Views of a Nepali Economist

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1. Surya Nepal gives reasons for closing the garment factory in Biratnagar

The reasons:

it lost the orders it had on hand.....its buyers from the US and Europe categorically said they will not place orders in future as well

...the company suffered a severe blow mainly after the buyers came to know about ´hostage situation´ in the factory, wherein trade union affiliated with the UCPN (Maoist) locked over two dozen managerial staff for 24 hours without food and water, and rescue carried out by the police

What rattled the company most, according to Jha, was that senior trade union leaders, local political leaders, entrepreneurs, administration and local labor office could do nothing when the factory management requested them to rescue its staffers after the ANTUF-R locked them in the factory.

2. Resource gap of Rs 451b threatens MDGs achievement

...Nepal is likely to miss the targets, particularly related to hunger, employment, gender balance, environment and reproductive health...because the country suffers from a resource gap to the tune of Rs 451.43 billion over the last 5 years of the MDGs period

Targets that Nepal is likely to miss: halving the population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption, proportion of underweight children (aged between 6-59 months) and proportion of stunted children (aged 6-69 months)

Nepal also faces difficulty in achieving targeted survival rate to Grade 5 in primary education, literacy rate for 15-24 years old, proportion of births attended by skilled attendants, universal access to reproductive health, and proportion of population using an improved sanitation facility.

3. Some numbers on Nepal's telecom industry

*telecom services in the country have reached to 46 out of every 100 people
*mobile users account for 40.59 percent, fixed line 2.93 percent and other services 2.52 percent

*from mid-July 2009 to mid-July 2010, telecom operators had added 2.62 million users
*from mid-July 2010 to mid-July 2011, telecom operators added 4.23 million users
*This is an increase of 61 percent

*In 2010-11, Nepal Telecom’s subscribers grew by 23.33 percent
*Ncell’s customers grew by a 90.95 percent
*Ncell is now the market leader in the GSM segment with 43 percent market share
*This is an increment of 10 percent over the year
*NTC's overall market share fell from 61 percent to 51 percent in the last fiscal year

4. Shikhar Shoe is one of the rare business success stories in Nepal

Shikhar Shoe is now all set to scale up its production capacity...With the new technology, Shikhar’s daily production capacity will increase to 5000 units from the existing 1,000

The company has invested over Rs 100 million for the expansion of its manufacturing facility. Currently, Shikhar offers over 400 models—from sports, party wear to casual shoes. It has been selling its products from more than 1,000 outlets in 70 districts.

With Dashain around the corner, Shikhar Shoe is readying itself to launch over 70 new models.

5. Another business success story in Nepal: Poultry Farming.

Growing per capita income and living standards has meant that demand for meat, especially chicken, is growing in Nepal. Suppliers have been struggling to keep up with the demand.

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And Finally, a satire on the banking industry:

Labels: garment, MDG, mobile phones, Ncell, NTC, poultry, Shikhar Shoe, surya nepal