Promising indicators

The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) has released a very optimistic prediction of economic growth rate of around 7 percent. According to it, the country is set to gain in the long run if the recent trend of steady growth is to continue. The Nepalese people will have a lot to gain if such a trend is reinforced with proper planning and responsible role playing on the part of the government as well as the private sector. However, the projection does indeed appear too good to be true and obviously this raises the question of sustainability of this growth. The major supporting factor behind this growth has been cited as last year’s steady growth of 7 percent in the agricultural sector. This sector contributes 40 percent of the total GDP and employs a whopping 80 percent of workforce. But, our agriculture sector is heavily dependent upon the monsoon and thus all our achievement is open to the vagaries of the climate at a time when global warming has created unpredictable world climate pattern. Besides, the heavy dependence on agriculture is itself not a healthy trend if considered in the light of the dominance of subsistence farming over commercial exploitation of this crucial sector.

Besides, the dependence on agriculture alone will work against establishing a truly sustainable economy in the increasingly competitive world. Nepal definitely needs to focus on other sectors of the economy as well as. The present growth of 4.9 percent in the other sectors is still minuscule. Much remains to be done in creating newer sustainable industries, trade and services using local and foreign investment.

First and foremost, the government and local authorities have to ensure round the year irrigation facilities to reduce dependence on the rains. Budgetary priority has to address this problem. Equally important is ensuring steady supply of fertilizers to farmers across the country. The private sector and local resources have to be mobilized to establish new industries and the older existing ones ought to be revitalized. Adequate infrastructural support must also be developed in order to attract foreign investment. Proper policy research has to be undertaken so as to discover markets for Nepalese products. Only reducing trade balance by increasing exports can really support the Nepalese economy adequately.

The current optimistic prediction by the CBS will be reassuring if the above conditions are fulfilled. However, we can take heart because the growth trend of the last few years has been steady and has given hope to planners and the public as well.

Tea policy of Nepal : Is it timely ?

By Sanjay Prakash

Tea farming is successful in the eastern hills and Terai region due to the climatic condition. It is estimated that only 40 percent of the internal demand has been met by the present level of tea production. It is believed that orthodox tea produced in the hilly region should be promoted for export, and the Terai tea for local consumption. Since tea farming is labour intensive, it has an important role in generating employment especially for women. It also supports soil conservation in an environmentally friendly manner because of its shadowy shrubs.

Nepal started commercial production of tea quite recently. Before the privatization of Nepal Tea Development Corporation, a government agency had owned seven tea gardens with a total area of around 991 hectares. In addition, the private sector owns tea gardens with a total area of around 1250 hectares. These tea growing areas are in the Eastern region of Nepal adjacent to the world-renowned tea gardens of Darjeeling in India. Nepalese tea gardens produce and export high quality orthodox tea to different international markets, the annual production of orthodox tea is 3966.2 MT of which, 70 percent is directly exported by the producers and the rest is sold to blenders and packers. One of the gardens is producing organic tea under supervision of NASA of Australia. There is great potential for investors in area expansion, packaging and market ventures.

Currently, tea cultivation has expanded to different districts of the Eastern region. Tea cultivation is carried out in a commercial scale in Ilam, Jhapa and Panchthar districts of Mechi zone. It is being produced through private tea gardens and small farmers.

Market promotion: Notwithstanding the slow pace of economic development and urbanisation taking place in the country, the domestic demand for tea has been rising. There are various estimates, which put the figures ranging from 5,500 metric tonnes to 10,000 metric tonnes. Owing to the open border the exact amount of import except the officially recorded figure is difficult to estimate. With an estimation of 7,000 MT and domestic production figure of roughly 2,900 MT, there appears to be a deficit of 4,100 metric tonnes implying greater scope for import substitution. The domestic consumption mostly comprises CTC type of tea produced in the plains. The tea produced in the hills (orthodox tea) is similar to Darjeeling tea and can be promoted in the world market such as the UK, Germany, Japan and USA. Moreover, with proper research to improve quality and to diversify product, orthodox tea can be effectively launched in those countries so that its share can gradually increase as the share of Darjeeling is bound decline.

Rural development: On the rural development front, the tea sub-sector stands out as a perfect model. Roads, electrification, health centre and schools are prerequisite for the sub-sector. Both the direct and the multiplier effects of sub-sector can prove to be a miracle for the region. Some of the immediate effects that the sub-sector - an environment friendly and labour intensive tea in the hills and Terai, will produce a network of rural infrastructure prerequisites for rural development.

Tea policy : its future dimensions: The government approved the Nepal Tea Policy 2002. The policy envisages expanding the area under cultivation to 40,800 hectares in the next five years. The government hopes the new policy will increase production of Nepali tea by 6.1 million kg annually by 2010, with orthodox tea constituting 65 percent of the total. Other provisions of the policy include low interest loans for producers and bank loans covering upto 80 percent of the project costs of the firms setting up processing plants. The government also plans to identify fallow land in tea cultivation zones and lease them for upto 50 years to the private sector for tea cultivation. With a view to increase the participation of private sector in the production, processing and commercial transaction of tea thereby increasing the possibility of sustainability of income generation, increasing foreign exchange, His Majesty’s Government of Nepal has enforced National Tea Policy under the spirit of the National Tea and Coffee Development Board Act 2049.

