Duke, Duchess busy in meeting Award participants

 Kathmandu, Feb. 6

The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Edward, met a diverse range of participants undertaking the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award in Kathmandu on Wednesday.

The award gets funding from the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Foundation, of which the Duke is Chair of Trustees.

At the British Embassy, the Duke presented nineteen young Nepalis with the Gold Award (two were awarded in absentia) – the highest achievement in the award programme and a culmination of hard work and self-development by the young people.

The Award has been established in Nepal for ten years, has benefited over 6,000 young people through building lifelong skills and experiences, and is implemented by a team of over 500 volunteers, the British Embassy in Kathmandu informed in a statement.

According to the Embassy, the Duke also met young participants from a range of backgrounds – including young people from government schools, the scouts, SOS Children’s Villages, and those from underprivileged communities who benefit from the programme.

“To achieve Gold Award takes courage, commitment and tenacity – you should be exceptionally proud of what you’ve achieved,” he told the award winners.

Likewise, at a reception hosted British Ambassador to Nepal, Rob Fenn, the Duke and Duchess – Sophie - met over 200 people representing the UK-Nepal friendship.

At the reception, Sue Layden – whose father was the first director of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award in the UK and led the first successful Everest expedition - announced a new initiative that will support ten young people to do their Award expedition in the Kanchenjunga Conservation Area where they will work with local schools and on a red panda conservation project.

This year 2025 marks the 70 years since the first assent of Kanchenjunga – 3^rd highest mountain in the world – by a British expedition that was funded by the Mount Everest Foundation established by Lord Hunt, who led the 1953 Everest expedition and became the first Director of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.

The British Embassy said that there are several plans to mark the occasion, including efforts to secure UNESCO biosphere protection of the Kanchenjunga Conservation Area. "The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award draws on Lord Hunt’s connections and will enable Gold participants to volunteer in and around Kanchenjunga. This will comprise funding for five young Nepalis and five young Brits whose adventure will help highlight environmental and sustainable development issues," read the statement.

The Award programme includes over 500 dedicated volunteers, implementing the awards in 105 institutions and centres across the country. It is a Non-Formal Education and Learning framework supporting young people to find their purpose, place and passion in the world, according to the Embassy.

The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh are in Nepal in their maiden trip.

They will also see how UK support has helped Nepal’s improvements in maternal healthcare, and engage with women leaders and activists.

They will also attend the annual Attestation Parade in Pokhara where young men join the British Army, and observe how veterans and their dependents are supported by the Gurkha Welfare Trust.

Their visit will conclude on Sunday.

This visit is the fourteenth visit to Nepal by members of the British Royal family, which over the years have celebrated and reinforced the close ties between the two nations. 

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visited in 1961 and 1986 while King Charles, as Prince of Wales, visited in 1975, 1980, 1992 and 1998. The most recent visit was by Prince Harry in 2016. 

 Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 7 February 2025.  

ABS setting up country’s first-ever cyclotron facility in Dhading

Kathmandu, Feb. 6

Ambar Arbud Sewa (AAS), in collaboration with Meta Healthcare Nepal, United Imaging Healthcare, and Longevous BeamTech Co. Ltd., is setting up the country’s first-ever cyclotron facility in Dhading. Expected to be operational within nine months, this initiative will bring much-needed cancer detection and treatment advancements, the AAS informed in a statement.

The initiative was launched on the occasion of World Cancer Day on Tuesday, February 4.

The new cyclotron facility will produce medical isotopes locally, making cancer diagnostics more accessible.

"For years, Nepali patients have had to rely on imported medical isotopes for critical diagnostic procedures like PET scans. These scans help detect cancer early, significantly improving the chances of successful treatment," read the statement.

According to AAS, this project will provide better access to advanced medical imaging and open doors for further research and innovation in nuclear medicine. With cancer becoming an increasing concern, timely diagnosis is crucial in saving lives.

“By establishing this facility, we are ensuring that patients no longer face delays or need to travel abroad for essential scans," said President of AAS, Dhan Bahadur Sherchan. The impact will be felt across hospitals and medical institutions, benefiting countless patients and their families, he maintained.

