NTB to operate paid shuttle bus service on election day

 Kathmandu, May 10

Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) is operating shuttle bus service for the tourists on the election day on 13 May, with the help of Tourist Police and Nepal Tourist Vehicle Association (NTVA) and Tourist Bus Association of Nepal (TBAN).

Considering the inconvenience of air transport between the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) and hotels in Kathmandu on the day of local level election which is going to be held across the country on Friday, the NTB ha arranged a paid shuttle bus service, it said in a statement.

Tourists have to pay Rs. 300 to get the service. The facility is available for three routes. The first route is airport-NAC New Road Gate - Hotel Annapurna - Hotel Yak and Yeti - Thamel Chowk - Lainchaur Chowk - Shankar Hotel - Ambassador Hotel - Airport.

Likewise, second route moves from the airport via Hotel Radisson - Sangrila Hotel - Narayan Gopal Chowk - Maharajganj Chowk - Hyatt Regency - Chabahil Chowk - Hotel Dwarika to airport.

The third route moves from the airport along Tinkune Chowk - Hotel Everest - Maitighar Chowk - Hotel Himalayan - Hotel Soaltee - Grand Hotel and ends at the airport.

The government has shut down the domestic flight operations on the election day while international flights will be operated at the TIA. This service is expected to facilitate the international tourists and Nepali people arriving at the TIA and flying out of the country on that day. 

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 11 May 2022. 

NAST IT-bus to reach every district

Kathmandu, May 8

The Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) is planning to move the Mobile Information Access Centre (MIAC) for a month each to every district across the country.

The first-ever Mobile Information Access Centre available in the country is developed by the NAST with the support from the Korean government and launched at the CAN Infotech 2022, organised last month in Kathmandu. The facility is a mobile bus.

The technology bus will move to the districts especially in the rural areas to empower people with the training and hands on experience on the latest development of information and communication technology (ICT).

Dr. Rabindra Dhakal, Head of the Faculty of Technology at the NAST, said that the science body had already talked to four provinces – Sudurpaschim, Karnali, Gandaki and Lumbini and has received positive responses.

However, there is still a hesitation in the part of the subnational governments regarding the actual use and impact of the new facility. "Therefore, we want to develop it as a model project. Our collaborator South Korean IT agency also wishes the same. It’s a kind of test drive," said Dr. Dhakal.

In the first phase, the NAST is planning to run a couple of test rounds of the facility in selected areas.

The IT bus was developed targeting the areas and groups that do not have access to information technology. The air-conditioned bus is equipped with WiFi, laptop, projector, screen, electronic podium, printer, visualizer, sound system, speaker and toilet, and can accommodate 18 individuals who can participate in a mini conference.

The IT-enabled bus is developed at a cost of Rs. 15 million of which about Rs. 7 million is invested in various ICT equipment installed in it. "It has all the facilities that an IT lab should have," Dr. Dhakal informed. He maintained that in the first phase at least seven buses – one for each province - are required.

According to the NAST, the bus will be instrumental in connecting the young innovators across the country to a network called National Innovation Digital Network which is in implementation for a while. The network provides a facility to the innovators to create their accounts, maintain their profiles and create collaborations in their projects.

Dr. Dhakal stated that the NAST aims to reach the rural areas of the country by means of a mobile bus and help bridge the gap between the educated and the uneducated in the field of ICT.

Other objectives of the MIAC project is to increase IT awareness in marginalised communities, addressing techno-phobia in civil servants and teachers, and enhancing IT literacy. It will be used to conduct ICT trainings for civil servants, students, teachers and private sector employees. The facility has supporting aid for the disabled people.

Private sector companies also can hire the bus to train their employees and customers, and conduct other programmes. "We aim to organise joint programmes with the private sector companies and local governments. ICT-based centre of excellence in the provinces will be mobilised in this task," said Dr. Dhakal.

Earlier, CAN Federation, national organisation of ICT companies, entrepreneurs and experts, had said that it would work with the NAST in enhancing IT literacy, conducting training and increasing other programmes using the IT-bus. 

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 9 May 2022. 

Religious leaders gather in Kathmandu

 Kathmandu, May 7

Faith community members, religious leaders and educators from 21 different countries have come together in Kathmandu to learn about interreligious dialogue, conflict prevention, and the promotion of social cohesion.

The event being organised from 6 to12 May is the first event ever hosted by the International Dialogue Centre (KAICIID) in Nepal, it said in a statement on Saturday.

