Views of a Nepali Economist

Current year seems to be more promising as about 109,554 job aspirants joined foreign jobs in the first three months. However, quality of workers and job destinations has not changed. Above 70 per cent of the Nepali migrant workers are still unskilled involved in 3D (Difficult, Dirty and Danger) works in Malaysia and Gulf countries – Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and others. More than two million documented Nepali workers are currently in those destinations. According to the department, four top destinations have hired 17.31 million workers in the last two decades and equal number of undocumented migrants are estimated to be in those destinations. Malaysia has hired the highest number of Nepali migrant workers (675,573) followed by Saudi Arabia (412,441); Qatar (384,714) and UAE (258,979) since the fiscal year 1994-95.

The government has been able to spent Rs 36.76 billion, some Rs 10 billion less than the disbursement. As always, the government spending revealed that it is spending more on salaries and administrative expenses rather than on development. It has spent Rs 34.14 billion under recurrent expenditure, Rs 1.10 billion under capital expenditure and Rs 1.52 billion under Financing head by October 7, according to Finance Ministry. More recurrent expenditure means government has failed in creation of assets.

“None of the newly listed companies’ net worth are below Rs 100 so the minimum opening price will not be less than Rs 300, at that price range buyers will chose to buy the shares of established commercial banks — as some of them hover around Rs 200 — instead of some new and unknown development banks or finance companies,” said president of Merchant Bankers Association of Nepal (MBAN) Bhisma Raj Chalise.

...about 55,045 had joined foreign jobs in first year of the decade while migrant workers number reached to 354,716 last year. Current year seems more promising as about 109,554 job aspirants has joined foreign jobs in first three months. However, quality of workers and job destinations has not changed. Above 70 per cent workers are unskilled involved in 3D (difficult, dirty and danger) works in Malaysia and Gulf countries– Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and others. According to the department, four top destinations have hired 17.31 million workers in last two decades and equal number of undocumented migrants estimated in those destinations. Since the fiscal year 1994-45, Malaysia has hired highest number 675,573 Nepalis followed by Saudi Arabia (412,441), Qatar (384,714) and UAE (258,979).

There are only a few detergents which can be used in washing machines to a good result. Major brands like Henko, Ariel, Tide, Surf Excel and Mr White can be used to wash clothes in a washing machine due to their reliable quality. For manual use, detergents like Shakti Wheel and Wheel Lemon Fresh are in high demand, according to traders. At Bhatbhateni Department Store, Henko is the highest selling brand for use in washing machines. Ariel and Tide follow Henko in the same order in terms of volume of sales. Henko is priced Rs 130 per kg, Ariel Rs 255 per kg and Tide Rs 147 per kg at Bhatbbhateni Department Store.

Ending long-standing dispute over acquisition of land for much-hyped Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track Road, compensation fixation committee on Monday has decided to fix the price of land to be acquired in Makawanpur district for the 76-km express highway in the range of Rs 110,000 to Rs 280,000 per kattha (3,638.20 square feet), depending on location of the land.

The visitor arrivals has increased by 16.8 percent to 73,264 in the month of October 2011 compared to the same month last year and crossed 70,000 mark for monthly air arrival for the first time in the tourism history of Nepal. Arrivals from Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Israel, Spain, Switzerland and UK were up by 18.2 percent, 48.8 percent, 19.3 percent, 25.5 percent, 88.3 percent, 20.7 percent, 15.8 percent, and 7.3 percent respectively. Asia (other than South Asian region) saw overall increase of 40 percent in October 2011. Except for Malaysia (-1 percent), almost all the markets recorded positive growth with China (105.9 percent),Japan (7.3 percent) Singapore (5.7 percent), South Korea (29.4 percent) and Thailand (23.6 percent) compared to the same month last year.

“The HDI of South Asia as a region increased from 0.356 in 1980 to 0.548 at present, placing Nepal below the regional average, the annual flagship publication of the UNDP said, adding that the HDI trends tell an important story both at the national and regional level and highlight the very large gaps in well-being and life chances that continue to divide the interconnected world.

The local farmers started producing Gundruk as they get demand for it from the hotels in UK and European countries as well as Pokhara, and Kathmandu of late, local youth Ratna Singh Garbuja told RSS.

# posted by Mukesh Khanal @ 9:02 AM