Mega event on IT in Sept
IT Policy to be announced soon

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, Aug 26 - Minister for Science and Technology Surendra Prasad Chaudhary informed that Nepal is going to host a mega event on information technology (IT) from September 9 to 11 in the capital.

However, he did not specify the nature of the event, in which he expected 30 countries to participate.

Inaugurating a seminar on ‘Human Resource Development (HRD) Strategy for Information Technology’ here today, Minister Chaudhary said that there is a need of a body to monitor the activities of private training institutes in the IT sector. Government has focused only on building roads and bridges but not on human resources. "We lack in vision. This is where we have failed", he said.

Stating that the government is planning to declare IT as a priority sector, he said bureaucratic hassles and taxation should not discourage the budding IT industry. To bridge the digital division, the government is going to provide computer training to public school teachers and to distribute some computers, he said.

"After incorporating suggestions made in the ICT Policy and Strategy, IT policy will be announced within a week," said the Minister. The ICT Policy and Strategy prepared by National Planning Commission (NPC) is comprehensive.

Presenting a paper, Yogesh Mishra, CEO of College of Software Engineering, said that reshaping of present policies, rules and regulations pertaining to educational establishments is necessary for the development of IT education as IT is time sensitive.

Suresh Kumar Regmi of Professional Computer System Pvt. Ltd., making a presentation, said that lack of monitoring of curricula of various universities, colleges and higher secondary schools may not produce desired manpower.

Similarly, lack of proper faculties and training for trainers, especially the computer teachers at school and colleges, has also hampered the growth of IT industry, he said.

Lack of access to global knowledge due to unaffordability of internet is another factor that constraints the development of the knowledge-based industry, which has been worsened by the absence of tests for measurement of IT skills, Regmi said.

To meet the present requirements like quality products; highly skilled manpower; IT centre of excellence; conversion courses and short-term courses, the government needs to invest to produce specialists, introduce crash programs for faculties’ development, to make free or subsidize access to global knowledge and make arrangement for quality test and certifications, suggested Regmi.

Dr Suresh Raj Sharma, Vice Chancellor of Kathmandu University, a keynote speaker, drew the attention of the government to the higher education system of the country that is overwhelmingly producing unemployable graduates.

Dr Rameshananda Vaidya, an NPC member, released Information Technology 2000 Millennium Souvenir brought out by Computer Association of Nepal (CAN) on the occasion. The one-day seminar, participated in by more than 150 IT related people, and sponsored by College of Software Engineering (CSE), was organized by CAN, on the occasion of its seventh annual general meeting.

Tamrakar assures to solve retailers’ problems

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, Aug 26 - Ram Krishna Tamrakar, Minister of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, has assured retailers that he would render all possible assistance to sort out the existing problems in Income Tax.

"I will request minister of finance and issue necessary directives to concerned officials to solve the tax problem as soon as possible," he said, while speaking at the twenty-first annual general meeting of Nepal Retailers Association here today.

Tamrakar said that the new provision to increase the flat annual income tax on retailers’ business from Rs 1200 to Rs 2000, introduced in the current fiscal year's budget, has affected their business.

Ganga Bahadur Manandhar, President of the association, expressed his ire over the violation of understanding, reached between the association and the government, of not increasing flat income tax from Rs 1200 per year for a period of five year.

Asking the government to allow registration of retailing businesses as micro enterprises, he urged on the need to develop a coordinating mechanism between the consumers and sellers with an aim to maximize the interest of retailing business.

Pabitra Bajracharya, Secretary of the association, opposed the imposition of taxes under different names by the government as well as municipalities.

Highlighting the problems faced by small enterprises as retailers, Jagdish Prasad Ketan, Acting Chairman of Nepal Chamber of Commerce, urged with the government to recognize the important role that retail enterprises can play to achievethe objective of national development.

Money matters in politics

Ameet Dhakal

The use of money to buy political favour is as old as democracy itself and as fresh as today’s headlines - goes a wise saying.