The event titled 'International Fellows Programme' is a capacity-building and training programme organized by the centre, which is based in Vienna of Austria. It brings together participants from different corners of the globe and different religious backgrounds who receive training in interreligious dialogue facilitation, conflict prevention, intercultural communication and the promotion of social cohesion, read the statement.  

The KAICIID was initiated by Saudi Arabia, and it signed an agreement for the establishment of the organisation in Vienna of Austria. Holy See is the founding observer, the centre said in its website. Its Board of Directors comprises prominent representatives from five major world religions - Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism. The Board designs and supervises the Centre’s programmes.

"It promotes dialogue to build peace in conflict areas. It does this by enhancing understanding and cooperation between people of different cultures and followers of different religions," it said in a statement.

According to the centre, the fellows are a global community of diverse religious leaders, educators and dialogue practitioners from Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh and other religious backgrounds. This second training of the 2022 fellows cohort in Kathmandu is also the first event that KAICIID ever hosted in Nepal.

Throughout these six days, participants will not only undergo training, but they will also get to embark on excursions to some of Kathmandu´s most important sacred sites.

Since the programme was launched in 2015, more than 400 Fellows from over 80 different nations have completed it and have therefore joined the 'Fellows Alumni Network'. The centre also provides the fellows with small grants to implement their own dialogue projects, tailored to the needs of their institutions and communities back home.

Past initiatives have included interfaith youth projects, trainings in interreligious/intercultural dialogue for future religious leaders, hate speech awareness campaigns, and initiatives designed to empower women, it said.

“Nepal is a nation that is abundantly multicultural and one that celebrates its diversity. We are very excited to come here with our programme for the very first time. Through this programme, we provide our Fellows with an opportunity to interact with religious leaders from around the world and forge real friendships with “the Other,” KAICIID Senior Programme Manager, Kyfork Aghobjian said.

According to him, the interreligious and intercultural exchange that they go through leaves an enormous impact. For many, it is the experience of a lifetime.  

Meanwhile, Rajendra Century, a fellow of the centre from Nepal said that the fellows will visit some religious and cultural sites in Nepal which will help to promote Nepal's touristic destination. "This is a growing organisation and fellows will help to enhance Nepal's image as multicultural and multi-faith nation across the globe," he said.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 8 May 2022. 

Press freedom heart and soul of democracy: President Bhandari

Kathmandu, May 7

President Bidya Devi Bhandari has said that there can be no institutional development of democracy without freedom of expression and freedom of press.

Speaking at the National Journalism Award and Senior Journalist Felicitation Ceremony organized on the occasion of the 7th National Journalism Day 2079 BS, she said that the press in Nepal has played an important role in the transformation of the society.

"Responsible journalism is indispensable in democracy. The press must work to provide accurate facts and information to people," President Bhandari said.

She lauded Nepali media for its role in informing the public during the national crisis like the natural calamities and epidemics and for providing accurate information.

She also urged the Nepali press to be sensitive so that the news coming from the media should not be unfair to anyone.

Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki said that the role played by the Nepali press in achieving democracy and institutionalising it in Nepal was significant. "Democracy is unthinkable without the freedom of the press," he said.

Minister Karki said that the dream of prosperity of the people could not be fulfilled if the independent press and government could not work together. Stating that the present government is always ready to protect and promote the press, he urged the media to point out the shortcomings and weaknesses of the government without fear.

President of the Federation of Nepali Journalists, Bipul Pokharel, said that the government has been intimidating media from time to time even though there has been a share and partnership of media in every political change. He urged to simplify the procedural delays and hassles in getting information from the state bodies.

On the occasion, President Bhandari conferred the Senior Journalist Award 2078 on Kishore Nepal and Taranath Dahal. The amount of this award is Rs. 200,000 each.

Similarly, journalists DR Pant, Iqbal Ahmed, Thakur Belbase, Bal Kumar Nepal, Ganga Baral and Samjhana Ban were awarded with National Journalism Award 2078.

The amount of this award is Rs. 100,000 each.

Likewise, the Senior Journalist Honour 2076, which could not be distributed last year due to COVID-19 pandemic, was conferred on Harsha Subba and late Agni Shikha. Uzir Magar, Matrika Poudel, Sangeeta Khadka, Shesh Raj Dahal, Hemant Bahadur BK and Sheetal Shah also received the honour.

Similarly, Shardul Bhattarai and Raghu Mainali were honoured with Senior Journalist Award 2077 while Dilip Thapa Magar, Dipen Neupane, Durga Prasad Sharma, Saroj Jung Pandey, Nitu Pandit and Poonam Poudel were honoured with National Journalism Award 2077.

 Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 8 May 2022. 

