Economic Journalists’ meet
Poor governance obstructs development: Dr. Mahat

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Oct. 1. Despite various constraints Nepalese journalism in the span of past twelve years has displayed a great degree of maturity and helped inform the people about social anomalies and irregularities. As watchdog, journalists should always be alert and effortful to find out the reality and disseminate correct information to the people. Dissemination of information with vested interests creates confusion that can lead a society into turmoil. Hence journalists have a great role in nation building, said speakers at the opening session of the SEJON’s third Annual General Meeting here today.

Inaugurating the function, Finance Minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat said it is the poor governance that has obstructed the process of economic development to a desired extent. Economic journalists in this respect can play a significant role by pointing out shortfalls of government and non- governmental areas.

As long as there exists government intervention, growth of an institution is almost impossible, therefore private sector should be encouraged for development, said Dr. Mahat. ‘Our tax administration is weak, our governance is poor and so is our administration’. On top of that lack of effective regulatory mechanism has created a great problem, said Dr. Mahat

In fact political issues are dominant than economic issues, he said and urged media people to give equal priority to the economic issues as well. Dr. Mahat pointed out the need for dissemination of right information to the people. Any information if that tends to sensitize the public can create a great disturbance, he said.

Executive Director of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) Dr. Yuba Raj Khatiwada while presenting paper on the role journalism in economic development noted that economic journalists could play a significant role to maintain fiscal discipline and opinion building. The role of media is multi-pronged in accelerating economic development and maintaining transparency in government and non- governmental areas, he said.

However, economic journalists should be equally well informed and honest while informing people. Dr Khatiwada appreciated the role being played by the Society of Economic Journalists (SEJON).

Suraj Vaidya, second vice president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) stressed the need to disseminate right information to the people.

Suresh Acharya, president of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists accused the government of not giving adequate priority for the development of the press.

Gajendra Bista, president of the SEJON highlighted its contributions.

General Secretary Gopal Tiwari extended vote of thanks.

Established in 1998 with the initiatives of ten young economic reporters have now more than 34 members, according to the SEJON.

Maoists act to create terror: Nepal

Siraha, Oct. 1 (RSS): Main Opposition Leader and CPN-UML General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal has that that the Maoists are extremists in thinking and terrorists in action.

CPN-UML general secretary Nepal, who was inaugurating a two-day zonal level orientation programme for party workers at Lahan today, said as the Maoist problem is basically a political problem its should be resolved through dialogue.

The government-Maoists talks should be aimed at not only convincing the rebels to lay down arms but also at resolving people’s basic problems, he observed.

Speaking about the citizenship problem in the Terai, he said, the CPN-UML is ready to cooperate in making any improvement in the relevant law so as to see to it that all genuine Nepalese citizens obtain citizenship certificates.

At the programme, General Secretary Nepal also spoke about the party’s stance in the present political situation, while central member Guru Baral and standing committee member Keshav Badal threw light on matters concerning party organisation, ideological deviation among the Maoists and progressive land reforms.

Some 80 representatives from Siraha, Saptari and Udayapur district committee members and others participated in the orientation programme.

Deal signed for execution of Melamchi

Kathmandu, Oct 1 (RSS): Nordic Development Fund (NDF) and the OPEC Fund for International Development (OPEC Fund) have agreed to provide loan assistance of SDR 7.2 million (approximately Rs 675.9 million) and US $ 13.7 million (approximately Rs 1207.7 million) respectively to Nepal for execution of the Melamchi Water Supply Project.

The loan assistance from NDF will be used for the Melamchi diversion scheme component of the project and the loan assistance from OPEC Fund will be used for construction of access roads.

The loan agreement between His Majesty’s Government and NDF was signed at NDF headquarters in Helsinki on September 18.

Madhav Prasad Ghimire, joint secretary at the Ministry of Finance signed the document on behalf of HMG, Nepal and NDF president Jens Lund Sorensen and senior vice president Ms. Carin Wall jointly signed the document on behalf of NDF.

Likewise, the loan assistance agreement between HMG/ Nepal and OPEC Fund was signed by Mr Madhav Prasad Ghimire, joint secretary at the Ministry of Finance and Dr. Y. Seyyid Abdulai, director general of OPEC Fund on behalf of their respective institutions at OPEC Fund headquarters in Veinna, Austria on September 21.

His Majesty’s Government had sent a delegation led by joint secretary Ghimire to complete these agreements.

The delegation also took part in the discussion for finalising the draft of proposed agreement for mixed-credit between HMG/N and Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) at the SIDA headquarters in Stockholm from September 24-25.

SIDA has already approved a mixed-credit of US $ 25 million for the project and the agreement to this effect is expected to be concluded soon.

