More Nepalis likely to get job abroad

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KATHMANDU, March 17 : More Nepali youths are expected to fly abroad for employment soon as the government has initiated process to sign agreements with various developed countries including the USA, South Korea and Japan.

The Ministry of Labour and Transport Management (MLTM) has been involved in promoting foreign employment.

The initiations of the government to finalise the agreement on foreign employment with the three countries has come at a time when remittance has been the major source of national income. Over Rs 74 billion flows into the country each year as remittance, making contribution of almost 18 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

With increasing significance of foreign employment in the remittance, the present government, soon after its formation had decided to promote foreign employment as a major foreign exchange earner in the aftermath of declining exports of carpets and garments and downward trend in tourism.

Talking to The Kathmandu Post, Minister for Labour and Transport Management, Kamal Prasad Chaulagain confirmed of the preliminary development in the employment agreement with Japan and the USA.

"We have recently negotiated with the Japanese employment provider -JIDCO to allow Nepali youths for lucrative jobs in Japan," he said. Additionally, in a bid to ensure suitable job for most Nepali - JIDCO and Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) has already started to explore potential jobs in Japan for Nepali youths.

Highly placed officials of the MLTM hinted that with the recent preliminary deal of the government with Japan and the USA, chances are high that Nepali youths get lucrative jobs there. Once the deal is finalised and comes into force, Nepali will be earning at least Rs 100,000 per month in Japan and the USA. Besides, countries like South Korea and Israel (with which Nepal is making efforts to sign agreements) will also provide a minimum of Rs 50,000 monthly salary to Nepali youths.

To ensure that Nepali may not be deprive of pre-arranged jobs abroad as has been the case lately, due mainly to delay in visa approval, the government has also requested Nepal based US embassy to relax various terms while granting visa to Nepali.

"We need to convince the US Government that our workers would not overstay," added Minister Chaulagain. In order to further the process, a joint team of senior ministry officials, US ambassador and representatives from private sector are leaving for the US soon to explore employment opportunities, informed the minister.

Also an official delegation led by Lalit Bahadur Thapa, Director General of Department of Labour and Employment Promotion (DLEP) is leaving for South Korea in order to clear the controversy surrounding the recent job offers to over 4,000 Nepali youths made by South Korea.

Korean Federation of Small and Medium Business (KFSMB) has shown laxity in allowing the employment to Nepali youths due mainly to the growing conflict between the local government and Nepal United Association of Manpower Entrepreneurs (NUAME) on who should be authorised to supply Nepali workers.

"Any chance of revocation from the Korean party will be minimised during our upcoming visit to Korea," said Thapa. Withdrawal chances of the employment offer from the Korean party loomed large of late when NUAME demanded the government to authorise them for supplying Nepali manpower. The government however ignored their demand and recommended five local foreign employment agencies to KFSMB for authorisation of supplying manpower.

The ministry is also prepared to delegate authority to the Department of Employment Promotion for approving the files of individual seeking foreign employment. "As there has been the frequent complaints that the ministry takes unnecessarily long time to give permission, we are soon to delegate our authority to lower level," the minister said.

If the authority is delegated to the lower level, it is expected to minimise the chances of Nepalis losing jobs abroad due to delay departure.

Inflation touches 3 per cent

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KATHMANDU, March 17 : Fuelled by the soaring Indian inflation rate, the domestic inflation rate that has been enjoying a historic low of around 2 per cent has started moving up due mainly to rising food prices.

According to the price statistics complied by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), during the first half of current fiscal year, the National Urban Price Index (NUPI) with 1995/96 as the base year, recorded marginal increment to 3 per cent against 2.9 per cent of the same period last year.

During the period, food and beverages items, which command lion’s weight of 53.20 per cent in the NUPI, registered an increment of 3.2 per cent whereas such increment in the previous year was 4.6 per cent.

Of the major components of the group, grains and cereals products registered an increment of 9.6 per cent against the rise of 3.5 per cent of the previous year. Since the grains and beverages alone holds 18 per cent weight in the NUPI, any fluctuations in its price positively accompanies the whole index by suppressing price increments in other goods with low weight.

The rising paddy price caused by the unfavorable weather condition in India and subsequent low inflow of Indian rice into Nepal played the leading role for surging the prices of grains and cereals group in the domestic market. As a result, the prices of rice and rice products has recorded a double-digit growth of 11.1 per cent whereas such rise in during last year was just 2.6 per cent.

The prices of oil and ghee, which holds the weight of 3.07 per cent in NUPI, recorded the highest price rise of 22.8 per cent. Low oil-seed production due to the adverse weather condition and rise in the price of palm oil, the chief raw materials for the vegetable ghee industry in the international market are some of the influential causes for such rise.

However, during the period, the prices of vegetable and fruits, and spices recorded a surprise decline of 11 per cent and almost 13 per cent respectively as compared to same period last year. Similarly, prices of sugar and sugar related products also went down by 2.3 per cent while the prices of meat, fish and egg, which holds third largest weight in the group surged by 3 per cent.