'It’s a high time to apply import management'

Kathmandu, May 4

Experts have suggested the government to immediately resort to import management techniques to address the current pressure on foreign exchange and promote domestic industries.

"There is a need to adopt import management techniques like countervailing, tariff and non-tariff measures as well as quality control for foreign goods being imported to Nepal," said former secretary of government of Nepal, Chandra Kumar Ghimire at an interaction on export-based industry and foreign exchange, organised by Nepal Association of Financial Journalists (NAFIJ) on Wednesday.

He attributed the current economic crisis to the indifference of the government machinery in implementing trade deficit reduction measures. "In 2018, the role of 13 different bodies was discussed in formulating a trade deficit reduction strategy, but the strategy was never implemented. That is why we are facing the external sector pressure and threat to the domestic manufacturing industry today," said Ghimire who had served as the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies.

He said that the Ministry of Finance was also adopting a wrong policy. "While we are talking about export-oriented economic growth, the MoF and its subordinate bodies are focused on import-oriented economic growth," he stated.

The private sector representatives said that the country failed to tap the export potential as the government couldn't incentivise and promote export.

Dr. Surendra Upreti, Senior Economic Adviser of the Ministry of Finance acknowledged that despite many policy reforms over the past four decades, there has been no significant achievement. "Now we need a policy departure. Our exports are not sustainable," he said.

According to him, the country should adopt two policies – promoting exports and replacing imports – simultaneously. He also said that the government has ralised that the policy and programmes for the next fiscal year 2022/23 should give top priority to export promotion.

 

 

Need of a policy

General Secretary of Garment Association of Nepal (GAN), Ashok Kumar Agrawal said the garment industry was pushed into an existential crisis due to the lack of good policy and long-term vision of the government. Garment export was about US$ 400 million two decades ago which is shrunk to about $50 million.

He said that the export industry was in crisis as Nepal's economic policies and activities were based on remittance and import revenue. Agrawal suggested that the competitiveness of Nepali products in the world market has been weakened due to high production cost and lack of cash subsidy.

The government currently provides 3 percent cash subsidy to export-oriented industries. He said that since Nepali products are 27 percent more expensive than those of neighboring countries, there would be problems in competing in foreign markets and at least 10 per cent subsidy should be given for exports.

Illegal imports hit local products

President of Nepal Yarn Manufacturers' Association, Pawan Golyan said that the textile industry has been contributing a lot to the growth of the value chain but such entrepreneurs have been losing out due to lack of attention of the state in its promotion.

He said that the domestic production was weakened due to illegal imports in Nepal. According to him, Nepal consumes cloths worth Rs. 600 billion in a year but about 84 per cent of it is under-invoiced or smuggled into the country.

He said that export-oriented industries also need easy refinancing and export credit insurance.

Resham Bahadur Pokharel, President of Export Council of Nepal, mentioned that the problem arises when the government body does not have a clear policy and vision.

 

One per cent to export promotion

Durga Bikram Thapa, Vice-president of the Federation of Export Entrepreneurs Nepal, pointed out that 1 per cent of the total export amount should be allocated for promotion campaign to expand exports.

Vice President of the Confederation of Nepalese Industries, Krishna Prasad Adhikari accused the government officials of being indifferent to the implementation of government policy.

Food imports raise trade deficit

Ravi Shainju, former joint secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, said that petroleum imports, iron ore and food imports have raised the trade deficit graph in Nepal.

In the last five years, Nepal's export-import ratio has been in double digits. High trade deficit trend is expected to be continued this year as well.

Shainju suggested the export entrepreneurs to modernise the old technology of the industry in time, make the supply chain sustainable and adopt agility in logistics management. He also said that the country should arrange a couple of cargo planes to facilitate export of Nepali goods.

Similarly, Executive Director of the SEZ Authority, Dr. Chandika Prasad Bhatta, pointed out that the presence of the industry has increased in the Special Economic Zone in recent times as the industry-friendly policy has been adopted.

According to him all the plots at Bhairahawa SEZ are leased out and the authority had received the commitment of Rs. 10 billion investment there.

 Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 5 May 2022. 

ISPs to be provided foreign exchange

 Kathmandu, May 3

The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MoCIT) Wednesday decided to recommend for foreign exchange to the Internet Service Provider (ISP) companies.

The ISPs on April 30 had warned that the internet could be shut down across the country from this week. The warning had come on the pretext that they were unable to pay their bills to the upstream providers in India that were supplying the internet service to Nepali ISPs as the MoCIT ceased recommending for the foreign exchange needed for the payment.