For power, Maoists should contest elections: Ranabhat

BY A STAFF REPORETR

Kathmandu, Oct. 1: Human Rights and Peace Society (HURPES) recently concluded its 4rth national council meeting here with the theme of ‘Fearless Social Atmosphere: the Highest Message of Humanity.’

On the occasion of the concluding session of the meeting, Speaker Taranath Ranabhat said that the Maoists had no rights to kill the people in the name of so-called People’s War.

He said that multi-party democracy provides all to go in power through the elections and added: "If the Maoists have faith on people, they should participate in the peaceful elections by laying down their arms."

Ranabhat also distributed the letters of appreciation to the Chitwan and Kaski branches of the Society for their contribution in the fields of human rights and enhancing peace culture at the function chaired by the president of the Society Krishna Pahadi.

Likewise, a host of speakers including chairman of Nepal Human Rights Organisaion Sudeep Pathak and chairman of CWIN Gauri Pradhan, had expressed their views on the occasion.

Former deputy Prime Minister Bam Dev Gautam and former minister Ram Hari Josi had jointly inaugurated the conference. UML leader Bharat Mohan Adhikari, MP Hom Nath Dahal, former ministers Nilamber Acharya and Shailendra Kumar Upadhyaya had addressed the inaugural function.

The meeting approved annual working plan, budget, 4 exchanges, annual report, report of audit and nine proposals in its 2 day conference participated in by 248 representatives and observers from 45 districts of the country. The Society had also organised a peace rally just one day ahead of the national meet.

Bail out package for ailing tourism industry needed

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Oct. 1: Travel trade entrepreneurs today emphasised the need for the government to come up with concrete package programmes to revive Nepal’s tourism industry, which has been undergoing through unfavorable situations, both at the national and international levels.

At the special General Meeting of Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Nepal Chapter organised here today, the tourism entrepreneurs asked the government to be more concerned about the deteriorating condition of the tourism industry. They suggested for temporary, mid-term as well as long-term measures for its development and promotion. Besides, they also pointed out the urgency to market and promote Nepal in India, China and the South East Asian countries since they offer a big prospect for the country’s tourism.

They also recommended for measures considering the adverse impacts on Nepal’s tourism industry of the recent terrorist attacks in US.

The temporary measures as advocated by the travel trade sector include waiving of visa fees, bringing down the rates of parking, landing and other fees of foreign airlines by 50 per cent, offering a 50 per cent discount to foreigners coming to Nepal for making documentaries and feature films, cutting down entrance fees imposed on tourists in Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur Durbar Squares and in National Parks and Wildlife Reserves.

Likewise, under the mid-term measures they have asked the government to make available Rs. 50 million to NTB for bearing 50 per cent expenses of tourism entrepreneurs participating in the travel fairs abroad, and providing additional 65 days for entrepreneurs to pay the Value Added Tax (VAT).

Similarly, the long-term measures are converting all forms of loans taken by tourism entrepreneurs such as long-term, short-term and bridge gap into the single-term loan and setting dates for paying back the interest and principal of the loan to the commercial banks and scrapping the provision of environment officer and adopting simplified procedures and charge less royalty to issue permits to climbers to climbing peaks up to 6,500 meters

Last week, tourism-related associations had submitted the demands to Acting Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation for taking the measures.

Speaking on the occasion, Tek C. Pokharel, a veteran tourism entrepreneur, said that marketing activities have to be carried out in India, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan to attract more visitors.

Pokhrel further said that the entrepreneurs and the government have to be prepared for offering incentives to visitors. "We can see some silver linings. As tourism has suffered worldwide, we can bring in tourists if we market our products in an effective manner," he said.

He also said that the government has to extend necessary support to the travel trade sector as it is passing through a difficult phase.

Yogendra Sakya, member of NTB and former President of Hotel Association Nepal (HAN), said that the entrepreneurs and the government must work together at the present time of crisis.

He also stressed on the need to encourage the airlines to increase flights to Nepal and the foreign tour operators to sell the country.

Similarly, another member of NTB Mrs. Ambica Shrestha said that media has to disseminate positive information about the country so as to give a boost to the tourism industry.

Joy Dewan, President of Nepal Association of Travel Agents (NATA), said that the entrepreneurs and the government have to go together and try to reverse the present situation.

"We cannot sustain tourism business if we do not join hands now," Dewan opined.

He further said that as a land-locked country, Nepal has now to offer more incentives to the airlines so as to bring in visitors at such a critical point of time.

Narendra Bajracharya, President of Hotel Association Nepal (HAN), said that if the situation does not improve, hotelier will be compelled to close down the hotels.