Many "pragmatic" political scientists say democracy is not possible without money. Perhaps monetarist economists rightly assert that "only money matters". Democracies are based on political parties and in order to exist, organize, campaign and communicate money is needed. After all, you can’t always expect some "Maya Devi" to finance all the party expenses.

Thus, parties and even candidates during election have a legitimate need for money. Then, what is illegitimate about some Khadka, Gautam or Gachchhadar amassing wealth through political means. And moreover, what is wrong if they claim for party leadership on the basis of huge sum of money they have channeled to party office through Green Channel in Tribhuban International Airport? After all backdoor political donation is a universal phenomenon. Who has not accepted it?

But the unfortunate part is that there are always some villains, often supported by noisy media, who make hue and cry about the legitimate business. Sometimes it is hard to understand why John McCain has to raise voice against the [corrupt] finance campaign and why Sailaja Acharya has to blame the financiers as mafia?

There are even some political parties which act against their own interest. In Japan, for example, they succeeded in prohibiting political donations by companies most likely to be affected by public policy decisions. Furthermore, they have also passed laws according to which only political parties, and not individuals can raise funds. Thank god, our Khadka and company were not born in Japan otherwise how they would show their skill.

Even Americans have made mistakes: candidates are required to report the source and size of any donation over 250 US dollars and Americans are not allowed to donate more than 1000 US dollars to the campaign of any individual candidate. What the hell they think about? Is the political donation used for buying peanuts and not votes?

Lately, even Nepali politicians are growing myopic. Remember, what did Krishna Prasad Bhattarai say in parliament during his farewell speech as the Prime Minister? He claimed that smugglers ousted him (do not forget that 69 Nepali Congress MPs had signed seeking his resignation) and even Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala last week publicly declared that parliament has been invaded by smugglers. Sometimes it is hair splitting to think why they have to defame their fundraisers? If they really want to get rid of smugglers why do they repeatedly distribute party tickets to them during election?

* * *

Nepal has one of the depressing performances in public sector spending, but everyone would not agree everywhere. The advocates of welfare states need some private meeting to admit it. Ask them in public about their stand on privatization and they will vehemently oppose it. But in private meetings they bemoan that something should be done to sweep out the public sector mess. The advocates of the welfare states come out with even more radical conclusions, if they are offered some consultancy by the capitalist institutions like The World Bank. About a year ago a CPN-UML [economist] lawmaker was offered a consultancy to review the Build Your Village Yourself, the program which UML still loves to publicize as a landmark effort to build stagnant rural areas. The lawmaker came out with a conclusion that the program was a total failure. What about establishing a training centre to train politicians speak truth in Tundikhel ?

* * *

Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), the state-owned monopolist in the distribution of electricity, is in trouble. It is under pressure from the donors as well as government to raise its Internal Rate of Return (IRR) or else face sanctions on future external funds. The authority is perplexed and is proposing to meet IRR requirement through electricity tariff hike but the government has refused, so far, to endorse the proposal. It was back in 1989, while seeking foreign assistance for Seventh Power Project that NEA agreed to raise its IRR to six percent. The string was again attached while signing a 16 million dollar loan agreement with the Asian Development Bank for 144 mega-watt Kaligandaki A hydropower project. However, NEA played cool throughout about raising the IRR. Result: it now hovers around a hopeless 2.5 percent, meaning that out of 100 rupees of investment, NEA gets return of 2.50 rupees.

NEA should explore some alternative income earning opportunities (as Royal Nepal Army is trying by operating a commercial flight!) than investing in power generation. One good area is to invest in US dollar. Irrespective of economic fundamentals of Nepalese economy, Nepalese currency goes on sliding providing a hundred percent risk free investment. A short look at the lost opportunity: If NEA had invested back in 1980 (when the exchange rate of rupee per dollar was 12) it’s return by now would have been 600 percent (not 6 percent) assuming the exchange rate of Rs 72 per dollar. What about changing the investment strategy?