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VOL. 27, NO. 8, October 05, 2007 (Ashwin 18 2064 B.S.)
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MAHENDRA POLICE CLUB (MPC) lost in the finals at the AFC President's Cup in Lahore on Sunday (September 30) night. It lost 2-1 against Dordoi Dyanamo of Kyrgyzstan. The Nepali National League champions lost against the tournament favorites but not before putting up some fight. Azamat Ishenbaev and Roman Ablakimov scored for the defending champions while Jumanu Rai pulled one back one for MPC. MPC started their campaign with a goalless draw against Tatung of Chinese Taipei and went down 0-3 against Dordoi in the next league match. The Nepali team ensured their place in the semi-finals after their 6-4 win over Khemara of Cambodia. MPC ensured their place in final with a 2-1 upset win over former champions Regar TadAZ of Tajikistan 2-1. Despite the loss, MPC will get $25,000 while the winner will walk away with $50,000.
IN THE FIRST TWO MONTHS of the current fiscal year, although the current expenditure has increased, the capital expenditure has declined. Finance Ministry's report shows that till mid-September, it has released Rs 12.93 billion for current expenditure (of which Rs 7.54 billion have been spent) while it released only Rs 1.69 billion for capital expenditure (of which only Rs 891.8 million have been spent). In this period, revenue collection reached Rs 12.41 billion, which is more by 15.4 percent compared to the same period last year.
THE TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL'S global Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2007 published on Wednesday shows that corruption in Nepal is growing over the past three years. Nepal ranks 131st in the list of least corrupt nations in the world, with a score of 2.5 on the 0-10 scale. Nepal's CPI in 2004 was 2.8. Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan have been listed as the most corrupt nations in South Asia with 2.2, 2.0 and 1.8 points respectively while Bhutan, with 5.0 points, ranks as the least corrupt country in the South Asian region. The TI report lists Denmark, Finland and New Zealand as the cleanest nations with 9.4 points each. African country Somalia tops the list of corrupt nations (1.4) while the military-ruled Asian country Myanmar ranks 168th with 1.4 score. With 3.5 points each, neighboring China and India rank 72nd in the list of least corrupt nations while the USA stands in the 20th position with 7.2 points.
SENIOR TRADE OFFICIALS OF seven-member Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Trade and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) have come up with a draft proposal based on consensus to ink free trade area agreement, reports The Himalayan Times daily. With the package drafted comprising common issues of BIMSTEC member countries, intra regional free trade agreement (FTA) on trade in goods has come closer to a conclusion, after the governments of the member states endorse it. "Earlier each member country used to take their issues for the meeting, but this time the meeting of trade negotiation committee (TNC) drafted a package putting together common issues of all and forwarded back to the governments of the respective countries for approval," said Rabi Bhattarai, under secretary at the ministry of industry, commerce and supplies (MoICS), who led the Nepali delegation in the 15th TNC meeting held in Dhaka from September 24 to 26. The package proposes to downsize the negative list and value addition issue, which have been two most contested issues and major reason behind delay in reaching a consensus to finalize the FTA. In rules of origin issue, the package has proposed 30 percent value additional requirement for products by the least developed countries (LDCs) and 35 percent for developing members. "The member countries have almost finalized the issue of rules of origin," Bhattarai said. Although the issue of negative list is still dubious, the meeting agreed to downsize the list to 15 percent from 25 to 30 percent, he said, adding that the consensus was reached as a middle path to Thailand's proposal of reducing it to 10 percent and other members' proposal to maintain it at 20. Nepal had proposed 30 percent of the total 5,226 tariff lines in the negative list. If the governments of member states approve the package, the BIMSTEC FTA on goods would now have only 15 percent of the total 5,226 tariff lines in the negative list. This means, free trade rules will not be applicable to 784 tariff lines that the members would enlist in the negative list. In the transit related issues, Thailand agreed to provide transit for member countries under its domestic law, which LDC members including Nepal and others objected and asked to provide transit facility under regional FTA pact, said Bhattarai. The meeting also finalized the modalities for tariff cut, under which LDCs would be required to reduce their tariff in a span of 10 years and the developing countries would need to do that within three years. "This meeting has made significant breakthrough for drafting the accord for trade in goods. We are hopeful that the next meeting on November 12-16, in India will push it more closer," Bhattarai said. Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Myanmar are members of BIMSTEC
