Govt’s road link plans remain in doldrums

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KATHMANDU, March 27 - The government in the 9th Five-Year Plan had envisaged to link 12 isolated district headquarters with road, out of the 19 such headquarters. However, almost four years have passed since the implementation on the Plan began. And yet, road connection to only two headquarters has materialized.

Though accessible by road only during the winter season, the new headquarters that made up the list include that of Ramechhap and Okhaldhunga districts, according to the latest mid-term review report of the 9th Five Year Plan. Prepared recently by the National Planning Commission (NPC), the report assessed the overall performance in the first three years of the 9th Plan.

The government, with a view to alleviate poverty and to reduce regional imbalances, had prioritized road construction in the 9th Plan. However, as per the report, only the headquarters of Accham, Rukum, Bajura, Jajarkot and Bajhang districts, are likely to be road-linked before the end of the 9th Plan that concludes in 2002.

Other districts, to which the government had visioned to expand transportation network before the end of the 9th Plan, were Jumla, Darchula, Sankhuwasabha, Bhojpur and Kalikot.

If given high priority in the 10th Plan, road construction to the headquarters of these districts would be completed in the beginning phases of the next Plan, the report states. The report mentions that failure to achieve the target is mainly due to the mismanagement and misallocation of funds. The government had planned to link up the 12 remote headquarters by road in the 9th Plan and the remaining seven isolated headquarters, including Humla, Mugu, Manang, Dolpa, Solokhumbu, Khotang and Mustang within the 10th Plan.

In addition to the failure to link up the isolated headquarters as per plan, many inter- and intra-district roads, the report mentions, have not been completed so far due to insufficient budget allocation. Moreover, construction, upgradation and maintenance of many national highways are unlikely to be completed within the proposed period, the report says.

According to the report, Karnali Highway, which is to connect Jumla and Surkhet, will be completed only in the 10th Plan. The cause of the delay has been attributed to insufficient budget allocation and security problems.

Similarly, periodic maintenance of Mechi Highway, that links Charali and Taplejung, is behind schedule. The periodic maintenance in the Sagarmatha highway, joining Ghaighat and Dhikthel, is unlikely to be completed within the planned period, the report says.

However, despite sluggish progress in Mahakali (Baitadi-Dharchula) Highway, Bishweswor Prasad Koirala (Banepa-Sindhuli-Bardibas) Highway and Rapti (Salyan-Musikot highways), the projects are expected to complete on time.

As a whole, actual allocation for the transportation sector to carry out the different works was less than the budgeted amount, says the report. The report has attributed delay in the release of Agriculture Program Loan as the chief cause. Funds use in the first year of the Plan was only 83 per cent, while it came down to 69 per cent and 76 per cent respectively.

For the effective use of the budget for development works, the report finally has suggested to increase the proportion of the funds used for constructing new roads by decreasing the funds allocated for maintenance purposes by a proportionate amount. Presently, the ratio of funds allocated for maintenance purposes to carry out new construction stands at 65:35.

Business delegation meets DPM Poudel

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KATHMANDU, March 27 - A business delegation today met with Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Ram Chandra Poudel and demanded with him to take immediate actions to curb the deteriorating law and order situation of the country.

The delegation led by Pradeep Kumar Shrestha, President of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) also requested to implement the recommendations made by a committee formed under the than Home Secretary.

The delegation comprising Diwakar Glochha, Second Vice president, Rajendra Khetan, Ex-officio Vice President and Chairman of Employers’ Council and Meg Raj Newpani, Vice Secretary General of the federation also demanded to make public about the actions taken against those, who were arrested in connection with the recent attacks and looting on industries.

On the occasion, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Poudel assured the delegation to take various concerns raised by the delegation seriously and pledged to implement necessary steps.

Yet another blow to stock market

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KATHMANDU, March 27 - The worry of domestic speculative money market investors, which has swelled by the recent series of stock market upheavals deepened further Tuesday when the market tumbled by over eight points.

On the opening day Monday, the Nepse market had increased by over 5 points and touched 382.58 points bringing in fresh expectation. However, the market, on the very next day, slumped by 8.61 points throwing cold water on the renewed anticipation, and touch 373.97 points.

