Views of a Nepali Economist

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1. $1.6b Chinese loan for West Seti Hydel Project

...Beijing has agreed the loan for the 750 MW project...

2. Handicraft exports rise 11 percent on strong demand from China, US

Exports of Nepali handicraft products climbed 11.71 percent in the last fiscal year...amounting to Rs 3.1 billion in fiscal year 2010-11, up from Rs 2.7 billion in the previous year

Sales to mainland China:
*Rs 92.89 million in 2009/10
*Rs 207.12 million in 2010/11

Sales to Tibet Autonomous Region:
*Rs 33.16 million in 2009/10
*Rs 181.40 million in 2010/11
*That is a 500 percent increase

Sales to the US:
*Rs 739.48 million in 2009/10
*Rs 889.27 million in 2010/11
*US is the main market for Nepali silver handicrafts with exports amounting to Rs 152.9 million last year

*Exports of textile-based goods decreased by 5.08 percent
*Exports of non-textile-based goods increased by 31.72 percent

*Metal crafts were the largest export with a value of Rs 679.3 million
*Woolen goods were second with Rs 495.4 million

*The 10 largest importers of Nepalese handicrafts are (in order): US,Germany, China, Canada, Tibet, Japan, UK, France, Italy and Netherlands.

3. $7.7m Japanese grant assistance for poverty reduction

...for three projects in Nepal aimed at reducing child malnutrition, poverty reduction and greater access to clean energy for rural poor

First of the three projects, ‘Reducing Child Malnutrition through Social Protection’, seeks to enhance the system and processes for planning and delivering the government’s cash transfers, particularly the child grant in Karnali districts

Second project, ‘Support for Targeted and Sustainable Development Programe for Highly Marginalized Groups’ will provide targeted support to Dalits and Janajatis in hills

The third project, ‘Improving Gender Inclusinve Access to Clean and Renewable Energy in Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka’, a regional programme for South Asia, will support the rural electrification programme of the Nepal Electricity Authority

4. Brace for costly Chinese clothes this Dashain

...rise in transportation charges and strengthening of Baht will make garments imported from Thailand expensive by around 10 to 15 percent...Also...price of readymade garments and footwear items imported from China will go up by as much as 40 percent...this Dashain

...valuation of Chinese currency has been increasing at a rate of 4.5 percent every year

...the price of cotton ...hit a 15-year high recently...it has become 80 percent more expensive this year as compared to the start of the last year

5. Jumla apples to be costlier

District Cooperatives Association (DCA), Jumla, has increased prices by 17 percent as compared to prices of the past year

The association has set differential prices based on quality of apples...
Grade ´A´ organic apples at Rs 35 per kg
Grade ´B´ at Rs 30
Grade ´C´ at Rs 20
Grade ´A´ non-organic apples at Rs 30 per kg
Grade ´B´ at Rs 25
Grade ´C´ at Rs 20

Apples produced in 14 wards of Kartikswami, Mahat and Patmara VDCs have received organic food certification from Organic Certification of Nepal.District Agriculture Development Office (DADO) plans to apply for organic certification for apples produced in all 30 VDCs in the district

And, this news should be worrying our government:

The district had produced a total of 3,300 tons of apples last year. But only 55 tons of apples produced in the district could be taken to market last year.

Labels: apples, dashain, foreign aid, handicraft, hydroppower, jumla, poverty, west seti

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1. Korean Language Test results out
*50,043 applicants had taken the test
*only 15,298 passed
*13,298 applicants will work in production related job and remaining 2,000 in agriculture sector
*South Korea is a lucrative destination for Nepali workers with a monthly average income of $1,000

2.Deposits in commercial banks up in Q4

RBB, which has the highest deposit base among commercial banks, saw its deposits rise 13.44 percent in Q4 against a growth of 4.02 percent in the previous quarter. The bank collected deposits worth Rs 8.75 billion during Q4. RBB’s total deposits as of the end of fiscal 2010-11 amounted to Rs 73.92 billion.

Nepal Bank Limited collected more than Rs 4.47 billion in deposits during Q4. Its total deposits at the end of fiscal 2010-11 stood at Rs 46.80 billion, up 10.56 percent from the previous quarter.

Agricultural Development Bank saw its deposits going up 6.17 percent in the last quarter against a growth of 1.61 percent in previous quarter.

3. Chinese team to study Ring Road widening has arrived in Kathmandu

The 18-member team has geotechnical engineers, traffic engineers, material engineers and other technical experts.

The team will spend 40 days in Kathmandu to do a survey for widening 9.5 km of the 27-km long Ring Road in the first phase.

The Ring Road improvement project will upgrade the current four-lane road to eight lanes (a four-lane, two-way main road, a four-lane, two-way relief road, a two-way bicycle path and a two-way pedestrian path, including bus stations and parking lots).

The road widening work is expected to be completed by 2013 utilising resources received as grant assistance from China annually.

