CNN features Nepali youth entrepreneur

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Sept. 8: Ashutoush Rajbhandari, a Nepali entrepreneur currently involved in a US merchant banking firm was a guest on internationally renowned television CNN’s Biz Asia programme, August 6, 2000. This is the first time that a Nepal born business entrepreneur was featured by CNN.

Talking to CNN Rajbhandari, 42, who is a partner at Thomas Weisel Partners in San Francisco, California, remarked that technology investments will provide the underpinnings for the economic growth of the US over the next five years.

Ninety per cent of growth in the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the US is likely to be generated by technology related businesses like Internet, he added.

Pointing to the fast growing computer technology in the Asian continent he noted fifty per cent establishments in the Silicon Valley are either founded or owned by Asians, mainly Indians and Chinese.

Rajbhandari is optimistic that the major thesis of technology driven economic growth will hold as true for Asia as it has and will for the United States. Speaking on the economic prospects of Nepal, he pointed to the success of India in the field of software in particular, and expressed hope that the admirable success of our neighbouring country will have a carryover effect in this Himalayan Kingdom.

Thomas Weisel Partners established in 1999 with 66 partners and over seven hundred employees is a $5.5 billion company.

Rajbhandari, who is on his way to a 3 week European visit to research technology companies in Europe, hopes to return to his home in Kathmandu in a fortnight to celebrate Dashain with his family.

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