BRIEFS (Spotlight Weekly)

King birendra and Queen Aishwarya gracing the ghode Jatra festival

THE SECURITIES BOARD OF Nepal (SBN) has prepared new issue guidelines to manage better the only capital market in the country. Talking to reporters here Thursday, chairman of the board Damber Dhungel said the organization had prepared the new guidelines with a view to simplifying the process of issue and making it more transparent. The new guidelines, which will come into effect from the Nepalese New Year (April 14, 2001), bar companies from issuing shares unless they have a track record of one year. Financial institutions, which are legally bound to do so, and organizations promoted by domestic or foreign companies in profit at lease for two years are exempt from the new rules. The companies issuing shares are required to make public their capital structure and float their shares within two months of the date they get permission from the board. Dhungel said the board had given permission to over 30 companies to float shares worth Rs 1.34 billion between 1998 and 2000, during which more than 167,000 investors entered the market.

THE MAOIST REBELS HAVE asked the people in the remote northern district of Dolpa to kill all their dogs, Kantipur daily reported. The rebels have pasted hand-written notices in the villages, asking people to kill their dogs immediately or face consequences. Some people have already executed their orders out of fear. Deputy Superintendent of Police in the district, Dipak Thapa, said the rebels might have issued the order as part of their strategy to avoid police at the time of their assaults. Dogs would bark at the rebels passing through the area in the night, thus making police aware of an imminent threat. The rebels had mounted a devastating attack at Dunai, district headquarters of Dolpa, in September last year killing 14 policemen and looting millions of rupees from a local bank.

THE US GOVERNMENT HAS pledged to provide assistance of up to $100 million to the Nepalese government over the next five years, officials said. According to the Finance Ministry, the funding strategy was unveiled during the second Nepal-USAID program consultations meeting held here Tuesday. The programs under implementation with the US assistance cover agriculture, forestry, irrigation, family planning and health, women’s empowerment and hydropower development. The new country assistance strategy for 2001-05 is to lay emphasis on the important sectors like health, natural resources management, hydropower development and democracy and governance. It is expected that funding levels in these areas would be in the tune of approximately US$ 20 million each year for the next five years, officials said.

OPPOSITION LEADERS HAVE urged the government to formulate new development and investment programs keeping in view of Nepal’s specific socio-economic conditions. Addressing the National Symposium on Trade and Investment organized here by the Institute for Development Studies (Fids) Tuesday, leader of the main opposition UML Madhav Nepal alleged that foreign investors were withdrawing their investment from Nepal and asked the government to clarify its policy in order to attract foreign investment. Former prime minister and Rastriya Prajatantra Party leader Surya Bahadur Thapa alleged that the government was encouraging short-term investment rather than long-term sustainable industrial investment. Nepal Rastra Bank Governor Dipendra Purush Dhakal said the government had given high priority to reforming the management of two of the largest commercial banks in the country, as financial sector reforms alone could raise the national GDP growth by 2 percent.

THE GOVERNMENT HAS INTRODUCED DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment Short Course) for the treatment of TB patients in all 75 districts of the kingdom, two years ahead of schedule. The government had planned to introduce DOTS by 2003, but the National TB Center was able to expand the program all over the country well before the target. More than 200 DOTS Centers and 640 sub-centers have been providing free services to TB patients all over the country, officials said. Minister of State for Health Tirtha Ram Dangol said the government has been providing drugs free of cost for the treatment of TB and leprosy patients all over the kingdom. Up to 11,000 people reportedly die every year in Nepal due to tuberculosis.

THE LALITPUR APPELLATE Court has ordered the main accused in Letter of Credit (LC) scam, Ananda Kumar Agrawal, and three others to post a combined bail of Rs 257 million. In response to a case filed by the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), a division bench comprising justices Min Bahadur Rayamahji and Ram Prasad Khanal issued the order last Wednesday. The court also directed that the total bail amount be sought from Shrikrishna Shrestha, the then general manager, and Mahendra Bhakta Pradhananga, chief executive at the Rastriya Banijya Bank, Baneswore branch, if the accused did not post the bail. According to the CIAA, all the accused remain at large.

A CONSORTIUM OF THREE foreign construction companies, which bagged the lucrative works contract for the Middle Marsyangdi Hydroelectric Project (MMHP), signed a memorandum of understanding with Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) Thursday. The consortium has agreed to finish the job at its earlier quoted price and complete the civil works construction by August 2004, the stipulated timeframe. "We signed the MoU with the consortium," a senior official of NEA said. " They have agreed to finish the project on time and at the quoted price." Earlier, reports had said the consortium, led by Dywidag of Germany, was pressuring the government to increase the contract amount by up to Rs 400 million. The consortium had bagged the contract two months ago by quoting a price of Rs 6.20 billion.

NEARLY 400 FORMER KAMAIYAS have been provided with land for housing as part of the program to rehabilitate them, the House Registration Committee said. The district has the largest number of kamaiyas (nearly 7,000) out of 2,622 are homeless and 1,256 families are living in public land.

THE NEPAL-THAI COMMUNITY is to construct Pashupatinath temple and a Nepali school in Thailand, a press release issued by the Royal Nepalese Embassy in Bangkok said. The decision came after the seven-day Bhagawat Mahapuran Mahayagya organized by Nepal-Thai Community in Thailand on the occasion of Mahashivaratri, for the resident Nepalis in Thailand, which concluded recently. A total of 2 million Thai baht was collected through the effort of Acharya Tulsi Ram Kandel, president of Vedic Youth Council, Nepal and also secretary of the World Hindu Federation, Nepal, who was in Thailand to organize the Mahayagya. The cost of the temple and the school is estimated at around Rs 5 million.