BUSINESS & ECONOMY

British wool could help carpet export

-By A Staff Reporter

Lured by one of the top foreign currency earning industry of Nepal, the British Wool Marketing Board recently organized a British Wool Promotion Event in Kathmandu on Thursday.

Minister Tamarakar and British Ambassador Ronald Nash at the British Wool function .

The programme participated in by members of the Central Carpet Industry Association (CCIA), Nepal Britain Chambers of Commerce and Industry (NBCCI) and Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) highlighted on the benefits from the use of British wool over other types of wool.

The event, third in its series since 1997, was inaugurated by Minister for Commerce Ram Krishna Tamrakar. The British Wool Marketing Board has also participated in the Himalayn Expo, an annual trade fair organized in Kathmandu.

During a presentation programme, Richard Passmore, Advertising and Promotion Manager at the British Wool Marketing Board (BWMB), said that the British wool is a special combination of resilience, softness and warmth and thus is a superior natural carpet fibre. “It is better than the New Zealand wool in many aspects,” he pointed out.

As British wool is competitive in price and is high in quality, it will be easy for the Nepalese carpets to get into the global market. British wool gives thermal and acoustic insulation and on top of that it does not easily attract dirt.

“British wool reproduces colour superbly and ensures the very best clarity and definition of design,” the BWMB official said. “If Nepalese carpet manufacturers use more than fifty percent British wool in the production of their carpets, the British Wool Marketing Board is willing to provide a licence for its marketing around the world,” he further pointed out.

Speaking on the same occasion, NBCCI President Rajendra Khetan said that wool is the most significant raw material in the production of hand-knotted Nepalese carpets. “Since British wool has got all the best qualities needed, it can be an asset in weaving woolen carpets,” he said.

He also urged Nepalese carpet manufacturers to take the opportunity to get into the UK market for the export of Nepalese woolen carpets. Though our carpets are doing well in many European countries, carpets exports to UK are substantially lower than to other countries, he pointed out.

Khetan also informed that a delegation of Nepalese carpet manufacturers is visiting UK for the first time for the promotion of Nepalese products. The delegation is scheduled to visit UK from 16 to 23 January this year. This team will also observe the production process of British wool.

Addressing the meet, British Ambassador to Nepal Ronald P. Nash informed that UK is the largest wool producer in Europe with an annual fleece wool clip of more than 50 million kilograms.

Britain exports almost 70 percent of this volume to other countries. Japan is the biggest user of British wool in Asia and Belgium is the biggest importer.

Nepal to host SA energy conference in March

Expanding trade opportunities for companies involved in energy and energy projects will be the focus of a U.S. government-sponsored regional conference in Kathmandu, Nepal, March 6-8. The conference, Energy South Asia, will provide U.S. companies with details on planned projects worth billions of dollars in the areas of oil and gas, coal mining, power generation, hydro-electricity, refining, liquefied natural gas and petrochemicals in one of the world’s largest markets.

Presented by the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (TDA) and co-sponsored by the U.S. Departments of Energy, Commerce and State, and the Agency for International Development, the conference will cover opportunities in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Senior officials from the U.S. and the seven countries will discuss upcoming developments in the energy sector from a business perspective and provide information on more than 30 large-scale, public and private-sector projects currently on the drawing boards.

Energy supply has not keep pace with demand in South Asia, leaving an enormous market with extensive opportunities for U.S. exports and investments. The conference will also highlight energy efficiency projects and the prospects for increased cross-border energy cooperation, including pipelines and long-distance power transmission.

A series of prescheduled one-on-one meetings during the conference will also enable U.S. participants to meet privately with project sponsors, as well as potential partner companies in the region. According to J. Joseph Grandmaison, TDA’s director, “This is an unprecedented opportunity for U.S. companies to capture a larger share of the energy projects in the South Asia.”

Each U.S. participant will receive a comprehensive resource guide and CD-ROM outlining the projects presented, including critical economic information, export potential, time lines, equipment needs and key contacts.

The conference is open to U.S. and South Asian companies and government agencies involved in energy, as well as those in energy-related engineering, construction and project development. Also expected to participate are U.S. ambassadors and commercial officers from the region, and representatives from international lending institutions including the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the Export-Import Bank, the overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Asian Development Bank.