In the like manner, the indices of restaurant meal and sugar and related products also recorded a deflation of 0.1 per cent and 2.3 per cent respectively while prices of milk and milk products recorded a marginal increment.

Similarly, the non-food and services group, which bears 46.80 per cent weight in the NUPI, also witnessed a high growth rate of 2.6 per cent against 1.2 per cent recorded during the same period last year. The rise in price of housing and medical and personal care - largest and the second largest weight holder of the group respectively – largely played a crucial role in pushing up the non-food index.

The price of housing, during the period, rose by 3.5 per cent while similar increment of 4 per cent was also recorded in the price of medical and personal care whereas such increment for the same period last year was minus 2 per cent and 7 per cent respectively.

Similarly, the price of education, reading and recreation registered the similar growth of 1 per cent while tobacco and related products witnessed an increment of 3.5 per cent during the period.

Likewise, clothes, clothing and sewing services and transport and communication registered similar soars of 1.5 per cent and 2.2 per cent respectively.

Departmental action recommended against three bank employees

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BUTWAL, March 17 : The Public Service Monitoring and Inspection Team Lumbini-Rapti has recommended to take departmental action against three employees of Rastriya Banijya Bank Lumbini on charges of abusing authority.

The team has recommended taking action against Uma Nath Subedi, accountant, Chiranjibi Sharma, the loan officer and Ram Chandra Pokharel, in-charge of Loan Department of the bank.

The team has stated that the accused were involved in extending a loan amounting Rs 900,000 to Bibidh Trade Centre, a private firm owned by the wife of accountant Sharma, ignoring the bank’s lending rules.

The team discovered the irregularity in extending the loan while making investigation on the basis of public complaints against different offices in the education, health, banking, department of roads and other sectors.

There are a total 150 complaints filed with the team from 11 districts of Lumbini and Rapti zones, informed Rameshwor Shah, coordinator of the team.

Similarly, the team has directed the District Education Office Rupandehi to immediately stop the unauthorised sale and purchase of the land owned by Nabin Industrial Lower Secondary School at Butwal Municipality ward number three.

Sunsari CCI president ousted

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DHARAN, March 17 : Controversies have surfaced following the ouster of Khagendra Shrestha, President of Sunsari Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) by an emergency meeting of the executive committee of the Chamber on March 14.

Shrestha was charged of amending the constitution of the Chamber on his own and getting it ratified from the District Administration Office, without informing the members of the executive committee, said Pawan Kumar Agrawal, who is acting president now.

However, Shrestha said that challenging the decision of the executive committee, he has been coming to office and carrying out the daily work as a president.

Thirteen members of the 15-member executive committee of the Chamber had taken the decision on removing Shrestha from his position.

Shrestha has claimed that the working committee decision has been made in his absence and hence not acceptable to him.

The dispute between Shrestha and the rest of the working committee members stemmed from the amendment to the constitution of the chamber aimed at annulling the provision of ‘proxy vote’.

According to Ram Autar Shah, coordinator of the constitution amendment committee, the provision of proxy vote only disturbed the daily activities of the Chamber.

Majority of the executive members has accused President Shrestha, the Constitution Amendment Committee and District Administration Office for effecting an unauthorised amendment to the constitution.

"The amended constitution has given unlimited power to the president which in no way is beneficial to Chamber and the entire business sector," said Kishor Shrestha, a working committee member.

Import of Indian seeds ruins farmers of Rukum

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NEPALGUNJ, March 17 : Farmers of Rukum district who used to earn about Rs 50 million by selling vegetable seeds have for the past one year been unable to find a market for their production.

These farmers, who got into the profession of producing vegetable seeds nearly 10 years ago and made a good profit, attribute the lack of market to the massive inflow of cheap Indian seeds.

Gyan Bahadur Oli, a farmer from Rukum Chhiwang-1, used to earn Rs100,000 annually from selling seeds he grew in six ropanis of land. "Till two years ago, the businessmen would come to our houses to buy seeds. Now it seems like a fairy tale. We have not only missed them, but also finding it very difficult to sell small amount of seeds even if we visit every nook and corners of the districts," he says.

Oli has sold nearly 11 quintals of seeds on credit in Kathmandu and other cities. The situation is the same with another 3,000 farmers who got into the seed production profession.

The inflow of cheap Indian seeds has threatened the existence of seed production in the district. On top of this, lack of any move towards preserving the local seeds is yet another major problem of the farmers.

The price of a kilogram of onion seed had gone up to Rs 500 before the Indian seeds started coming in. Now the farmers have not been able to sell a kilo of onion seeds even at Rs100. Similar is the fate of other seeds. Some farmers have even started to dump their seeds at lower than production cost.

Although there is no official data on the sale of 337 tons of seeds produced two years ago, farmers say that they have been able to sell only half of the quantity. The rest are lying neglected in stores of Kathmandu, Nepalgunj, Pokhara and other areas and in the houses of the farmers.