Trade facilities should be very open

Birendra Rajkarnicar, 43, is the managing director of the House of Rajkarnicar. He is a new generation  of Nepalese entrepreneurs, who has been highly educated and knows the new trend of global business. He was the first one to introduce the concept of Expo in Nepal. After completing his school at St. Xaviers’ in Kathmandu, he went to college at the Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He did his masters from from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. For several years he worked in the US, first at the UNDP and later at the AT&T Communications in New Jersey, as marketing consultant. After he came to Nepal he started a knitwear company, and later the House of Rajkarnicar for exhibitions. He says he is also starting an online tourism website. Last week he talked to The Independent just before the 10th Himalayan Expo.

Q. You are the first one to introduce the concept of Expo in Nepal - how did you get the idea?

A. The original idea of Expo in Nepal was to find direct access to buyers for Nepalese exports. Soon, we came to learn that the exhibition can be a business by itself and also provide service that was not available in Nepal and that we could fill that gap.

Q. How do you think this will help in promoting trade and investment in the country?

A. Basically for anything to happen, there has to be proper communications between   different players of the industry. One is through the media, the other is inter-personal meetings. But exhibitions happen to be one of the most efficient forum for facilitating this kind of interexchange between investors, traders, suppliers, producers and buyers. So, it is basically a simple concept that everybody tacitly agree on .

Q. How has been the interest of the enterpreneurs at the Expo that you have been conducting for the last several years?

A. When we started there was only a lukewarm response because the concept was new. And we spent lot of efforts and money as well to educate both the potential exhibitors and the visitors. And through that process we reached a stage when there was tremendous enthusiasm for participation as well as from the visitors. Today, I think, there has been some sort of drop down from that mainly because the standard of exhibitions has been falling and the newness of the concept has also worn off..

Exhibitors should perceive that their participation has been worthwhile and  they achieved something out of the exhibition.  We also ensure that  visitors are ample and that they are appropriate. We have to ensure that the exhibitors can  give something to the visitors in terms of information or in terms of business transactions. So, we also have be very choosy as to who our exhibitors are. If we feel that the exhibitors can not contribute to our visitors’ interest we will not have them at our exhibition. So, we have to balance them both in a realistic way. That is the only way to sustain a good exhibition.

Q. How successful do you think you are in catering to interests of both the parties - the visitors and the exhibitors?

A. I think we are quite successful, but that does not mean there is no room for improvement. I feel that they have been able to get only 60 per cent of the actual benefit from the exhibition - the exhibitors do not prepare well and the visitors don’t come with specific objectives. To get  maximum benefit from the exhibitions we need to educate both the exhibitors and the visitors - that  may take a long time. We  try to get persons from our company go to the exhibitors before exhibitions and sit down with them, analyse the situation and try to help them before the exhibition. What happens most of the time is that the exhibitors tend to put persons with low rank and without any authority at the booth. So, the exhibitors themselves have to take the responsibility to ensure that there is a person with authority at their stalls to communicate properly and make transactions if the need should arise.

Q. What has been the attitude of the government towards this trade, are you receiving  cooperation from the government?

A. I would say as of this year, we are receiving very good cooperation from the government. But, I want to make it very clear, that it is not any kind of financial help.   Recently, we have been able to convince the government to accept ATA Carnet certificates. This basically issued in the country of the origin and it allows the entry of goods for temporary purposes. So, it can come into the country without paying any duties and then it goes back. The government has accepted the ATA Carnet certificate, and so the exhibitors neither have to go through the hassles of the customs nor do they have to pay any custom duty. Although Nepal is not a signatory to the ATA Carnet Convention it has done it unilaterally. That is a very good thing. The government has also allowed bank guarantee instead of cash deposit and it does not lose any revenue.

Q. What kind of problems do you  face while organising this kind of Expo?

A. I think we could have  better premises. We are also at a stage where people need to be better educated on how to use the exhibition. This is more of an obstacle.

Q. Exhibitions are basically organised to promote trade and investment. What kind of changes in the rules and regulations, do you think, should be made to attract foreign investment and to promote foreign trade?

A. One of the simplest thing is policy stability. We are only saying it should be stable, and it should not be regressive. In other words, whatever policy is there it should be there for some years, and it should not be changed the next day. This is what we are most concerned about. Even if there are some problems, the investors will find a way to solve the problem. But if the rules of the games are changing all the time, then it becomes a serious problem.

The government should not supercede legal regulations. The government should not have the monopoly or be able to change things without due considerations about  people’s investments. As far as investment is concerned, trade facilities precedes investment. So trade facilities should be very open whereby investors can come.

Being a small country in the economic sense,  we should be an open country. We should allow people to import what they want to import under easy terms and conditions. We should also allow people to export what they want to export under convenient conditions. Unless we do that, the fundamentals of our economy does not allow for any trade and economic growth. Our economy should be well integrated in the regional and international economy. Otherwise, there is no basic foundation for our economic growth.

Q. Since the last several years  the US and Britain have their own pavilions in the Expo. Does that indicate these two countries are serious about expanding trade and investment in Nepal?

A. The nature of every market place is that there always are some things which are working against certain things and some things that are working for the market. As there are problems, there also are opportunities. But the forces are always working. So, the companies in US or Britain will keep on working to ensure that their products are available in Nepal and that people buy their products. They keep on knocking at the door until it opens and they keep working at it until the situation is conducive to them. They keep on trying and trying everywhere and anywhere. That is the only way to ensure success for their industries and their economy. That also should be everybody’s motive. r