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VOL. 27, NO. 28, March 21, 2008 (Chaitra 08 2064 B.S.)
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The UN Connection
By SUSHIL SHARMA
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UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon. |
UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon is unlikely to visit Nepal to watch the constituent assembly elections, according to the authorities.
The prime minister, Girija Prasad Koirala, wants the UN secretary general in Nepal to be a witness to “the momentous event”. He has conveyed the message through the UN chief’s special representative, Ian Martin.
But highly placed sources ruled out such a visit. “It simply can not take place at such a short notice”, they said.
Some media reports said that the secretary general’s Nepal visit for the CA elections was as good as confirmed. Sources termed them “too speculative”.
If Ban Ki Moon were to come, he would be the most important onbserver of the April 10 elections.
The Election Commission said that more than a hundred thousand
national and international observers are expected to observe the April 10 constituent assembly elections.
Five hundred of them will come from ten international groups including the European Union and the Carter Center.
A lot more international groups were interested, but they could not manage time. Said a top official, “once-bitten twice-shy” – in an obvious reference to the twice postponed polls.
REMITTANCE
EARNING RISE BY 18 PERCENT
The flow of remittances rose by 18 percent in Nepal, during the first half of current fiscal year 2007-08 and touched the total amount to Rs 57 billion as of mid-January 2008, reports The Himalayan Times daily.
Nepal had received Rs 48.26 billion during the same period in the previous fiscal year. Similarly, the largest remittance-recipient developing country India's private current transfers grew by 30 percent in the first half of 2007. According to a report -Remittance Trends 2007, the flow of remittance globally continues with a robust growth with developing countries taking lead as major recipients.
The growth of remittances to developing countries remains robust because of strong growth in Europe and Asia. The worldwide flows of remittances are expected to reach $318 billion in 2007. Of the total amount, remittances sent home by migrants from developing countries are expected to exceed $240 billion in 2007, up from $221 billion in 2006 and more than double the level reached in 2002. This amount reflects only officially recorded transfers-the actual amount including unrecorded flows through formal and informal channels is believed to be significantly larger, states the report.
Money sent in home by millions of migrant workers worldwide has already outstripped the global development aid and for many countries, remittances are larger than foreign direct investment (FDI), and in some cases, larger even than official development aid.
The report further states that the recorded remittances are more than twice as large as official aid and nearly two-third of FDI flows to developing countries. Remittances are the largest source of external financing in many poor countries. Also remittances have been less volatile than other sources of foreign exchange earnings in developing countries.