According to the participating organisations, this initiative is believed to pave the way for enhanced accessibility to life-saving medical imaging and bring renewed hope to patients nationwide.

 Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 7 February 2025.  

PM receives briefing on progress of Expressway

 Kathmandu, Feb. 5

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Wednesday received a briefing on the progress, existing challenges, and possible solutions regarding the Kathmandu-Tarai/Madhes Expressway.

In a meeting held at the Office of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers at the Singha Durbar and attended by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel, Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Devendra Dahal, Minister for Defence Manbir Rai, PM’s Economic Affairs Advisor Dr. Yubaraj Khatiwada and Chief of Army Staff Ashok Raj Sigdel, PM inquired about the overall financial and physical progress made in the national pride project that would be the shortest connection between the Tarai and the Capital city Kathmandu.

The project is being built by the Nepali Army.

According to a statement issued by the PMO, the Nepali Army presented long-standing delays in land acquisition at Khokana in Lalitpur district, where the project begins, and slow progress in tree clearance within the project area as the key challenges.

However, Prime Minister Oli expressed confidence that the Army would ensure quality work, as the government had entrusted them with the project after careful consideration. He instructed the concerned ministries to further assess the Khokana land acquisition issue and propose a solution.

The Kathmandu-Tarai Expressway spans 70.97 km and has an estimated cost of Rs. 211.93 billion. The project was initiated in 2017 and revised deadline is March 2027. According to the Nepali Army, the project has so far achieved 37.6 per cent physical progress and 39.74 per cent financial progress.

As per the initial project design, it should have been completed last year.

The expressway begins at Khokana in Lalitpur and ends in Nijgadh of Bara district. It will have six tunnels of a total 10.055 km and 89 bridges of 12.88 km. 

 Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 6 February 2025.  

FM Paudel stresses coordination to check revenue leakage

Kathmandu, Feb. 5

The Central Revenue Leakage Control Committee (CRLCC) has stressed the need for an enhanced coordination and collaboration among the stakeholders from the federal to local level to further control the revenue leakage.

Speaking at the meeting of the committee, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Bishnu Prasad Paudel, who also serves as the CRLC's coordinator, said that there is a need to tightening control over potential smuggling routes, both around customs checkpoints and alternative ones.

According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Finance (MoF), he said that a responsible and proactive approach from all agencies could lead to significant success in curbing illegal trade. According to rough estimates from economists and concerned agencies, more than 40 per cent of import and exports happens through informal routes impacting revenue collection.

Finance Secretary, Dr. Ram Prasad Ghimire, emphasised for a uniform understanding among various agencies regarding imported and exported goods, their classification and usage. He stressed that all efforts should be based on factual data.

Likewise, Revenue Secretary, Dinesh Kumar Ghimire, said that regulating the source of production and imports would make it easier to control the illegal trade. He also expressed confidence that the commitments made by officials in the meeting would be effectively implemented.

Officials participating in the meeting acknowledged gradual improvements in tackling illegal exports and imports but emphasised the need for additional efforts to achieve meaningful results.

Enhanced border surveillance, stronger market monitoring and prioritising the use of technology for better enforcement are the major recommendations made at the meeting to curb the illegal trade.

The meeting was attended by officials from the Ministry of Finance, Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, Department of Revenue Investigation, Department of Customs, Inland Revenue Department, Department of Money Laundering Investigation, Nepal Police, Armed Police Force, and National Investigation Department, among others.

Earlier in August 2024, a meeting of the CRLCC had decided to meet the target of revenue collection for the current fiscal year by expanding tax-friendly services and controlling revenue leakage.

It has also decided to form a central rapid patrol team to check the leakage and deploy the team across the southern border. However, the meeting had expressed concerns about not causing any sorrow to the taxpayers conducting business according to the law.

DPM Paudel, then, had also instructed the concerned agencies to make surveillance more effective through the adoption of modern technology, make the classification and evaluation of imported goods realistic, encourage the act of taking and giving bills while purchasing goods or services and be ruthless in investigating the business setups promoting fake bills or firms.

