Nepal, China's outbound destination

By Gopal Tiwari

KATHMANDU, Oct 25 - Contrary to tour and travel agents' claim that Chinese Government has not included Nepal in the list of outbound destinations, a letter sent by Chinese Ambassador to Nepal, Zeng Xuyong to Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Tarani Dutta Chataut on July 18, 2000 clearly states that the Chinese government has already recognized Nepal as travel destination.

Yogendra Shakya, President of Nepal Incentive and Convention Association (NICA) who recently returned from China participating in a tourism mart claimed that Chinese government has not yet recognized Nepal as an outbound destination.  

"The news that Nepal has been already included in the list of Chinese outbound destination seems to be only an understanding between the two countries, Shakya said and expressed concern that time was running out to name Nepal as China's outbound destination as the government of China has already declared many other countries of the world as travel destinations.

Quoting Chinese tour operators, Shakya said they have no information regarding Nepal's inclusion in China's outbound destination list. His comment has fuelled skepticism in the tourism industry.

Shakya also demanded with the Nepalese government to follow up the issue at the earliest not to further lose immense benefit Nepal can accrue from Chin's growing tourism market. According to statistics, over 8.4 million Chinese tourists including those on business trip traveled abroad in 1998.

However, Narendra Bajracharya, President of Hotel Association Nepal (HAN) dismissed the controversy surrounding the outbound destinations and claimed that the Chinese government's declaration to name Nepal as its outbound destination remains valid.

Chinese Embassy's letter addressed to the Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Tarani Dutta Chataut, also reads "according to related regulations of China, the outbound tourist businesses could be officially started only after the National Tourism Administration, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Public Security of China hold consultations and reach common understandings on detailed matters with the departments of tourism, foreign affairs and immigration of the destination country."

Meanwhile, Nepalese tourism entrepreneurs are mounting pressure on Nepalese government to allow Chinese to set up a non-commercial tourism office here but the government has yet to take final decision on the matter which was one of the major links to China's recognition of Nepal as its outbound tourist destination.

Bajracharya flayed Nepalese government for delaying the procedures to expedite the matter and disseminate information to all tourism-related offices at home and abroad. "Nepalese government should allow Chinese to open-up a representative office here that will ultimately enhance tourism promotion between the two countries," said he.  

Dambar Awasthi, under secretary at the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA) said that the government is seriously taking up the issue and is consulting at the government level on the matter after the Chinese government declared Nepal as an outbound destination. "There are certain rules and regulations of China to proceed the matter to make the decision workable," Awasthi said.

An official at the Chinese Embassy asserted that talks are going on between the two governments to implement the decision. Procedural problems will gradually be resolved after the two governments reached an understanding to facilitate the decision for bilateral tourism promotion, he said.

ISPs break cartel

By Ram Sharan Sedhai

KATHMANDU, Oct 25 - Barely four months after the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) decided to fix the minimum monthly charge for unlimited use of internet at Rs 1,600, some of them have reduced the rate by 40 percent, effectively breaking away from the cartel they formed on June 1.

Out of 10 ISPs currently providing services, some of them have heavily reduced their monthly fee for unlimited use of internet to as low as Rs 960.

Muni B Shakya, Executive Director of High Tech Pioneer Private Limited, confirmed that his company has scaled down the monthly-unlimited internet tariff to Rs 960 on the occasion of Dipawali.

Similar is the case with Everest Net Private Limited, another ISP. According to Shishir Kumar Singh, Office Secretary of ISPAN and Administrative Manager of Everest Net, the company also brought down its monthly charge of unlimited use of internet to Rs 1,000 on the eve of Dashain, as special offer for Dashain and Tihar. E-Net has been charging Rs 1,000 for unlimited e-mail service for a year. Likewise, Computer Land and Communicate Private Limited (CCSL) has also begun to charge Rs 1,500 per month for unlimited use of internet.

All these three ISPs are members of Internet Service Providers Association of Nepal (ISPAN) formed on June 1, 2000, which had fixed the minimum monthly charge for unlimited use of internet at Rs 1600.            

This, in effect, means that ISPs are no more abided by ISPAN directives and they will decide their service charge on their own. Soon after the formation of ISPAN and its directives on minimum monthly charge for the unlimited use of internet, Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) initiated action against the ISPs under ISPAN.

The private ISPs scared by the introduction of internet and e-mail services by Nepal Telecommunications Corporation (NTC) made the decision as NTC, at the beginning set the tariff at Rs 1,600 per month as an introductory offer.

Later, the state-run telecom corporation further cut the rate pushing it as low as Rs 1,000, in an attempt to lure customers to its latest services, rendering private ISPs more difficult to compete with it.

Those ISPs then argued that they had not formed cartel as they had fixed the prices not exceeding the binding tariffs set by NTA, a regulatory body of telecom services. Though NTA regulation stipulates that no ISPs can fix their charges exceeding the binding tariffs set by the Authority, it does not say anything against those who avoid competition.