 |
Kathmandu Monday October 02, 2000 Aswin 16, 2057.
|
Nepal-China joint venture
has great possibility: PM
Post Report
KATHMANDU, Oct 1 - Prime Minister Gorilla
Parsed Koirala has said he sees a great possibility of Chinese joint venture in the field
of information and communications.
He said though Nepal Radio Paging Private
Limited (NRPPL) is a small Nepal-China joint venture company, it has provided an
opportunity to encourage Nepal-China joint ventures.
Inaugurating the first anniversary of NRPPL
here today, the prime minister said, "I see great possibility of Nepal -China joint
venture". This joint venture has far-reaching consequences. This has opened door of
China's investment in Nepal. The government will extend best possible support to such
venture, said the prime minister.
Speaking on the occasion, Bhoop Raj Pandey,
Chairman of Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA), a regulatory body of telecom
services, said that the paging company has played an important role and expressed hope
that it would expand its service countrywide. He also warned that paging companies should
not cartel in the name of forming their national network.
Urging paging companies to make their
services accessible to the general public, he said, competition has lowered the price of
such services and the liberal policy will open up more such services which will generate
employment.
Tej Hari Ghimire of NRPPL said NRPPL is the
first radio paging which has the largest customer base. Including Kathmandu, Lalitpur and
Bhaktapur, the company has rendered its service in nine major cities of the country.
Ghimire said that the company has 41 percent market share. He informed that the company
receives 150 million calls annually. NRPPL has 7,206 subscribers, which is 73 percent of
their annual target, he said.
The company has 10 percent service fault
rate and it planned to reduce it to five percent next year. Ghimire also urged the
government to reduce the license fee of paging companies, which is the largest of all
telecom service licensees.
Raghubar Lal Shrestha, General Manager of
Nepal Telecommunications Corporation (NTC) said that paging service has become popular and
has contributed to the revenue of NTC. He said if a national network of paging companies
is formed, it would benefit the subscribers in terms of fee.
He also said that NTC would move ahead in
revenue sharing with the paging companies, if their proposed tariff rebalancing is
approved by the government.
Cao Ying Ming, Chairman of NRPPL pledged
that they would keep improving, innovating and providing faster and better service to the
customers. He also announced today that NRPPL has slashed its monthly fee of numeric
paging from Rs 250 to Rs 160 effective from October 2, 2000.
Other Stories
|
