Project Report of four large infrastructure projects showcased at the summit.

Although the World Bank has revised Nepal's economic growth to 2.7 per cent this month from its earlier projection of 2.1 per cent made in January, the fear of the virus contagion had begun to hit the economy.

 

Education

Education has been one of the worst hit sectors. While the private schools in the urban areas began to run online classes via Zoom and Teams applications by June last year, schools in villages were in dilemma until August with most of the community schools failing to create connection between the teachers and students.

Poor information technology infrastructure, poor internet and telephone connection and poor access to technology resulted in no classes in many community schools across the country. Some schools in villages tried to run online classes but it couldn't give expected results as many guardians did not have a smartphone let alone laptops and desktop computers.

The pandemic affected the academic calendars of the universities and students of Bachelors first year are still waiting for their final exam routines. In normal situation, the final exams should have been completed eight months ago.

Although the universities hesitantly readied themselves for the virtual classes, with some exception, they failed to run virtual exams. On top of that while the risk of the virus prevailed throughout the year, universities did not create procedures and infrastructure to conduct online examination. Education sector's growth shrunk to 3 per cent in 2019/20 from 5.98 per cent in 2018/19.

 

Politics

The year remained tumultuous due to intra-party rift in the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP). The largest communist party in history of Nepal that had command almost a two-thirds majority in the parliament was in the news throughout the year as the chair of the party Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda supported by senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal challenged the authority and leadership of chair and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. As factionalism reached the grassroot level of the party and Prachanda Nepal faction took action against Oli, the latter retaliated by dissolving the House of Representatives on December 20, 2020.  

However, the dissolution of the parliament was immediately challenged at the Supreme Court and in a landmark decision, the SC reinstated the parliament. In another dramatic development, the court conferred the name of the NCP on Rishi Ram Kattel, thereby dismissing the three-year old unification between the CPN-UML and the Maoist Centre.

This decision finally split the NCP into its earlier form: CPN-UML and CPN-MC. Lately Madhav Nepal faction of the UML is creating parallel party structures across the country. The party debacle was visible in the election of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) where candidates near to UML's Oli and Nepal faction and MC won in 11, 7 and 10 districts respectively. The year 2078 will continue to witness the widening of the tensions between the two factions of the UML.

 

International relations

In an historical attempt, Nepal published a new map including Kalapani region, Limpiyadhura and Lipulek – which have been occupied by India for the last six decades – in its territory. Earlier, in November 2019, India published its political map including Nepali territory inside its international borders. Nepal immediately sent diplomatic note expressing dissatisfaction over India's unilateral move. But the southern neighbour did not correct its move, instead it developed a road in Nepali territory of Kalapani region. Finally, Nepal published a new map of the country including the India-occupied region in its territory in May last year (in the month of Jestha).

However, despite prolonged tensions between Nepal and India, the government cautiously handed the relations and maintained the economic and social relations with the latter. The publication of the map created a national unity with all political parties and civil society voicing support for the move.

The government's diplomacy was particularly successful in procuring the vaccines against coronavirus. While about 100 countries across the globe have not received single dose of vaccines, Nepal had inoculated about 1.7 million of its citizens so far and is set to begin the second dose of the jabs from next week.

 

Development

This year marked the completion of the long-awaited Melamchi Water Supply Project which was dreamt for about three decades and was supposed to be completed by 2008. The national pride project received multiple glitches and went to through multiple cost and time overrun. However, the pandemic slowed the progress of other large projects like Upper Tamakoshi Hydroelectricity Project, Gautam Buddha International Airport, Pokhara International Airport and many other.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on April 14, 2021. 

Joint Efforts For Growth

Industrial development in Nepal has been a mirage for the last many decades. There were multiple excuses for the poor performance of the tertiary sector of the economy – Maoist War, power shortage, political instability, trade unions, poor infrastructure, and poor linkages to the domestic and international markets. There were widespread concerns about underperformance of the industrial, especially the manufacturing, sector while multiple policies were amended and created in the past one-and-half decades to check the free fall of the economy. 

But even after the end of the Maoist conflict, availability of power, improvement in infrastructure and better policy environment, contribution of industrial production to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is still hovering around about 6 per cent. According to the Economic Survey 2019/20, sectoral contribution of the industrial sector to GDP growth was 15.7 in 2018/19. It was 20/3 in 2016/17.