Supporting industry organisations include the Edison Electric Institute, the U.S. energy Association, the Confederation of Indian Industry, and the U.S. Bangladesh Business Council.

The U.S. Trade and Development Agency helps from mutually beneficial partnerships between U.S. private-sector companies and overseas sponsors. An agency of the U.S. government, TDA provides assistance in more than 60 nations around the world each year.

Joining the WTO bandwagon

-By K.C. Bhatt

Though most of the nations of the world are normally welcome to join the WTO, a potential super power like China was long denied its’ entry into WTO by USA. Now, finally, after a lot of deliberations on the bilateral and multi lateral forums; including on the issue of human rights interalia, China has been cleared by the USA to join the WTO.

This recent development, on the eve of the Seattle Summit of the WTO (which has already ended in a fiasco), has been widely hailed by the people who are genuinely interested in enhanced trade activities across the globe. As it has opened the way for the flow of goods, services and investment into a powerful country like China, that has a 1.2 billion plus population and a phenomenal record of economical performance over the years and decades.

Though, Nepal’s contribution to the global trade remains a meager 0.01%, that in fact is steadily declining over the years, joining the WTO bandwagon is a prospect that is being hotly debated for quite some time in Nepal. Unfortunately however, this issue too has generated more heat than light, like most other contemporary issues in Nepal.

It may be germane to discuss here a few points which must be well discussed and negotiated, before Nepal too joins WTO. As, they may have certain bearings on the prospects after Nepal joins the WTO.

Resource mobilisation:
Despite one-decade-old recent history of democratic dispensation in Nepal, the State continues to function with its crippling and venal inertia of the past and continues to be often characterized by inefficiency and corruption, rather than by reforms and probity. The traders and industrialists continue to indulge in profiteering with the active connivance of a highly corrupt bureaucracy. So, the gap between the poor and rich has not exactly been bridged during the past decade.

If, as promised, the WTO will bring prosperity to Nepal, in the absence of speedy reforms, the prosperity will be only for a few already privileged. And unless the system is remarkably re-engineered to mobilise the internal resources and to strengthen the mechanism of the social welfare, the impoverished majority will continue to remain marginalised.

Working conditions:
The laborers in Nepal, wheather in formal sector or otherwise, continue to work for ridiculously low wages and in appalling working conditions. Despite the good performance of the left leaning political parties, in the elections (both local and general), the trade union movement appears to be directionless and in disarray in Nepal.

Also, a disgrace like child labor continues to haunt the Nepalese society and the substitution of the Nepalese laborers, from the neighbouring country, has chronically worsened the employment opportunities for the natives. So these problems will not; by themselves; ameliorate once Nepal joins the WTO.

Environment friendly:
If the WTO will improve the access of the goods produced in Nepal, in the markets across the globe; in an area where they will prove competitive; the production of the industries is bound to increase. Given the poor technology the industries use and the less than average capacity of the state and intelligentsia alike; to comprehend the environmental issues, the environmental pollution will increase many fold.

In other words, pain must be taken by the experts to ensure, that WTO would not become a guise for the crooked multinationals to shift their ‘environmentally dirty’ and low quality job creating enterprise from North to South, because of the simple reason that it is not viable there due to a high level of environmental consciousness and pressure of trade unions- there.

Employment generation:
In the developed countries, where the fertility rate appears ever declining, job cuts due to the technological advancement may not be the most vexing problem, in the society. Also, given the excellent system of social welfare there, chances remains fewer, that the unemployment would starve there.

However, things are not as sanguine in Nepal, where nearly 80% of it’s population is either unemployed or semi employed and the nature of the state continues to remain callous or even predatory, in some instances.

Hence, any technology transfer, if at all it takes place, as evinced by the promoters of the WTO, it may well, also mean the job cuts on a wide scale. In the context of Nepal, further erosion in the job opportunities for the natives will mean more social unrest.

Conclusion:
Before Nepal joins the WTO bandwagon and the same comes into effect early in the new millennium, the issues discussed above may prove to be the gray areas from Nepal’s perspective. Hence they must be more widely discussed, and a more enlightened homework must be done before some one predicts that joining WTO is enough; by itself’ to render Nepal prosperous nation in the world.