Despite the tumble, number of shares traded and number of transaction, on Tuesday, increased remarkably as compared to similar variables witnessed Monday. The Nepse market on Tuesday observed trade of 6061 shares in 164 transactions against the trade of 3656 shares in 92 transaction on Monday.

Similarly, the total amount of transaction also swelled drastically and touched Rs 5.1 million whereas such transaction, on Monday was only Rs 3 million. However, in terms of market capitalization, the market marginally squeezed on Tuesday. The total market capitalization on Tuesday was Rs 47.45 billion, down from Monday’s Rs 48.54 billion.

Parliamentarians attend seminar on WTO

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KATHMANDU, March 27 - As a first step towards educating the country’s political leaders about the World Trade Organization (WTO), to which Nepal is expected to become a member soon, a seminar for the Parliamentarians titled ‘WTO and its implications for Nepal’ kicked off here Tuesday.

The seminar was organized at a time when protagonists and antagonists of WTO are still debating on the efficacy of WTO to uplift economies. The latest attempt has been made to enlighten the lawmakers about Nepal’s entry into the global rules based trading system and its possible implications on Nepal.

The two-day seminar was jointly organized by the House of Representatives, Committee of Foreign Relations and Human Rights, Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies/HMG and Nepal Accession to WTO/UNDP.

Presenting a paper on the first day of the seminar today, Dr Shankar Sharma, member of the National Planning Commission (NPC) provided a brief background on WTO and explained the rationale behind its establishment. He also highlighted the various provisions contained in the WTO agreements, including those of binding tariff, most favored nation treatment, national treatment and the principle of predictability, among others.

Two more papers, made available to The Kathmandu Post today, are to be presented Wednesday, one relating to the implications that WTO can have on Nepal, and the other, relating to the necessary adjustments and changes that Nepal would be bound to make in its legal system once it accedes to the WTO agreements.

Focusing on the impacts of WTO membership on Nepal, Deependra Bahadur Chhetri, Economic Advisor with the Nepal Rastra Bank, in his paper has highlighted the implications of the WTO provisions not only on the agriculture sector, but also on garments, investment, among a host others.

Similarly, Dr Bharat Bahadur Karki, Professor with the Institute of Law, Tribhuvan University, has briefly analyzed the different WTO agreements and provided a list of areas in which Nepal needs to introduce changes. The paper has largely focused on some of the controversial agreements under the WTO regime, including the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs), Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade, Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures and the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, among others.

Speaking on the occasion, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tara Nath Ranabhat said that challenges ahead are immense. "When we cannot mobilize the available resources properly, when bottlenecks exist in the manufacturing sector and when agriculture sector too has not shown much progress, acceding to WTO means daunting tasks ahead," he said.

Similarly, Chairman of the National Assembly, the Upper House, Dr Mohammad Mohasin laid special emphasis on the patenting provisions in the WTO. He said, "WTO has given huge power to trans-national and multi-national companies, who can exploit least developed countries (LDCs) like Nepal by draining off their resources."

He also stressed on the need to develop a minimum national consensus in Nepal’s accession into WTO. However, he said, "We still do not have enough consensus to run the House."

Madhav Kumar Nepal, leader of the opposition CPN-UML, said the poor governance, corruption, and laxity in the implementation of reform programs are some of the factors that have contributed to sluggish growth.

On the occasion, Krishna Prasad Sitaula, Minister of State for Industry, Commerce and Supplies, said there is a need to access the possible opportunities and challenges that WTO accession would bring. However, there is a strong need to promote capital markets and to accelerate capacity building.

Similarly, Resident Representative of UNDP, Dr Henning Karchar, said, "No nation can afford at this day and age to pursue its development goals in isolation." While he highlighted the benefits of being a WTO member, he also said that WTO does not address the issues of deteriorating terms of trade of primary goods exporting countries nor infrastructural bottlenecks that limit the supply capacity of less developed countries like Nepal.

