Views of a Nepali Economist

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1. Public Accounts Committee recommends liquidation of Public Enterprises

...the PAC suggested the liquidation of National Construction Company, Nepal Engineering Consultancy Service Centre and Timber Corporation of Nepal

The report has asked the government to merge Krisi Samagri Company and National Seed Company, Industrial Estate Management Ltd with National Productivity and Economic Development Centre, and Herbs Production and Processing Corporation with Nepal Medicine Ltd and Singhdurbar Baidhyakhana, and Rural Housing Company with Nepal Housing and Finance.

...it has recommended the government to convert Nepal Television and Gorkhapatra Santhan into company to make them more competent.

2. Ilam's remarkable rise in milk production

*In 2009, they produced 96,342 metric tons
*In 2010, they produced 99,200 metric tons
*Ilam is the second largest milk producer district after Kavre in the country
*140,000 cows including hybrid-cows and 2,768 hybrid buffaloes have been reared in the district
*80 percent of milk produced in Ilam is sold in Biratnagar

3. Build roads, and they'll overcome poverty. An exmaple from Myagdi district.

4. Govt apathy puts lives of people in danger. An example from the Nepalese LP gas industry.

5. Bahrain Air resumes Ktm flights

6. Department of Labor to study, and record foreign workers in Nepal

...around 7,000 foreigners are currently working in the private sector with work permits...but DoL estimates that more than 20,000 foreign nationals are working with NGOs and INGOs alone...government and private sector organizations estimate the actual number of foreign nationals working in Nepal to be over 50,000

7. Israel's Prime Minister's wife accused of ill-treating the Nepali nurse hired to take care of her elderly father.

8. Some basic health indicators of Nepal and its neighbors

Labels: airlines, Bahrain, DoL, health, Ilam, Israel, LP gas, migration, milk, myagdi, PAC, ring road

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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