BUSINESS & ECONOMY

British trade official to launch unique partnership

By A Staff Reporter

John Shepherd, one of the Foreign Office’s most senior figures and a top British Government trade official, is arriving Kathmandu today. He will spend five days in Nepal meeting Nepalese businessmen and officials. During his visit, Shepherd will launch a unique partnership for the trade promotion, a press release issued by British Embassy said.

According to British Ambassador Ronand Nash “trade is at the top of the Embassy’s agenda in Nepal. We are creating a unique partnership between the Embassy and business. John Shepherd’s visit will set the seal on key elements of that new partnership”.

Shepherd has been instrumental in guiding the establishment of British Trade International, the new British government trade promotion body, and is a member of its Board. His visit underlines the importance that Britain attaches to trade with Nepal, the press release added.

While he is in Kathmandu, John Shepherd will review the work under way on the new Nepal-British Chamber of Commerce office at the British Embassy. “Nothing could demonstrate our partnership with business better than the location of the new Chamber of Commerce office. It is a unique experiment, designed to ensure that we work together in the interests of both countries, and are responsive to the requirements of business.

One key feature of the new office will be a reference library open to the business public. This will allow Nepalese business people to find out directly about trade with Britain and British companies. It will include the latest CD-ROMs and access to the British Government’s global ‘Trade UK’ computer database.”

John Shepherd will also see other evidence of the innovative partnership between the Embassy and business. During his visit he will see the new Embassy Meeting Hall, currently under construction. Another first, it will have state-of-the-art conference facilities, which will be available to business for hire.

In a packed programme, John Shepherd will meet the new leadership of the Chamber of Commerce. He is holding talks with Chamber President Rajendra K Khetan and the Chamber’s committee, and will meet a number of the Chamber’s members. He is quite clear about what he wants to discuss with them.

“I want to hear about the opportunities for increasing trade between Britain and Nepal. The new partnership between the Embassy and the Chamber is a fantastic start. I am coming to show the British Government’s firm support for that partnership”. He will discuss with the Chamber the Embassy’s forthcoming programme of trade promotional activities; including initiatives in tourism, wool and carpet imports and exports, sheep farming, investment by British multinationals in Nepal, educational exports and language training, and investment by British companies in power and water.

John Shepherd puts his visit firmly in a global context. “In today’s global economy a country is as strong as the international alliances of its businesses. As a leading global trader Britain already has a unique range of international alliances. We have set up British Trade International to strengthen those alliances, by offering the best possible unified service to business. The British Embassy in Kathmandu and the Nepal-British Chamber of Commerce are doing the same in Nepal. I am looking forward to seeing what they have achieved”.

Economic concerns dominate South Asian mood

By A Staff Reporter

The UK is to ban export credits for unproductive expenditure to 63 of the world’s poor countries the Chancellor Gordon Brown announced on 11 January, a press release issued by British Embassy said.

The ban, the sequel to the 100 per cent debt relief for the poorest countries announced before Christmas, is designed to maximise the benefits of debt relief in poverty reduction and economic development in the countries concerned. According to the press release, the ban will cover 63 countries including the 41 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries and will be extended indefinitely and now be widened to cover all countries defined by the World Bank as “IDA only” - further 22 countries who can only borrow from the World Bank on highly confessional terms.

Speaking at the Gilbert Murray Memorial Lecture in Oxford, Gordon Brown called on other countries to follow Britain and outlined a strategy for linking debt relief, poverty reduction and economic development.

Gordon Brown said, “Britain’s export credits will only support productive investment that assist social and economic development and thus reduce poverty. Britain’s ban will only fully achieve its aim if is applied by all exporting countries”. He urged all countries to ban export credits for unproductive expenditure in the 63 IDA only countries and join Britain in banishing forever the spectre of unproductive unpayable debt.

Gordon Brown also called for all nations to benefit from more global social inclusion and set out action in four key areas to allow all countries to participate in the opportunities of the new global economy. He said, “This year 2000 we must set ourselves a new task: instead of the new vicious circle of debt, poverty and economic decline, we must seek to establish a new virtuous circle of debt relief, poverty reduction and economic development.”

These four key areas are: delivering the enhanced debt relief; ensuring the link between debt relief and a new approach by countries and the international financial institutions to poverty reduction strategies, supporting this by new approaches to transparency, surveillance and the provision of aid; recognising that true escape from poverty is in sustainable and equitable economic development, based on a new economic paradigm with the right conditions for this development; and recognising that education for all is central to all of this, with the creation and sustenance of human capital is both a means and an end for the virtuous circle of debt reduction, poverty alleviation and economic development.

Gordon Brown emphasised that there must be genuine link between debt relief and poverty reduction and set out four key tasks to ensure that effective delivery: A continuation of the current significant changes in the culture and operations of the IMF and World Bank; measures to build skills of individuals in Government and civil society of those countries to implement and participate in the process; and partnership with the NGOs on the ground, in as many countries as possible, to provide support and objective monitoring; and vigilance in ensuring that resources are not wasted on unproductive expenditure.