Objectives of tea policy: The specific objectives of tea policy, iner-alia, are: to increase/improve the quality and quantity of tea production through participation of the private sector to provide incentives to tea entrepreneurs and farmers; to help in poverty alleviation by providing employment opportunities; to promote tea market to make this sector more sustainable and attractive; to protect the environment by increasing tea plantation; to help in the institutional development of the tea sector; to fulfil the domestic demand and promote export; and to promote research development and human resource development. A quick look at the target envisages that within 5 years ie, by 2005, the area to be covered by tea plantation has been targeted at 40,775 hectares of land. It is not understood why the figure has not been rounded off. The total targeted tea production by the end of 10 years ie, by 2010 is targeted at 46,111 MT. By the end of 2005, about 79,310 (Say extra 80,000) people will get employment opportunities. The share of orthodox tea in total tea production is targeted at 65 percent.

Among the various policies and working policies spelt out in the policy documents are: Banks will provide loan as priority sector lending for tea cultivation and processing; 80 percent of the project cost of the tea plantation industry will be provided; the grace period ie, the period between loan disbursements and loan repayment dates for orthodox tea is seven years and Terai tea of CTC type is five years. There will be no income tax grace periods; seventy five percent lift on the registration fee while purchasing land for tea cultivation; providing government owned land for lease of 5 years; 50 percent of the amount received from lease will be deposited to HMG revenue and 50 percent to NCTDB; Tea Development Fund will be established.

Regarding market promotion, a system of auction with participation of private sector will be introduced. It is quite ridiculous to note that while the government wants the transactions to be based on banking transaction through the recent budget speech, the tea policy states that goods having less that one container will be sent without opening Letter of Credit (L/C). The executive committee will consists of Secretaries from Ministry of Land Reform; Forest and Soil Conservation; Agriculture and Cooperatives; Finance; Industry, Commerce and Supplies; governor of Nepal Rastra Bank; representatives from all entrepreneurs associations like Nepal Tea Association; Nepal Tea Packer’s Association, Nepal Orthodox Tea Producers’ Association etc in a proportionate manner.

Tariff barriers: The unchecked flow of cheap Indian tea has become the prime reason for the deteriorating condition of tea industries and tea farmers. The newly enforced tea policy will solve most of the outstanding problems of tea entrepreneurs. The tea policy also aims to invest Rs 2 million in the coming five years to increase the areas of tea cultivation to 40 thousand hectares. This is not a new policy as such, Nepal Rastra Bank’s priority sector lending is also mostly confined to the production of tea and expansion of tea areas.

Summing up: To sum up, new opportunities and challenges are coming in the forefront of tea development in Nepal. It is for the concerned parties to take the opportunity at hand and face the challenges. All stakeholders should be quite alert and do their respective duties to make it successful otherwise the tea policy will also be another chapter in the set of policies in Nepal.

Sharjah, Nairobi, Canada ?

By Hitesh Karki

With ANFA sinking in the quagmire of bitter battle for presidentship, both self-proclaiming that they are the presidents of the very same organization, we can be assured that our game is on its death bed.

Football, the game we all love so dearly, the game for which one doesn’t even think twice about buying a Rs 1000 ticket or even more. The only sports where the Dashrath Stadium is house full. The only game which has given birth to the most popular sporting icons in the country.

Recently, Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya, while on his visit to Bangladesh on the occasion of its first ever test cricket match, said that in the near future, Nepal along with Malaysia, will be the next two countries gaining test status. Well that’s what I’ve read in the papers. The timing of his statement couldn’t have been more appropriate.

Local heroes spending hours and hours in the midday heat of Tundikhel must be delighted with this news. Soon there will be pitches built all over the country. Cricketing heroes will be born. Sharjah Nairobi, Canada... our players will be touring all across the globe. Who’s in the squad and who’s not will be a matter of utmost interest to a cricket maniac. And who knows one day we might be glued to the TV sets watching Nepal playing in the world cup. Wow what a day that will be. Right?

Next, there will be sponsors and then a whole new business will start in the kingdom. The profession that Nepalese have never ever ventured into will emerge; the profession of book-making popularly known as bookies.

The players will be seen bowling in the pitches of ,say, Kirtipur with a kilo of gold chain dangling in their necks. What if today only politicians or top level bureaucrats ride on sleek four wheelers, once we start playing cricket it will be the cricketers who will be on the driving seats of BMWs and alike. All because one can take it for granted that once we start playing full fledged cricket like our neighbours, the lure of money won’t be able hold us back. That’s there in Nepalese culture, blood whatever. "Eat as much as you can while in position and later lambast others who do the same". After all, haven't we been seeing this happen all around.

Coming back to cricket ,I’m not saying that whatever the ICC president just said is not welcomed by me. But it will be the death of our beloved game football. That’s what I fear most. Look what happened to hockey before cricket came into the sporting arena in our neighbouring country..

