Intra-Ocular lens exports booming

By Manoj M. Rijal

KATHMANDU, Nov 3 - Though produced without commercial or profit earning motives, the export of Nepal manufactured Intra-Ocular Lens, which is used for curing blindness caused by cataract (Motibindu), has seen an impressive bounce in the past few years.

Starting from scratch, the export of the lens grew almost eight folds in since 1996/97, when Nepal Eye Programme, Tilganga in association with Fred Hollows Foundation, Australia initiated the production of such technically high quality lens.

The volume of export in the year 2000/2001 has been recorded at over 59 thousand pieces, whereas only 7770 pieces of lens were exported in 1996/97. Similarly, the export increased by 28 percent in the fiscal year 2000/01 as compared to the exports of the previous fiscal year.

Tilganga in 1996/97 began manufacturing the lens with a total of 31,096 pieces. The production at the end of 2000/01 stood at over 138 thousand.

The booming export of the lens is taking place simultaneously with its increasing popularity back home. People who turned blind due to cataract have immensely benefited from it.

"Though the proportion of exports to the total manufactured pieces is on the rise, Nepali blinds have received the utmost priority," says Dr Sanduk Ruit, Medical Director at Tilganga Eye Centre.

"Nepalis are quite lucky since 95 percent of the cataract blinds get lens implanted in their eyes, whereas only 45 percent of the Indian cataract blinds get such opportunities," informed Dr Ruit. According to estimates, there are more than 250,000 cataract blinds in Nepal.

The main reason for the increasing export of the Nepali lens is its high quality and competitive price. Says a proud staff at the Centre, "Tilganga has already been awarded the ISO 9002, an international quality standard and it is the first ever institute in the entire South Asian Region to receive CE Mark, an international medical standard."

Similarly, Reggie Seimon, Chairman of Sri Lanka Eye Foundation says, "Having used the Fred Hollows lens in an eye camp in Tibet, I would put one in my own eye."

Though the Fred Hollows lens produced here cater to over 90 percent of the domestic demand, some Indian companies producing sub-standard lens are trying hard to penetrate Nepali market, claim officials. "The fear is about those patients who unknowingly use such low-graded lens," said an official preferring anonymity.

The Nepalese cataract lens has expanded so widely that 19 countries from Africa, 10 from Asia, 6 from Europe, 2 from Central America, 1 from Middle East and 5 from Australia and Oceania, with an altogether of 46 countries from around the world import Fred Hollows lens with high priority.

And what makes the Nepali lens a success in the international market is the results that it has shown in the course of the innumerable tests that it has gone through. "The lenses have been used extensively throughout Africa and Asia and have been tested by leading international authorities in Ophthalmology," say officials.

Some of the countries importing the ‘Made in Nepal’ Fred Hollows lens are Thailand, Vietnam, Italy, Germany, Kenya, South Africa, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nigeria and Turkey, among others.

Nepse index surges by 5 points

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Nov 3 – Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index, that represents the confidence of the share investors showed a small increment of 5 points this week while it had remained almost unchanged during the last two weeks before Dashain.

According to information compiled and disseminated by Nepse, the index during this week soared by 4.73 points increasing from 285.25 points while opening on Tuesday to 289.98 points while closing on Friday. The Index during the last week before Dashain had shown a marginal fall of 0.85 points.

In group-wise manner, the index of commercial banks during this week recorded a increment of over 7 points rising from 293.987 points to 300.69 points on the closing day. This group’s index had marginally declined by 0.31 points in the weekly transactions before Dashain.

Similarly, the index of insurance and finance group also showed an increase of 3 points. The index of this group on Friday was recorded to be 310.38 points against the opening index of 307.46 points. The index of this group had declined in the past week from 308.07 to 307.85 points.

In the like manner, the index of manufacturing and processing group also increased this week by 6.88 points from 309.57 to 316.45 points. The index of this group in the previous week had remained unchanged at 309.57 points.

In the like manner, the index of the trading group recorded a surge of over 4 points during this week from 95.03 points to 99.73 points on the closing day. The index of this group had declined by over 5 points during last week to settle at 95.03 points from 100.14 points.

However, the index of hotel group recorded a decline of 7 points from 254.96 points to 247.33 points this week. The index of this group before Dashain had remained unchanged at 244.37 points.

The index of trading group remained unchanged at 102.28 points while the index of others declined marginally from 146.98 points to 146.41 points.

In groupwise market participation, the commercial bank group continued to lead the share transactions and retained its first position capturing 48.95 percent of this week’s total trade.

In this week, finance group captured 42.40 percent of total share transactions and retained its second position. Likely, the share of hotel group was 4.28 percent and that of manufacturing group was 1.8 per cent. Also, the market participation of trading group, insurance group and the others group were 1.59, 0.89 and 0.08 percent respectively.

During this week, 38,776 share units valued at Rs 10.91 million were traded in 370 share transactions. In the weekly trade before Dashain, 13,975 share units valued at Rs 7.11 million were traded in 286 transactions.

In terms of the number of transactions, Nepal Merchant Banking and Finance Limited topped the list with 9 transactions. Nepal Share Markets Limited, however, ranked first in terms of value of transaction and the number of shares traded. A total of 21,500 units of the banks’ shares worth Rs 3.87 million were traded.

The Nepse market remained open only for four days this week. The shares of only three companies were traded for all four days this week. Those companies were Nepal Arab Bank, Bank of Kathmandu and NIC Bank.

Those companies whose shares were traded only for one day this week include Nepal Indosuez Bank, Bishalbazar Company, Annapurna Finance, Nepal Housing Development Company, Universal Finance and Capital Markets and Lalitpur Finance.

Nepal-India economic cooperation stressed

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Nov 3 - Rabi Bhakta Shrestha, President of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry has said that the Federation has been putting its maximum efforts to expand the economic cooperation between Nepal and India, states a press release.

Addressing a reception organized here today by the Federation to welcome the Indian delegation, which is currently in the capital to participate in the Nepal India trade talks, Shrestha highlighted various activities of the Federation and added that the genuine problems of the entrepreneurs of both the countries should be addressed properly and such problems should be solved through mutual understanding. "Unnecessary debates and manipulation of the issues can only harm our warm trade relation," he said.

He also said that the Nepal India Trade Treaty signed in 1996 has greatly benefited the consumers of both the countries but such benefits have not been properly publicised due to which very few problems have been magnified yet.

He expressed his optimism that the ongoing Nepal-India Trade talks would create fruitful outcomes and pledged that the Federation is ready to extend any cooperation to solve the existing trade problems. He also opined that the main spirit of the agreement should not be disturbed by some emerging negligible issues.

Speaking on the occasion, S Ramasundaram, leader of the Indian delegation assured that the main spirit of the 1996 Trade Treaty would not be changed and expressed his hope that the outstanding trade related problems between the two countries would be solved through mutual understanding.

On the occasion, members of trade negotiation team of both the nations and high officials of the Federation were present.