Chairman: Nepal Chamber of Commerce Executive Chairman: Nepal International Business Pvt. Ltd. Managing Director: Hotel Rara Pvt. Ltd. Vice-Chairman: Nepal Vehicle Service Co. Ltd. (Blue Cab) President: Annapurna Associates (P) Ltd.

Director: Alliance Insurance Ltd., Lumbini Motor World (P) Ltd., Ajima Trade Syndicate Pvt. Ltd. etc.

Rajesh Kazi Shrestha, the Chairman of Nepal Chamber
of Commerce (NCC), is both very happy and very
worried. Happy because he feels he has only
friends, no enemy, and worried because repeated listening to the list of worries from fellow businessmen often drives him to conclude that the business prospects are really hopeless in each field.

The refrain that he says he has to hear from the members of NCC and also from other chambers is about security problem. But Shrestha has a different personal opinion about it. The root problem is the lack of political stability, he says. Had there been political stability, political leaders would have had time to think about the country’s economy and the people would have got employment and income. "Nobody would then wield guns, and there would be no security problem".

Though he is officially recognized as a prominent leader of the business community as the chairman of the chamber of the capital city, Shrestha is still little known from the type of business he is engaged in. And he attributes this to the fact that he has no involvement in the manufacturing sector. "So I can’t claim to be an industrialist, an adjective that is more prestigious than simply a businessman", he laments.

As a businessman Shrestha is in imports, deals in vehicles, textiles, electronic and household items motor cycles (Lifan brand from China) and runs a hotel (Hotel Rara). He was also among the pioneers in forming a taxi-cab company that ran the service under the brand Blue Cab. But why is he not in manufacturing?

The reason he puts forward are as numerous as he hears them in the form of repeated complaints of other manufacturers. Summarizing them in a few, Shrestha enumerates three: Number one, the labour act is such that it puts hurdles on every step of running a manufacturing unit. Second, there is no provision for security of investment. And third, the open border makes it more sensible to stay as trader than to venture as an industrialist.

Generally, people say that Nepal has good prospects in hydroelectricity, tourism and agriculture. And Shrestha believes in the third area because "both of hydroelectricity and tourism are full of problems as you see". He had already signed an MOU with the Italians for a joint venture fruit processing project, but the foreigners had to postpone it for the economic reasons in their own country. Now Shrestha is negotiating with a Spanish party for a business in asparagus. "We have the land, labour and the suitable climatic conditions. We’ve to find ways to use them", he says about his conviction. Perhaps the most important reason that put Shrestha on the limelight was the struggle against VAT that the business community waged with Shrestha as the coordinator. The struggle delayed VAT implementation. Though the government says it has successfully implemented VAT, Shrestha still does not regard VAT as a successful tax system.

However the VAT debate made a positive contribution in that it has been gradually bringing about a change among the bureaucrats and political leaders who have now started to deal with the business community as a partner in the economic issues though the business community is still regarded as a ‘sub-ordinate’ partner, views the NCC Chairman.

Friends have been the major factors to lead Rajesh Kazi Shrestha to whatever business or field he is engaged in. That was as true in his initial business of importing goods from Bangkok and Hong Kong as it was in his later entry into vehicles business and becoming the promoter shareholder in Alliance Insurance and Development Credit Bank. After being the chairman of hospitality committee for the 8th SAF games, he became the president of Nepal Weight Lifting Association (NWLA) and here again the influencing factors have been his friends who insisted that he must take the position. And one feather he added to his cap as NWLA President is the bid that he won for Nepal in a meeting in Greece to host the forthcoming Junior World Championship in Weight Lifting.

If things go as planned, the championship will be held in Nepal in June this year (2002) in which 70 countries and 600 participants are expected to take part giving the much needed boost to Nepal’s tourism industry. As an executive member of Hotel Association Nepal (HAN), Shrestha is desperately waiting for the event to take place.