Despite these efforts, revenue collection is yet to be satisfactory. According to the statistics published by the Financial Comptroller General Office, the government could mobilise only 41.48 per cent tax revenue by Tuesday, in almost seven months of the current Fiscal Year 2024/25.

Rs. 532.86 billion of the annual revenue target Rs. 1284.2 billion has been collected so far.

Meanwhile, the non-tax revenue has been impressive with 55.71 per cent achievement which is Rs. 75.25 billion of the annual target of Rs. 135.09 billion. 

 Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 6 February 2025.  

Passport Deparemtn refutes media reports it altered bidding process

Kathmandu, Feb. 4

The Department of Passport (DoP) informed on Tuesday that it has e-passports in stock enough to maintain supply for a year.

"We have 10,21,700 copies of passports. According to our estimates, the stock will be enough to cover the demand for a year," said Tirtha Raj Aryal, Director General of the DoP in an interaction with the journalists. The agency under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) is taking measures to avoid a gap between supply and demand of passports.

In 2022/23, the DoP had issued 833,476 passports.

Aryal's statement has come in the wake of recent controversy on the tendering of e-passport printing that the Department's bidding requirement favoured IDEMIA, a French company that has been working with the DoP in printing the Machine-Readable Passports (MRPs).

Following the publication of the notice, multiple complaints were filed with various authorities including the Prime Minister's Office and the Commission for the Investigation of the Abuse of Authority (CIAA) and Public Procurement Monitoring Office (PPMO), the Department has revised the tender document.

Other concerned agencies like the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and parliamentary committees also received complaints.

The PPMO had asked the DoP to address the complaints of which the former received from at least six companies. Likewise, the CIAA also initiated an investigation on the complaints that it received about the potential irregularities in the e-passport procurement process.

However, the DoP said that the bidding document was amended as per the suggestions made by various companies that showed interest in printing the passport. In a pre-bid meeting organised by the Department, 22 companies participated and requested for making some amendments in the initial notice. "So, we amended the bid notice and extended the deadline by a month from 12 January to 11 February, 2025," said Aryal.

Initial notice for international bidding was published on 28 November, 2024.

The bid notice included two packages: procurement of Electronic Machine-Readable Transport Documents (eMRTDs or e-passport) system including pre-enrolment, enrolment, data management and delivery system, and procurement of eMRTDs booklet with personalization, quality control and packing system.

The DoP made another amendment to the bid document on January 20 to allow three companies to apply for the task under a joint-venture arrangement. A provision that would give preference to a single company applying for both the packages was also revised.

Following the revision to the bid document, a company participating in Package 1 must have an annual turnover of USD 1.2 million over the last three years, while a company participating in Package 2 must have an annual turnover of USD 4 million. A company participating in both packages must have an annual turnover of USD 5.2 million.

Stating that the DoP prepared the bid document including the technical specifications as per the guidelines and standards of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), Aryal said that the Department followed a transparent process that allowed the participation of all potential bidders in it.

He also refuted the media reports that the DoP prepared the bidding document to favour any particular company or it was influenced by any company.

Nepal started issuing e-passports on 17 November 2021 and the current MRPs will be in use as far as 2031. The country had transitioned to the MRPs from handwritten passports in 2010. 

 Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 5 February 2025.  

Duke, Duchess of Edinburgh in Nepal

 Kathmandu, Feb. 4

The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, are in Nepal in their maiden trip to the Himalayan nation. Their visit will celebrate the proud history of UK-Nepal relations as well as the new generation of young people who represent the future, the British Embassy in Kathmandu said in a statement on Tuesday.

"They will salute our shared history, including the proud sense of service through the Gurkha relationship, see Nepal’s beauty and culture, meet young people benefiting from participating in the Duke of Edinburgh International Awards, see how UK support has helped Nepal’s improvements in maternal healthcare, and engage with women leaders and activists," read the statement.  

The Duke and Duchess will see how the next 100 years of friendship is developing following the centenary celebrations of the establishment of the bilateral relations between the two nations. According to the Embassy, this includes seeing how the Duke of Edinburgh International Award is helping young people develop new skills and experiences. They will also see some of the UK - Nepal development partnership in maternal health and in economic development.