Farmers declining from paddy cultivation

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RAJBIRAJ, March 27 - Plagued by the record-low plunge in paddy prices, the attraction of local peasants of Saptari district towards cultivation of summer paddy has remarkably declined. The rising demotivation in the paddy cultivation was due to last year’s bitter experience when most of the farmers even failed to incur the cost of production primarily because of the flood of cheap Indian rice into the domestic market.

Of the total 114 VDCs of the district, summer paddy has been the principal sources of income for the farmers of 26 VDCs. However, most of them believe that the cultivation of summer paddy will not bring any profit, particularly at the time when price of paddy, which had touched the bottom line last year, has still not improved.

Shiva Ram Yadav, a local farmer with decades long history in cultivating summer paddy, was planning to cultivate summer paddy in his 5 bighas land. However, due to the spiraling fall in paddy price, he has now decided to limit cultivation to 2 bighas only. "Since the existing price of paddy cannot cover the prices of agricultural inputs like seeds, fertilizer and labor, it is futile to engage in the summer paddy cultivation for the commercial purpose," he said.

Until last summer, the market prices of the summer paddy were high enough to get higher margin. However, due to the bumper monsoon production paddy both in Nepal and India and consequent flow of the cheap Indian rice into Nepal through largely unchecked border, the prices of paddy tumbled by more than 50 per cent greatly hurting the only reliable income source of many small farmers.

Yadav, too narrates experiences and said that he was able to repay agricultural loan after selling summer paddy last year. Due to the attraction generated by the summer paddy, it has become very popular in the district. The data made available from the District Agricultural Office also reveals that summer paddy was cultivated on more than14,000 bighas of land last year whereas, only a decade ago it used to be only 9,000 bighas.

Asian LDCs identify 4 areas of common concern

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KATHMANDU, March 27 - A two-day workshop on Asian NGO perspective on the least developed countries (LDCs) concluded here Tuesday with the Kathmandu Declaration. The Declaration, among others, has identified four key areas of common concern to be raised in the forthcoming LDCs-III United Nations Conference to be organized in Brussels, the capital of Belgium in May.

These key areas identified by the workshop include finance and the market, governance and political structure, access to and control of natural resources and people’s empowerment.

At a press conference jointly organized by the Rural Reconstruction Nepal (RRN) and International Steering Committee of LDCs’ NGO forum after the conclusion of the Workshop, the organizers laid emphasis on the immediate cancellation of debt of the LDCs, increased foreign direct investment (FDI), openness of market as well as the capital market regulation to reduce volatility and to protect vulnerable economics.

"Trade liberalization and free market policies should benefit and protect the interest of the people of the LDCs," the Declaration says, adding, "openness of the markets should not be confined only to capital, but there should be free flows of information, technology and the people."

Likewise, the Declaration has demanded governments to be transparent, accountable and ensure people’s participation in managing state affairs including expenditures and negotiating with donors.

"Political structure must allow the involvement of the vulnerable sectors of society, particularly women, minorities and poor people" states the Declaration.

Since a majority of people in the LDCs depend upon natural resources for their livelihood, appropriate policies should be formulated and implemented to ensure equitable access to and control over natural resources, including land, forests and water," reads the Declaration. "Strict policy guidelines should be enforced for the protection and management of the environment and bio-diversity."

Emphasizing the need of people’s empowerment, the Declaration demands the end of marginalisation of women and socially oppressed classes and urges the need of creating new opportunities for the disadvantaged sectors of the society.

The Workshop has given us opportunity to share our experience and develop a common view on some pertinent issues, said Arjun K Karki, regional representative of the International Steering Committee. "Deepening and broadening the people-to-people level contact between the LDCs in the region will help to achieve economic and political democracy and human development in our countries," Karki added.

Altogether 40 representatives from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Lao DPR, Maldives, Mynmar and Nepal participated in the Workshop. There are nine countries from Asia being listed in the LDCs. The United Nations is organizing the third UN Conference for the LDCs from 14-20 May with an objective of eradicating poverty in the LDCs through their progressive integration into the world economy with the support of international community and Workshop was a part of preparation of Asian LDCs to raise their common concern in the UN Conference.