Briefs (Spotlight Weekly)

His Majesty King Gyanendra conferring honorring rank of general to Chief of Indian army sataff General S. Padmanabhan

ADDRESSING THE MEETING OF THE SENIOR officers at the 26th regional conference of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), which kicked off in Kathmandu on Monday, Mahesh Acharya, Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives urged the global alliance against terrorism to launch fight against hunger and food insecurity as well. Acharya said the violence and armed conflicts have hit the poorest section of the region most. Out of the 800 million under-nourished people in the world, Asia Pacific region alone is home to 500 million of them. In Asia, more than 10 million people die each year of hunger and malnutrition-related causes, according to FAO.

PURNA BAHADUR KHADKA, MINISTER for Industry, Commerce and Supplies, urged the entrepreneurs to retain quality of their products like carpet and pashmina in order to boost their exports. Addressing the 63rd meeting of the Carpet and Wool Development Committee (CWDC), Khadka said the entrepreneurs should also diversify their markets. He urged them to explore export potentialities to countries like USA, Canada and Japan instead of focusing on Europe alone. The exports of carpet and pashmina have taken a dip in recent years following adverse security situation and allegations of deterioration in quality.

THE MINISTRY OF LOCAL DEVELOPMENT (MoLD) has asked 21 municipalities in the country to improve their working style. The ministry said that it found these municipalities were framing ambitious budget plans that could not be met with their available source of income. The ministry found that Biratnagar sub metropolitan, which had the annual revenue of 120 million rupees, had framed budget worth 270 million rupees. Likewise, the monitoring by the ministry revealed that these municipalities failed in rightly evaluating their manpower, failed in sticking to financial regulations and were suffering from hosts of other problems. The municipalities that topped the list, based on the volume of complaints and grievances against them, included Birgunj, Janakpur and Kalaiya. There are 58 municipalities in the country including one metropolis, few sub metropolis and rest municipalities.

THE OFFICIALS OF THE INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund (IMF) are currently in the capital to discuss on the setting up of the Poverty Reduction Growth Fund (PRGF) and to evaluate the financial situation of the country. The officials would discuss with the government and submit their recommendations to IMF headquarters, based on which it would take decision on whether or not to set up the PRGF, said officials from the finance ministry. The finance ministry officials believe that the IMF would set up the fund this time taking into account the extremely difficult phase the Nepalese economy is going through. The setting up of PRGF would help in the government's efforts of reducing poverty and also boost international assistance in this regard. According to officials of the central bank the loss in the balance of payment is expected to rise to whopping 5 billion rupees by the end of the current fiscal year —up considerably from the 3 billion loss in the previous fiscal year.

THE TWO DAY MINISTERIAL MEETING OF THE 26th regional conference for Asia and Pacific kicked off here on May 16. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba inaugurated the meeting. Agriculture ministers and senior officials from 27 Asia Pacific countries have converged here to discuss on issues of food security and agriculture situation in the region and to prepare for the forthcoming World Food Summit to be held in Rome next month. The world still has some 815 million undernourished people including 777 million in the developing countries, 500 million in the Asia Pacific region, according to the latest FAO figures. In Nepal alone nearly 5 million people live in the situation of food insecurity. The World Food Summit in Rome in 1996 had pledged to reduce the number of hungry people to half by the year 2015. The goal remains elusive as majority of the member countries are falling short to meet the target.

AT A TIME WHEN NEPALESE AGRICULTURAL EXPORTS were greatly hindered due to the imposition of quarantine check provision by the Indian government, the visiting Indian Minister for Agriculture Ajit Singh has said that India is going to set up two more quarantine check posts in Raxaul and Rupediya within two weeks. Singh, who is currently in capital to take part in the 26th ministerial meeting of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said the opening up of two more posts would help lessen the problems faced by Nepalese exporters. Till now, there is only one quarantine check post across the whole Indo-Nepal border in Panitanki near Kakarbhitta in eastern Nepal. As the Indian government does not recognize the quarantine certificate issued by Nepalese side, the agro products produced in western region has to be transported all the way to Panitanki for quarantine examination. Nepalese exporters have been saying that they are facing tremendous problem with the introduction of quarantine examination provision.

THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT IS HOSTING AN international meet, which will be participated by nearly a dozen donor countries interested in the security and development of Nepal, on June 19 to find ways to help Nepal overcome its present troubles. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba confirmed that the international meet will be significant in identifying concrete means to help Nepal. The meet, which will be participated by India, China, USA, UK and other countries, will focus on strengthening fight against terrorism and development initiatives. The international meet is like the one held a couple of months ago in Japan to help Afghanistan rebuild itself.

THE ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (ADB) has pledged the credit assistance equivalent to the two million US dollars to Nepal for a government expenditures improvement project. Finance Minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat, who returned from Shanghai, China after attending the 35th annual meeting of the ADB, said that the ADB had pledged to support the Nepalese government to help its economy. Likewise, he said donor agencies including OPEC and the Swiss Cooperative Forum also have assured Nepal of all possible cooperation.