BRIEFS (Spotlight Weekly)

Participants of Trans-Himalaya 2000 race trekking on the hilly terrain

THE STATE-OWNED AGRICULTURE Input Corporation (AIC) has raised the price of Urea, a popular chemical fertilizer, by nearly 12 percent. According to AIC, retail price of the fertilizer at the point of import at Birgunj, Bhairahawa, Nepalgunj and Dhangadhi have been fixed at Rs 8940.00 per metric tonne, up from Rs 8,000 per metric tonne earlier. The new prices have come into effect since last month. The Corporation is said to have taken the decision under pressure from its employees who were demanding that the price of the fertilizer be fixed on the basis of its cost.

THE FIRST-EVER MEDIA VILLAGE is to be developed in Nepal in 52 ropanis of land at Sinamangal in the capital, Kathmandu, to provide media related services to the people. Besides, the Department of Information, the Village will house buildings of organizations like Federation of Nepali Journalists and Nepal Press Council. Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala laid down the foundation stone of the Village amidst a function here on May 5.

THE MAIN OPPOSITION, UNIFIED Marxist-Leninist, party has flayed the new government's economic reform package presented at the Nepal Development Forum meeting in Paris last month. Addressing a press meet here on Friday, former Finance Minister and senior UML leader Bharat Mohan Adhikari said the government did not have clear strategies to reduce poverty. "The present policy of the government will further deteriorate the economy," he claimed. "Our party doesn't support any of the policies committed by the government in NDF meeting," he said bluntly. "The reform agenda presented in Paris are bound to have adverse impact upon the country's economy," he added. Finance Minister Mahesh Acharya had presented a comprehensive reform package at the Paris meet committing to kick-start second phase of reform programs in economy, civil administration and other areas of governance as well as taking tough measures to control corruption.

A NEPALI TEAM LED BY MINISTER for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Ram Krishna Tamrakar, is leaving for Geneva on May 16 to plead for Nepal's entry into World Trade Organization (WTO), NEPAL SAMACHARPATRA daily reported on Saturday. Nepal has already replied to 365 questions raised by six member countries of WTO regarding her trading rules and regulations. "Nepal will negotiate at the WTO keeping in mind her national interests," said Tamrakar. "Study is already going on to assess possible impact on Nepali economy after becoming a member of WTO," he added.

THE CIVIL AVIATION OFFICE AT THE Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) has said it has set up "sterile departure hold area" and security of baggage and computerized pass system has been introduced to strengthen security at the airport, RSS news agency reported today. Other measures will be gradually introduced to operate safe flights, the office said. The Office will also install and operate x-ray machines for secondary screening of the checked baggage. The additional measures have been taken as stand-off continues between the Nepali and Indian officials regarding the resumption of Indian Airlines flights. The IA has stopped all its flights to Kathmandu citing security reasons in the aftermath of hijacking of IC 814 in December last year.

THREE SUSPECTED POACHERS were shot dead by army personnel manning the Royal Bardia National Park in mid-western Nepal last week, reports said. Major Bal Krishna Karki, commander of the local army camp, said that the army personnel opened fire after a group of suspected poachers fired at them within the Park at around nine p.m. on Monday night. Three suspected poachers were killed in the shoot-out whereas four others were arrested, he said. The incident occurred near a place called Kalinara inside the park, which is about 35-40 kilometers north from district headquarters, Gulariya. Park Ranger Ramesh Kumar Thapa said seven suspected poachers were shot dead over the last one year.

THE CABINET MEETING LAST WEEK has extended tenure of the high level committee formed under the chairmanship of former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to recommend ways to resolve the problems created due to four-year-year old Maoist rebellion, reports said today. The Committee was formed a few months back by K. P. Bhattarai government. The Committee will now have to furnish its report to the government by mid-July. The Deuba committee had talked to different political parties, human rights activists and intellectuals and even developed contacts with the rebels to find a solution to the problem. Deuba said he needed active support of Prime Minister G. P. Koirala in his efforts.

OFFICIALS BELONGING TO THE Revenue Investigation Department (RID) have recovered more than Rs 10 million worth Chinese and Tibetan goods in a raid on a godown at Dhalko in the capital on Tuesday, reports said. The officials said they recovered smuggled goods, mainly the wool to be used as raw material in manufacturing pashmina shawls, worth more than Rs 10 million. The smuggling of wool has been reported at a time when the exports of pashmina from Nepal has picked up over the last one year.

THE ROYAL NEPAL AIRLINES Corporation (RNAC) has denied news reports that claimed the state-owned Corporation of considering to sell two Boeing 757 planes in order to procure Air Buses. In a press statement issued last week, the national flag carrier said the reports published in some newspapers in this regard were not true. KANTIPUR and THE KATHMANDU POST dailies had carried stories on Sunday saying that the RNAC bosses were considering to sell two Boeing planes that it had been operating for the last 13 years to replace them with three Air Bus aircrafts.

THE CENTRAL BUREAU OF STATISTICS (CBS) has estimated that the Nepali economy would grow at 6 percent in the current fiscal year. In a press release issued on Wednesday, the CBS said Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the year 1999/2000 is estimated to reach 5.99 percent at the constant price of 1984. According to the Bureau, agriculture sector is estimated to grow at 4.99 percent and non-agriculture sector is expected to grow at about 7 percent. The estimated GDP growth is a record high in the last seven years. GDP grew by 7.2 percent in the fiscal year 1992/93 and slipped into recession since then. The average growth of GDP over the last five years stood at 3.6 percent. The main reason for the impressive growth of GDP this year is mainly due to bumper growth in major food crops and robust rebound in the manufacturing sector. Major food crops are estimated to grow by over 7.77 percent whereas the manufacturing sector is estimated to grow by 12 percent, up from nearly 6 percent last year.

A LEADING EUROPEAN Airline, Lauda Air Company (LAC) started its operations in Nepal beginning last week. "The 258-seater Boeing 767 plane on a direct flight from Vienna to Kathmandu landed at the Tribhuvan International Airport this afternoon," managing director of Explore Nepal Group and GSA of the airlines Bharat Basnet said. According to Basnet, the LAC will be replacing Austrian Air's flights to Nepal. Austrian Air, that has also got its share equity in LAC, was operating in Nepal for the last 20 months. The seat and cargo capacity of the new LAC plane is higher by 22 percent and 100 percent respectively. Besides LAC, Aeroflot is another European airlines that fly to Nepal.

The Alliance Francaise Kathmandu recently organized a festival of French films in the capital. From 5th to 9th May, 24 classic French movies including some of the best works by reputed French director Jean-Paul Rappeneau were shown at the Russian Cultural Center. The film festival was opened by French Ambassador to Nepal Michel Lummaux. The festival was visited by a number of people including film celebrities and litterateurs.