"It is the responsibility on the part of the government and NTB to take up urgent measures to revive the tourism industry," he said.

Responding the questions raised by the entrepreneurs, Shankar Prasad Koirala, Acting Secretary at the MoCTCA, said that the government is declaring the opening of 50 more peaks and lifting restricting from all the areas of six different districts of the country for trekkers soon.

"Since the government is doing homework for offering more attractions to the valued guests, the private sector has also to come up with special offers," Koirala said.

He also informed that he has submitted the proposal of the tourism entrepreneurs to ‘higher level’ government body for necessary action.

Pradeep Raj Pandey, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NTB, said that the country has started to witness decreasing number of visitors after the terrorist attacks in US last month.

Pandey informed that NTB is changing its marketing plans and it is focussing on markets that could yield immediate returns.

He asked the media to try to portray positive picture of Nepal to save the tourism industry.

Shedding light on the objective of the special general meeting of the association, Ashok Pokharel, Chairman of PATA Nepal Chapter, said, "It is organised to share experiences and views among the entrepreneurs and the government officials and to take measures to minimise the impacts of the present national and international situation on tourism."

On the occasion, Mohan P. Khanal, Angur Baba Joshi, R. R. Pandey, Basanta Raj Mishra, Stefan W. Voogel, general manager of Hotel Soaltee, Suman Pandey, Yadav Khanal, Kalden Sherpa, among others, spoke about the need of taking up some important measures to sustain the ailing tourism industry of the country.

Nepal, China to sign MoU next month

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Oct 1: Nepal and the People’s Republic of China are to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the second week of November to open doors for Chinese out-bound tourists to visit Nepal.

"The MoU is likely to be signed on 9 or 10 of November this year," Pradeep Raj Pandey, CEO of NTB, revealed at the special general meeting of PATA Nepal Chapter here today.

Shankar Prasad Koirala, Acting Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, seconded Pandey on the signing of MoU, but he did not specify the date.

"Since the Chinese side has endorsed our proposal, the documents will be signed soon," Koirala said.

Tourism entrepreneurs have been enthusiastic to bring in Chinese visitors after the Chinese government listed Nepal last year as the ninth outbound destination for Chinese visitors.

Elders discuss appropriations bill
Action plan for social sectors mooted

Kathmandu, Oct. 1 (RSS): Clause-wise discussions on the Appropriations Bill 2001 began at the meeting of the National Assembly today.

At the discussions, Mahesh Mani Dixit of the CPN-UML said that industries in the country could not flourish because of a lack of appropriate and effective policy and no specific commitment had been made to modernise the agricultural sector.

Laxmi Das Manandhar of the same party said that a suitable and concrete action plan had not been introduced for sustainable national development, and a definite long-term monetary policy had not been brought forward.

Tilak Prasad Neupanay of the Nepali Congress said that a specific action plan should be devised for the development of social sectors such as education, health, hydro-power and water supply which have a direct bearing on the people.

Aravinda Thakur of the same party said that work should have been carried out on priority basis to make multi-party Parliamentary democracy people-oriented. But this had not been done in practice.

Lok Bahadur Thapa of the RPP said that HMG should work with sensitivity as huge advances had not been cleared, to go by the report of the auditor general.

Ramchandra Bhattarai of the CPN-UML said that the Supreme Court verdict on expenditures from the MPs’ Development Fund had raised a question mark over its rationale.

Deepak Bahadur Gurung of the Nepali Congress said that the budget should be geared towards resolving the problems and facing the challenges of the country and the development of the remote region should be especially stressed.

Beduram Bhushal of the CPN-UML said that the budget had not paid attention to the development of the agricultural sector, the backbone of the economy.

Goma Devkota of the same party said that HMG had given special preference to poverty alleviation but the budget did not reflect this, and commitment had not been shown to women’s empowerment and gender equality.

Bijul Kumar Bishwakarma of the Nepali Congress said that the leaders should not be looked to while prioritising projects, bridges should be constructed from Lamahi to Tulasipur, and a road leading to Chameregupha cave in Dang built.

Ranganath Joshi of the CPN-UML said that border management should be strengthened and quality development in agriculture emphasised.

Lalit Kumar Busnet, also of the CPN-UML, said that holding discussions on the budget should not be confined to a mere formality.

Jagannath Paudel of the Nepali Congress said that the budget deficit was on the increase every year, tax leakage could not be plugged nor corruption prevented and the problems of women and dalits were not resolved.

Then, Bachaspati Devkota, who was presiding over the meeting, said that the sequence of MPs speaking on the Appropriations Bill 2001 had concluded.

The National Assembly will meet again at 11 a.m. on October 2.