According to the Internet Service Providers Association of Nepal (ISPAN), ISPs in Nepal have about Rs. 3.5 billion due to the Indian upstream providers. It said that the latter had warned to cut the internet supply in case the importers failed to make the payment.

The foreign exchange facility was curtailed for the past six months since the ISPs failed to clear their revenue dues for the past four years but the ministry was trying to raise it from them as the Auditor General had mentioned it in arrears and recommended the former to collect it from the internet companies.

But ISPs claim that since the Public Accounts Committee of the Federal Parliament and the Supreme Court in separate decisions asked the government not to collect the dues as it was exempted by the telecommunication bylaws. However, the MoCIT said that decision covered only 2017/18 and the companies should clear their dues incurred in the later years.

However, the MoCIT decided to recommend for the foreign exchange as the Election Commission directed all concerned stakeholders to address the issue so that the internet couldn't be disturbed during the elections.

Meanwhile, the ISPs and ministry, including Communication and Information Technology Minister Gyanendra Bahadur Karki and high officials, held a dialogue on Monday, after months.

 The MoCIT will begin issuing recommendations for the foreign exchange from Wednesday. 

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 4 May 2022. 

‘Policy consistency key to avert built-in economic risks’

Kathmandu, May 3

Former Finance Minister, Dr. Yuba Raj Khatiwada, said that inconsistency in policy has led the country to the present economic pressures.

"There should be policy consistency in all economic aspects since we have built-in risks in our economy," he said while speaking at a talk on 'Current economic situation of Nepal: Challenges and opportunities' organised by Nepal Youth Chamber (NYC) – a sister organisation of Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) in the capital on Tuesday.

Stating that there was no harmony and cooperation among the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, Nepal Rastra Bank and other concerned agencies, Dr. Khatiwada said that the coordination among them in creating economic policies is the key to progress. 

According to him, the country couldn't aspire for a high growth rate because it would have created external sector pressure. Even the 7 per cent growth in 2017/18 causes stress in the domestic economy. This is the largest structural challenge for Nepali economy.

"Domestic demand-led growth has a limitation. You can see the intensity of our imports which ranges from road to agriculture and printing to interior. About 65 per cent equipment and machines for hydroelectricity project are imported," he said while maintaining that in manufacturing sector, Nepal is importing goods worth Rs. 100 and exporting finished goods of Rs. 120.

Dr. Khatiwada also said that the asset market bubble in the post-COVID scenario created demands which propelled import growth that caused pressure on Balance of Payment. "This is a policy failure. We need to move forward with analysis of this aspect," he said.

However, he maintained that the economy is gradually recovering and stressed on the promotion of exportable industries and goods that have competitive advantage.

Executive Director of the NRB, Dr. Gunakar Bhatta, said that the interest rates are coming down to the pre-pandemic level.

According to him, private sector credit to GDP ratio has reached 87 per cent which is the highest in South Asian region.

Likewise, Economist, Dr. Bishwas Gauchan stated that external sector is the most influential element to propel the economic crisis. "This crisis has the root in pre-COVID situation. A large part of the private sector loan has been mobilised to import financing. Lending practice has not supported the economic growth in the country," he said.

He said that Nepal should go for a long-term reform.

Vice-president of Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC), Dipak Shrestha, said that there are still many procedural hurdles for the entrepreneurs in Nepal.

He said that import restriction is not a big deal but the government has to conduct a study before imposing such a ban to know which items are actually not needed for people. We must not take the consumers in Kathmandu in account while imposing a nation-wide policy.

"NCC has always been taking lead in keeping the market price in control. Increasing price of goods does not mean that the businessmen are getting benefitted from it. The hurdles and obstructions cause increment in price," said Shrestha.

Joint Secretary of Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (MoICS), Govinda Bahadur Karki, said that most of Nepal's industrial production is based on the imported raw materials. If we tightened the import of raw materials, production and exports might also be affected, he said.  

Edible oil export is completely based on imported raw materials.

This is the opportunity for the domestic producers using domestic raw materials. "Why not exploit it? The budget of the next fiscal year 2022/23 will announce some incentives for the industries based on the local raw materials," said Karki.

He said that the Nepal Trade Integration Strategy is being reviewed and amended to support export of indigenous products.

According to him, Nepal will lose trade preferences it has been enjoying in various regions, so the ministry is preparing LDC graduation strategy to promote exports after the country's graduation to the developing status in 2026.

Sunil KC, CEO of NMB Bank Limited, said that the banks and financial institutions are discouraging unproductive sector lending.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 4 May 2022.