On Feb 28, 2011, the Chinese government had agreed to provide a grant assistance of RMB 50 million (Rs 547 million) for widening the Ring Road and other projects. The technical team will design a simple urban flyover; three pedestrian overpasses will also be built. Even though the locations for the flyover and overpasses have not been fixed, the project is likely to select Kalanki Chowk to build the flyover with a signalised intersection underneath for pedestrians.

4. Indian overland tourist arrivals up 74pc

*298,821 Indian tourists visited Nepal in 2009 via land routes
*520,522 Indian tourists visited Nepal in 2010 via land routes
*This is a 74 percent increase

*154,086 third-country tourists entered Nepal by land in 2010

*Major entry points for Indian tourists were: Vittamod (Janakpur) with 17 percent, Birgunj with 13 percent, Kakarbhitta with 8 percent, Biratnagar with 5 percent, Nepalgunj and Mahendranagar with 3 percent each and Dhangadhi with 1 percent.

*96,928 vehicles entered Nepal through eight border points in 2010, an increment of 22 percent over the previous year's figures.
*46 percent of tourists coming via Indian land routes came by public bus and 39 percent by private vehicles.

*For 2010:
Entry Point // Number of Tourists // Percent Of the total
Birgunj // 89,544 // 13 Percent
Vittamod (Janakpur) // 112,038 // 17 Percent
Kakkarbhitta // 55,098 // 8 Percent
Biratnagar // 32,320 // 5 Percent
Nepalgunj // 17,919 // 3 Percent
Dhangadhi // 8,730 // 1 Percent
Mahendranagar // 21,117 // 3 Percent
Bhairahawa // 337,842 // 50 Percent

5. BFIs barred from opening accounts amongst themselves
According to the NRB:

Financial institutions should collect deposits and lend...If they park their deposits in other institutions, it will create anomalies. Therefore, we have decided to stop it

I believe this is a good step by the NRB especially because:

NRB’s latest statistics show that commercial banks have deposits worth Rs 670 billion, development banks Rs 90 billion and finance companies Rs 84 billion.

6. Whole-Genome Study proves that Nepalese UN-peacekeepers brought Cholera to Haiti that has killed 6000 people so far

7. Bhutanese refugee numbers in Nepal nearly halved after re-settlement overseas

8. New Hydropower rules in Nepal makes it difficult for Indian investors to invest in Nepal

Labels: ADBL, Bhutan, china, cholera, haiti, hydroppower, korean language test, liquidity, migration, NBB, nepal rastra bank, refugees, ring road, tourism

Sushil Koirala finally gets to meet Sonia Gandhi---Telegraph Nepal


India feels its friendship with Nepal straining due to Nepal's silence on Mumbai blasts---MSN India
They claim that if Girija Prasad Koirala were alive, he would have called and expressed his sorrows within minutes of the news of the blasts. My take on this news is that India(ns) are overreacting. Nepalese lawmakers are busy squabbling with one another during the budget announcement time. So, maybe they could not "immediately" and "within minutes" send their condolences. But, they sent it after a few hours. If only India(ns) were this sensitive about other issues, as well, both the neighbors would be so much better off. Are we really good friends? Okay, then. Let us sit down and talk about our borders. Let us talk about re-writing the old treaties that were heavily favored against us. Let us sit down and talk about various dams and power projects. Calling oneself a good friend and expecting condolences is one thing. Proving your duties as a good friend is another. Let us stop whining, shall we?

Nepal signs a pact with World Bank for 1000 MW cross-border electricity share with India---MSN India
 I very much doubt that this will be in favor of Nepal.

China very eager to spend in Nepalese hydropower---Hydro World 
We could do with more work and less talk. Also, China actually seems to put the money where its mouth is. So, if this works, it's going to be great.

Nepal attracting Indian investments in Tourism and IT---Orissa Diary
I do think Nepal has a good pool of engineers for making Nepal a decent hub of IT activities. Tourism sector needs something more than investment. It needs professionalism, which it severely lacks today. 

Ram Sharan Mahat blames communists in Nepal for squandering money---Himalayan Times
This reminds me of an anecdote. When the Maoists won the majority in the Nepalese elections, my American friends came to me and paid their condolences. "Mukesh, we're very sorry to hear that the communists, especially the Maoists, won the elections in your country." they said to me. I laughed. I said to them, "Guys, you think you are Capitalists? You haven't seen Capitalists if you haven't seen the communists in my country. Communists in Nepal are more capitalist than Capitalists in America."


Nepal Rastra Bank eases its loan policy---Republica
The mergers. The defaults. The easing of loans. The easing of loan policies. I'm just waiting to see how many more tricks the NRB has in total.


Finally, since I love Mathematics, I really like the comic strip below (Source: Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal):

Labels: central bank of nepal, communists, hydroppower, IT, Nepalese Economy, tourism