Looking at the present scenario, one cannot say this won’t be the case. For the last couple of months, no football tourney has taken place. The birthday cup, "Sahid Smarak cup", "Wai Wai cups" and alike in which even foreign teams once used to participate in the Dashrath stadium, has almost become a thing of the past. With the slow poisoning of football on the one hand and the birth of cricket on the other,, I’m not sure whether to welcome Mr dalmiya’s gesture or curse the two presidents of the same organisation (both proclaiming to be the rightful one) for taking away our beloved game from us.

Get down to the basics first

By M R Josse

Idon’t know why but, lately, there has been a veritable deluge or explosion of verbiage — speeches, articles, reports and the like — on discrimination/exploitation/abuse of women, gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Problems galore: To recap, there was the launch of a report by the Mahbub ul Haq Human Development Centre on The Gender Question which reminded us of the fact that South Asia has the lowest participation of women in governance in the world — yes, despite Srimavo Bandaranaike, Chandrika Kumaratunga, Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto, Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina Wajed.

Then, at a talkathon in Pokhara reported by RSS, Chief Justice Keshav Prasad Upadhyaya, suggested, in Solomonic fashion, that we must first identify in which areas such as "education, health, poverty" women are backward before we resolve their problems.

Implicit in that sage counsel is that we don’t still have a clue as to what really bugs our mothers, wives, sisters and daughters!

Also, while a letter to the editor by a young woman beseeched men to behave themselves while commuting in the metropolis’ jam-packed jalopies, a piece in this daily the other day took the reader on a blushing tour d’horizon of the peculiar or painful problems and superstitions associated with mensuration.

Some time before that, one recalls an anguished write-up about the problems of school girls wearing skirts — perhaps that’s why more and more seem to be taking to trousers — and, every so often, on the scourge of Eve-teasing especially, but not exclusively, targeted at high school or campus-attending females.

Recently, a feature article was published in an English broadsheet here focusing on "empowering women, ending violence." It began: "At least one woman in every three has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her life time."

Among the other depressing bits of information that it came up with was this: "Violence against girls and women throughout the world causes more death and disability among women in the 15 to 44 age group than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents and even war, according to The World Bank."

One also recalls viewing a short BBC feature on how Maiti Nepal is attempting — at the Kakarbhitta check-post on the Nepal-India border in eastern Nepal — to check the scandalous outflow of Nepalese girls/women into India, or, more specifically, into the seedy fleshpots of her teeming cities.

(While wholly commendable, per se, one couldn’t help but feel that such a heroic gesture was as futile as putting a finger into a cracking dyke in the hope of preventing the waters of its overflowing lake from bursting the dam wide open.)

Who is responsible? Finally, there was a write-up in The Rising Nepal by Indira Rana — a legal eagle of longstanding and, now, a member of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) — relating to trafficking of Nepalese women and related issues.

This columnist’s attention was rivetted on two observations made by her, therein. The first had to do with her observation that "trafficking of women and children has increased more in the last two decades."

The second was her disclosure that although "the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, Human Rights Organisations and NGOs have reported extensively on the forced trafficking of Nepalese girls to India and other brothels, (a) great majority of cases are never publicised and there have been few arrests and few (instances of) prosecution."

Rana offers no theory, pat or otherwise, to explain the worrying conundrum of the increase in trafficking in the past two decades — when, presumably, there has been more development, including in the education and health sectors, than in earlier decades.

One suspects that it could be due, first, to a spurt in both demand and supply, the fruits of a universal population boom, and, second, to the undiminished strength of the mafia that presumably controls the pernicious trade — at both ends.

Who, pray, could possibly constitute such a foul mafia? Criminal elements, certainly. But, acting alone? Not likely, given the continuing tenacity of its grip and the awful reality that the flesh trade continues to expand exponentially.

It requires no Euclid to put two and two together in order to explain the above mystery. My own guess: a deadly combine of criminals in association with venal politicians whose appetite for cash is insatiable, for elections or otherwise — again, on both sides of the gapingly open Nepal-India border.

May one now hope that, since trafficking in human beings represents a horrendous human rights abuse, besides being "illegal and punishable by law as well as by Constitution", the newly-constituted HNRC will bell that nasty cat?

While comprehensive in its own way, Rana’s article however fails to mention that prostitution, organised or informal, has greatly expanded within the country itself, apparently stoked by local demand, as elsewhere — and, of course, by tourism.

Debate wanted: For instance, there is no reference to the conspicuous proliferation of cheap "dance restaurants" and "massage parlours" that have sprung up all over this metropolis of ours, most of which are prostitution-linked.

How does one cope with that? Besides, how does one reconcile our collective non-performance with our pious utterances about gender equality, women’s empowerment, not to mention our righteous indignation on the growing "export" of our women abroad?

Why has there not been a rational national debate on the pros and cons of legalising prostitution? Is it sensible to adopt a ostrich-like approach and pretend it does not exist within the country? Will that solve the health or other myriad problems associated with uncontrolled illegal prostitution?

Let us celebrate, not abuse, our women. For that, let’s first cut out the humbug and the posturing and get down to the very basics.