Sub-Regional workshop on Uruguay Round kicks off

Post Report

LALITPUR, Nov 27 - The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and His Majesty’s Government of Nepal jointly organized a five-day Sub-regional Workshop on Uruguay Round Follow-up and Multilateral Trade Negotiations in Agriculture here today.

The workshop, as well as explaining the basic concepts of the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements that most directly affect agriculture, provides information that is relevant for better understanding and assessing the implications on national policies of the WTO agreements and their possible impacts on agricultural economies.

The workshop will discuss the Uruguay Round’s Agreement on Agriculture extensively to examine the implementation of the disciplines affecting agriculture from the perspective of developing countries and to identify issues of major concern to developing countries in the next round of negotiations. Issues surrounding domestic support measures, export subsidies, market access, role of separate and differential treatment, safeguard measures, trade and food security will be discussed.

The Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitory Measures (SPS) which confirms the right of the WTO to apply measures to protect human, animal and plant life and health will be discussed. Similarly, deliberations will also be made on the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), which recognizes the right of WTO members to introduce standards to prevent fraud and ensure the safety and environmental compatibility of products imported into their territories.

Discussions will also take place on the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) particularly those aspects that have implications on agriculture. Under this agreement, the WTO members are obliged to put in place mechanisms to protect the intellectual property rights of firms and individuals located in member countries. The protection of innovations in living organisms was a highly debatable issue during the negotiating of this agreement.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the workshop, Mohan Dev Pant, Secretary at the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Supplies, said that the workshop should include substantial reduction in agricultural tariff protection in developed countries, elimination of agricultural production support and agricultural export subsidies in developed countries.

He also suggested the inclusion of application of special and differential treatment provisions for least-developed countries with respect to tariff reduction and the use of agricultural production and export support measures. He added that concrete operationalization of the special assistance program for least-developed and net food importing developing economies negatively affected by the global liberalization of agriculture should be discussed during the workshop.

Dr Jagadish Chandra Pokhrel, member of the National Planning Commission (NPC) said that the sub-regional workshop would deliberate on areas of further negotiation to facilitate the implementation of the WTO agreements, problems of developing and least-developed countries. He further said those issues of regional and sub-regional concerns, including national economic implications of various proposals that may come up during negotiations for international agreements should be discussed.

Yamuna Ghale, Food Rights Campaign Coordinator, Action Aid Nepal, said while the developed countries are undermining the importance of agricultural products in the WTO agreements, the workshop plays a vital role in shaping up negotiations on agriculture. This will help to review the WTO agreements and explore potential problems that arise in the implementation of the WTO regime. The follow-up is good and the FAO has done a good job organizing the workshop in Nepal, she said.

Mukti Narayan Shrestha, Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, said since agriculture is the subsistence of the majority of the people of this sub-region even a small change in the trade of agricultural goods brings massive change to the lives of the marginal farmers. Likewise, food security is a very sensitive issue. Therefore, the workshop will discuss the pros and cons of the WTO agreements on agriculture, he added.

Winston R Rudder, FAO Representative in Nepal, Dr Purushottam Mudbhary, workshop coordinator and Surendra Shrestha, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives also spoke on the occasion.

Around 50 participants from Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are taking part in the sub-regional workshop.

Entry fee hike by 620 pc hits Koshi Tappu tourism

By Gopal Tiwari

KOSHI TAPPU WILDLIFE RESERVE, Sunsari, Nov 27 - Following the hike in entry fee at Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve (KTWR) by 620 per cent beginning from this current fiscal year, tourism in this protected wetlands has been hit hard.

A tourist used to pay Rs 500 until July 2000 to visit the Reserve, but from August onwards, the rate per tourist has reached at Rs 3600 as per the government’s announcement from this current fiscal year.

Says Bharat Basnet, who manages the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Camp the hike is "impractical." And as a result, the Reserve’s fortunes is dwindling day by day.

The Reserve was opened to tourists in 1992 when tourist camps were allowed to operate on the outskirts of the Reserve. Since then, the area has been a popular destination for tourists from Europe and the US. In fiscal 1992/93, only 30 tourists visited the Reserve. But by 1999/2000, the number had swelled to 469, records show.

Ironically, it is this influx of tourists that led the government to increase the fee. Says ranger of the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve, Basudev Aryal, "The entry fee was hiked due to increasing popularity of the reserve and rising number of tourists from across the world to come here for bird watching and to see wild buffaloes."

He says that the fee hike is not an issue, but better protection of the reserve is. "The government needs to introduce stern policy to protect this area," he says.

Ecologist at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, Narayan Prasad Poudel, proudly says as Koshi Tappu is only wetlands site of Nepal and being a bird sanctuary, preservation activities are needed on a long term basis. The government has adopted a two-pronged strategy — protection and promotion — and plans to introduce a master plan in a few months to make the area more attractive and protect endangered species, he added.

While tourism has helped bring revenues and jobs to the area, increased poaching and lack of proper habitat management has also resulted in problems. That is bad news for the Reserve which is regarded as Nepal’s only wetlands where migratory birds and wild buffaloes are found in abundance. According to Aryal, altogether there are 146 wild buffaloes and 420 kinds of birds in the reserve. Birds like duck, ibis, stork, egrets, heroine, Bengal florican, among others are found in the area, he said. Birds from afar as Siberia also migrate here to escape the harsh Tundra winter.

Despite the problems, the Reserve is a vital facet of the local economy. Aryal, the ranger, says that out of the total revenue of the Reserve, 50 percent goes to upgrade economic condition of the local community involving them into varied income generating activities.

NLIC, LIC join hands

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Nov 27 - State-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and Vishal Group Ltd of Nepal, promoters of Nepal Life Insurance Company (NLIC), are entering into a joint venture for providing life insurance services in the country, and agreement to this effect is to take place Tuesday.

LIC is to have a majority stake in NLIC, according to a source.

The Finance Ministry in September had given a green signal to NLIC, making it the first domestic company to obtain such approval in the last twelve years. Nepal’s Life Insurance market remained virtually stagnant for the last twelve years following government’s unofficial moratorium on new entrants.

Two companies - American Life Insurance Company (ALICO), an American multinational operating in over 70 countries and Nepal Life Insurance Company (NLIC), a cent-percent Nepali company promoted by NIC-Bank group (under Vishal Group) - had obtained the approval from the ministry last September.

Both companies are, however, yet to receive operating license from Insurance Board, the independent body which looks after insurance related matters.

Two other companies are still vying to tap the Nepalese insurance market are Laxmi Life Insurance Company, promoted by Khetan Group, and Kantipur Life Insurance Company, promoted jointly by Tibrewal Group and a group of university professors.

Though, the other key service sectors including banking were opened for joint venture investment since the mid eighties and further accelerated under the liberal economic dispensation of post-1990s, successive governments chose to keep the life insurance sector away from new investments.

The government was forced to rethink over its policy about one and half years ago when ALICO formally applied for the permission to operate under the provision of Insurance Act 1993. The Act permits entry of foreign companies in life insurance sector.

The ALICO however, had to wait for more than a year before Finance Minister Mahesh Acharya finally approved its entry quashing a long-standing controversy surrounding it. The main opposition Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) had opposed the entry of any foreign company before the local aspirants were entertained. Even Nepal Rastra Bank, the government’s principle advisor on economic issues, had expressed similar views.

Insurance Board had earlier argued that Nepalese insurance market was not mature and large enough to be opened up to four companies. Currently there are only two life insurance companies, one each in public and private sector, operating in Nepal.