Meanwhile, the government organised two investment summits to showcase available large projects to the foreign and domestic investors and attract investments. The Investment Board is currently evaluating four large infrastructure projects including that of cable car, industrial park and logistic facilities worth Rs. 137.2 billion. 

It is reaching the investors who had expressed their interest to invest in Nepal at the second Investment Summit in 2019 through Nepali missions abroad. The speed of materialising the investment intention was obstructed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Of late, the government and IBN have put joint efforts in improving the investment climate and improve the position of the country in the Doing Business index.

To expand the manufacturing industry and promote entrepreneurship, the government, in the past couple of years, had made policy and procedural reforms. Investment and Technology Transfer Act, Special Economic Zone Act, Public Private Partnership and Investment Act, Industrial Enterprise Regulation and Directives for Establishment and Operation of Industrial Village are implemented since 2019. Likewise, Integrated Check Post (ICP) is in operation in Birgunj while ICP in Bhairahawa is in the process to come into operation while a couple of them are in the pipeline in the southern border points. Single Point Service is launched at the Department of Industry and IBN.

As most of the reforms were put into effect before the COVID-19 crisis, there is a need of policy adjustment in order to address the gaps and challenges created by the pandemic. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli said rightly the other day that there were still problems which should be resolved with the joint efforts of the government and the private sector. The pandemic has created opportunities for countries like Nepal to apply the latest technology in the enterprises and develop communication infrastructure for the crisis like this.

For Nepal, this is high time for industrial growth as the agrarian economy is transitioning to industry and service sector while demands in the domestic market is growing exponentially backed by the remittance and increased income at home. At the same time, the private sector is ready to move ahead in collaboration with the government. 

This intention is better expressed in the Vision Paper 2030 published by the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry on Saturday. The private sector needs better policy environment, financial relief and support to the pandemic-affected enterprises and trade facilitation. It will result in greater production, increased export and self-reliance in certain goods and employment generation which are the goals of the government as well. 

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on April 12, 2021. 

Integrated approach needed for R & D

 Kathmandu, Apr. 4

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) reported to the Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Sunday that integrated approach and contribution from all the ministries and line agencies were needed to achieve the expected results in research and development.

Submitting the Strategic Action Plan 2021 formulated to implement the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, 2020 to the Prime Minister, the ministry stressed that wide application and use of science and technology was a prerequisite to achieve the national aspiration of prosperity.

Minister for Education, Science and Technology Krishna Gopal Shrestha presented the action plan to the Prime Minister. He said that each level and sector should promote study, research, use and commercial application of science and technology to meet the sectorial development goals.

Ministry officials stated that necessary equipment needed to be imported as earlier as possible and the government should facilitate and incentivise the transfer of technology with the facility of concessional loan and reduction in customs duties.

The 10-year action plan mentions that research and development would be made result-oriented to connect them with entrepreneurship, enhance scientific awareness, promote scientific learning in the schools and make science education more effective.

It aims at enhancing the quality of science and technology study, increasing its access as well as attraction and effectiveness of technological and vocational education, and transforming the science, technology and innovation through the protection, promotion and commercialisation of traditional technology.

It will help for the effective use of science and technology in the development of physical infrastructure, agriculture and food security, mitigation of disaster risk, protection of environment, herbs processing and diagnosis of various diseases, the Prime Minister’s secretariat said in a statement.

Likewise, the execution of the action plan will create opportunities to apply science and technology in the areas of tunnel construction, road, bridge and hydroelectricity project development, water reservoir, minerals, and medicinal herbs.

In its presentation, the MoEST said that a high-level dialogue among politics, communication, business community and academia, and development of social network of the researchers and scientist was needed to achieve these goals.

The action plan also includes the steps like promotion of professional societies, strengthening of science education in school level, development of laboratories, capacity enhancement of teachers and motivational programmes for them, emphasis on technical and vocational education, and short-term vocational programmes for the students of class 9-12 to engage them in post-exam period.

It has suggested developing science infrastructure in additional 25 locations.

A National Science Council will act as a coordinating agency that will communicate with all the ministries and agencies. About Rs. 258 billion is needed to execute the action plan.

Prime Minister Oli directed the concerned agencies and sectors to take necessary steps for the implementation of the action plan.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on April 5, 2021.