They will also attend the annual Attestation Parade in Pokhara where young men join the British Army, and observe how veterans and their dependants are supported by the Gurka Welfare Trust.

This visit is the fourteenth visit to Nepal by members of the British Royal family, which over the years have celebrated and reinforced the close ties between the two nations. 

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visited in 1961 and 1986 while King Charles, as Prince of Wales, visited in 1975, 1980, 1992 and 1998. The most recent visit was by Prince Harry in 2016. 

 Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 5 February 2025.  

Remittance shrinks, FDI grows in first half of current fiscal

Kathmandu, Feb. 2

The growth in Nepal’s remittance inflow moderated to 4.1 per cent, reaching Rs. 763.08 billion in the first half of the Fiscal Year 2024/25 coming down from the 22.2 per cent growth observed in the same period last year.

However, in US dollar terms, remittance inflows rose by 1.1 per cent to $5.58 billion, compared to a 19.5 per cent increase in the previous year, according to the latest report of the Nepal Rastra Bank on Nepal's macro-economic and financial situation published on Sunday.

The net secondary income (net transfer) rose to Rs. 832.76 billion, up from Rs. 799.54 billion in the same period last year. This growth is attributed to an increase in foreign employment approvals. A total of 230,439 Nepali workers received first-time approval for foreign employment, while 162,628 workers secured re-entry approvals. Last year, these figures stood at 206,390 and 133,940, respectively.

Likewise, Nepal’s current account surplus stood at Rs. 148.17 billion, a slight decline from Rs. 162.56 billion recorded in the same period last year.

Meanwhile, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) showed a promising increase, with Nepal receiving Rs. 6.50 billion in equity-only FDI during the review period, up from Rs. 4.54 billion in the previous year. Similarly, net capital transfer rose to Rs. 4.29 billion, compared to Rs. 3.11 billion last year.

The Balance of Payments (BOP) remained in surplus at Rs. 249.26 billion, though lower than the Rs. 273.52 billion surplus recorded in the first half of FY 2023/24.

Forex reserves grow

Nepal’s gross foreign exchange reserves increased by 13.5 per cent to Rs. 2,316.84 billion in mid-January 2025, up from Rs. 2,041.10 billion in mid-July 2024. In US dollar terms, reserves reached $16.84 billion, reflecting a 10.3 per cent rise from $15.27 billion in mid-July 2024.

Of the total reserves, those held by the NRB increased by 12.1 per cent to Rs. 2,072.34 billion, while reserves held by banks and financial institutions surged 27 per cent to Rs. 244.50 billion. The share of Indian currency in total reserves stood at 24.3 per cent in mid-January 2025.

According to the NRB the foreign exchange reserves remain sufficient to cover 17.3 months of merchandise imports and 14.4 months of merchandise and services imports. The reserves-to-GDP ratio increased to 40.6 per cent, compared to 35.8 per cent in mid-July 2024.

Inflationary pressures continue

Nepal’s year-on-year (y-o-y) consumer price inflation rose to 5.41 per cent in mid-January 2025, up from 5.26 per cent a year ago.

Food and beverage inflation surged to 7.67 per cent, while non-food and services inflation stood at 4.19 per cent. The report said that prices of vegetables went up by 28.52 per cent, while ghee and oil rose by 10.67 per cent, pulses and legumes by 9.48 per cent, and cereal grains by 7.23 per cent. However, spices saw a 3.12 per cent decline.

Likewise, among non-food items, miscellaneous goods and services rose by 9.35 per cent, alcoholic drinks by 7.01 per cent, clothes and footwear by 6.75 per cent while furnishing and household equipment became dearer by 5.29 per cent.

Among the provinces, Koshi recorded the highest inflation at 6.73 per cent, followed by Madhes (5.96 per cent) and Bagmati (5.14 per cent). Similarly, the inflation rate in Gandaki stood at 4.37 per cent, Lumbini 4.83 per cent, Karnali 4.60 per cent and Sudurpashchim 5.67 per cent. 

 Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 3 February 2025.