Entrepreneurs euphoric over visitors’ response

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KATHMANDU, Jan 29: Along with the more than expected participation, particularly from the new generation, the Info-Tech 2002, which concluded today, experienced a robust growth in the overall business transaction.

Most of the IT related business houses, which opened stalls to promote their business, reported that the overall business transactions of the total 96 stalls, during the 5-day fair, were much higher than the that witnessed during the similar fair organized last year.

"The overwhelming response from almost all quarters of the society is very encouraging, which once again has given the strongest evidence that IT is one of the few sectors left in Nepal with a bright future," says Amrit Bahadur Thapa, Chief Executive Officer of Mazda International Computech.

The response of the young generation in particular is one of the strong proofs for the growing attraction of the generation towards a sector that is commanding the modern world. "Though young generation has been the dominant consumers from the beginning, their participation this year has increased multi-folds, which is the main cause for surge in the business," says Thapa.

"The massive participation of the young people clearly indicated the IT business has a huge potential," he further adds.

Computer sale is one of the sectors that recorded an impressive growth this time. "The sale of computers increased by more than 25 per cent, which is the strongest growth seen in recent years," Ramesh Bahadur Joshi, Managing Director of Computer Advance System, says.

He also says that most of the attraction, this time, was seen in purchasing hardware. "Apart from large number of bookings, the direct selling of hardware, particularly, printers and other office automations has been remarkable," he said.

IT related educational institutions were another attraction that mainly drew the young people. Participants at the IT fair also say that they are delighted by the response that they received during the fair.

"The response is far more good than last year, during which over 600 forms were filled for our institution. This year, over a thousand aspirant students filled the forms by paying Rs 100 for each," says Dilendra Neupane, Center Manager of Collage of Software Engineering.

However, not all the participating IT businessmen wants to measure the success of the event through the amount of business realized during the fair that attracted more than one hundred thousand visitors. Rather, they take it as a good platform to establish their IT-related business for long-term benefits.

"The fair has provided a good opportunity to make the consumers aware about the new technology and products available in the market lately, which is an essential element for long term perspective of the IT business," opines Thapa.

Others with similar views also support the argument and add that it is not the business realised during the five days that counts, but rather the response of the public towards the sector. "The response is a testimony that the IT sector in Nepal is still in a good health despite the dwindling global economy along with the IT markets," they view.

Similarly, for the new brand holders, the fair was an appropriate place to launch the brand name in the market. "It was a unique platform for the new comers since the fair is the most easy way to introduce and market new brand names," Shambhu Shrestah, a local agent for American made UPS devices, who participated the fair for the first time, says.

Water Resources Strategy in the offing

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KATHMANDU, Jan 29: Bijaya Kumar Gacchadhar, Minister for Water Resources, has said that the government is all set to implement the Water Resources Strategy, which is being prepared since the past five years with assistance of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), among other donors.

Gacchadhar said this while speaking at the first annual general meeting of South Lalitpur Electricity Cooperatives Society (SLECS) today. SLECS, funded by the government, is the first cooperatives working on electrification program.

He even said that operating micro-hydro projects and electrification programmes at local levels is an appropriate method for water resources development in Nepal.

Meanwhile, members of the SLECS flaying over the slashing of budget for the Village Development Committees (VDC) asked the government not to withdraw support to the local bodies, which otherwise will seriously affect local development activities.

"Slashing of local bodies’ budget by 50 percent will impede the realisation of the goals set by the society to start electrification services in 19 VDCs by the end of May," lamented Dilli Prasad Ghimire, Chairman of the society.

The initial budget earmarked for starting the electrification services in the VDCs during the current fiscal year was Rs 14.9 million, out of which Rs 10 million is contributed by the His Majesty’s Government. The rest Rs 3 million and Rs 1.9 million is to be provided by the DDCs and the VDCs respectively.

Ghimire alleged the government for not translating the Water Resources Policy into practice. "Although the Water Resources Policy of the government cites to promote cooperatives and other locally run bodies to increase the participation of the people for optimum utilisation of resources, the government has failed to put it on practice," he stated.

Water resources expert Bikas Pandey suggested that the electricity procurement agreement should be done on the basis of capacity of the grid rather than energy unit for its effective distribution.

He even urged the government to determine standards and provide subsidy to electricity distributors. "The government should liberalise and simplify the electricity transmission process, especially to extend the electrification services in rural parts of the country," Pandey said.

The capacity of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), which has potential to extend electrification services to 30 thousand households annually, cannot aid in successful implementation of electrification programmes as the households are increasing at the rate of 80 thousand per annum, according to Pandey.

Govinda KC, Executive Director of NEA, Raghuji Pant of CPN-UML and Madhav Paudel, Chairman of Lalitpur DDC, too shared their views on the occasion.