BRIEFS (Spotlight Weekly)

King Gyanendra receiving credentials from Finnish Ambassador Glen Lindholm

FINANCE MINISTER DR. RAM Sharan Mahat and other senior government officials briefed King Gyanendra about the preparations being made in connection with the February 4-7 National Development Forum (NDF) meeting in Kathmandu and Pokhara. Dr. Mahat apprised His Majesty about the reform programs being carried out by the government and Nepal's expectations from the meet. Over 30 donor agencies are expected to take part in the all-important meeting, previous known as Nepal Aid Group meeting. This is the first time that the World Bank-coordinated meeting is taking place in Nepal.

THE GOVERNMENT HAS constituted a national transport safety committee to check the increase in traffic accidents. The committee has been formed as per a December 27 cabinet decision under the chairmanship of Minister for Labor and Transport Management (MLTM) Palten Gurung. According to Sushil Agrawal, Technical Director at the Department of Transport Management (DoTM), the committee comprises Secretaries at the MLTM, Home, Finance, and Physical Planning and Works. The committee also comprises representatives from the Police Headquarters, Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industries and transport entrepreneurs. The committee will seek to establish coordination among traffic-related bodies, formulate a road safety policy and will carry out a study on road accidents. The government has also decided to constitute central and local-level committees to follow up the measures adopted for traffic safety, Agrawal said.

THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT has prepared a five-point demand to be met by the Nepalese government for the renewal of the trade treaty, The Economic Times, a leading Indian daily, reported last week. The 'five points' prepared by the Indian side include measures to ensure significant value addition, substantial local content and bring out the actual extent of exports to India. The suggestions that have been put forward include a specification that considerable manufacturing process should be carried out in Nepal, necessitating change in the four-digit ITHS code of customs classification from the raw material stage to the product exported. Indian industries have been lobbying that at least 50 percent of the inputs should be Nepalese or Indian. The sectors which have complained to the Indian government about their business getting affected include vanaspati ghee, acrylic yarn, zinc oxide, copper wire, steel tubes and HDPE/PP woven sacks, the report said.

THE US GOVERNMENT is to provide a grant assistance of approximately Rs. 5.75 million to train public attorneys in "prosecuting of the public corruption" under overseas prosecutorial development, assistance and training course. The training will be an opportunity for Nepalese public attorneys to learn the experience and development of the US government in prosecuting corruption against public officials. The training and sharing of experience is expected to enhance professional capacity of Nepalese public attorneys to pursue the issue of public corruption, investigation and prosecution. Madhav Prasad Ghimire, joint secretary at the Ministry of Finance and Michael E. Malinowski, US ambassador in Kathmandu signed the agreement on behalf of their respective governments here last week.

DISTRICT HEADQUARTER OF Sankhuwasabha and surrounding villages have been forced to live in the dark due to the Maoists' destructive acts. Maoist insurgents destroyed an electricity pole transmitting 11 KV power linking Sankhuwasabha at Chandanda at the weekend, a leading daily reported Saturday. They had exploded a socket bomb targeting the pole. Four VDCs, including district headquarters Khandbari, were plunged into darkness following the disruption in power transmission. Only last month, the Maoists had triggered a 'pressure cooker bomb' explosion at the powerhouse of a local micro-hydro plant in the district causing a damage of nearly two million rupees.

INDIAN AUTHORITIES HAVE sent four people, including a Nepali national, who were fleeing after looting explosives, to jail for preliminary investigation, Kantipur daily reported Thursday. According to the report, police at Banbasa in India, across the border from far-western town of Mahendranagar, took into custody these people along with the explosives looted from Dhauliganga hydropower project in Uttaranchal state of India. There has been no confirmation of the Nepali, identified as Tej Prasad, being involved in terrorist activities, authorities said. Earlier, there were reports that Maoists had tried to loot explosives from the project using Nepali laborers working in the plant.

OVER 500 SMALL AND Cottage industries operating in eastern hilly district of Bhojpur have been closed down after a micro-hydro plant supplying electricity to local area was destroyed by a group of pro-Maoist insurgents Saturday. The incident occurred at a time when the demand for electricity was on the rise in the district headquarters and surrounding area. The X-ray department at the local hospital has been closed. So are photo studios, communication centers and computer institutes in the district headquarters, Kantipur daily reported. Kerosene, which costs Rs 35 per liter and has to be transported by porters from the nearby Hile market of Dhankuta district, has become a precious commodity after the market plunged into darkness. "It would be better to link the district to national power grid than repair the damaged plant," said Madhusudan Simkhada, chief of the micro-hydro plant.

THE ASIAN DEVELOPMENT Bank (ADB) has agreed to provide a loan assistance worth approximately Rs 1,500 million (US$ 15.585 million) to the Nepalese government to implement the Teacher Education Project (TEP). According to the Finance Ministry, the project aims at improving the quality of education through increased coverage of teacher training and institutional capacity building. The project will carry out such activities as strengthening the institutional capacity of National Center for Educational Development, Primary Teachers' Training Centers and Distant Education Center to train primary school teachers. In addition to providing training to 130,000 teachers, educational administrators and managers, the project will also help develop teacher education curriculum and teaching-learning materials. Finance Secretary Dr. Bimal Koirala and Country Director of the ADB in Kathmandu, Dr. Richard Vokes, signed on the agreement here last week.