The Making Of A Lean Cabinet

By Our Correspondent

As a first step towards administrative reforms, Prime Minister Koirala has reduced the number of ministries to 19 from the current 26, through merging and transferring some ministries to other ministries, and has reconstituted the cabinet, but maintaining the structure and the strength of the existing cabinet largely intact.

The reduction has been done by merging and transferring the ministries held by the Prime Minister. The Ministries of Commerce, Industry and Supplies have been merged. Similarly, of the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, the sports has been transferred to the Education Ministry and Culture has been transferred to the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation. The Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture was being looked after by the Prime Minister.

Similarly, Minister for Water Resources Khum Bahadur Khadka has been given the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works, besides the Ministry of Water Resources. Earlier Khadka was looking after the Ministry of Works and Transport.

Several of the changes have been done according to the Administrative Reforms Commission. A workshop, held recently in Kathmandu to review and analyse the report of the Administrative Reforms Commission, had suggested 17 ministries through merger of some ministries and even abolishing some others.

The proposed changes had included the merger of the Ministries of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, and the transfer of Sports and Culture to other. Both of these happened.

Other suggestions made were the abolition of the Ministry of General Administration.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister is still holding the Ministries of women, children and social welfare; labour and transport management and general administration, besides the usual royal palace affairs and defence.

The present reduction in the ministries is a positive step towards making a lean cabinet. By doing so the Prime Minister might have faced opposition from the party and the MPs who aspire to become the ministers. Earlier, one of the methods of appeasing the MPs was to make them ministers and at one time the country even had a burden of 49 ministers and many of the smaller ministries were made that time by splitting some and creating others.

More Perks, Compensation To Security Personnel

By Our Correspondent

The government has announced an increment in the perks and the amount of compensation to the security personnel fighting the Maoist insurgency.

The increase in the compensation and the perks is seen as a step of the government's new strategy to fight the Maoists. Earlier, the government had announced tougher measures if the problem was not resolved by talks.

The increase in the perks and compensation is seen as an effort to boost the morale of the security personnel who have been fighting the rebels for the last five years.

As per the new provision, the families of the security personnel will get Rs. 750,000 as compensation if they die in action. Earlier, they used to get only Rs. 500,000.

Similarly, the government has also categorized the Maoist-affected districts into three groups and the security personnel will be given an additional incentive of Rs. 2,000, Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 700.

Similarly, the government will give an equal amount of money as relief to the families of the other personnel who have been killed while performing their duties, by the Maoist rebels.

The children of such personnel will also be given scholarships. The children of such personnel, who have been victimised by the Maoist rebels, will receive the same amount of money as scholarship of the police personnel.

The scholarship amounts Rs. 12,000, 14,000, 16,000, 18,000 and 20,000 for primary, lower secondary, secondary, certificate, diploma and degree levels respectively.

The government has also announced Rs. 150,000 as compensation to the families of the common people killed by the Maoists. Earlier, the compensation was only Rs. 100,000..

Moreover, the government has formed high-level coordination committees for providing health facilities and other rehabilitation works for the victims of the Maoist insurgency.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala said that the National Security Council has to be strengthened not only for doing away with the Maoist insurgency, murder and violence but also for solving all the national issues.

Prime Minister Koirala, speaking at a function organised by the Nepal Students Union in Kathmandu last week, also said activating the Council meant activating the government and the people themselves.

Koirala also informed that Former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, who who is the chief of a high level committee formed to solve the Maoist problem, has been told to move ahead with negotiations with the Maoists.

He said he has instructed the Finance Ministry and the National Planning Commission to start development programmes in the Maoist-affected areas of the country.

Around 1300 persons, including more than 150 security personnel, have been killed in the Maoist insurgency so far.

When Invigilators Become Helpers

By Our Correspondent

Despite the strict instructions of the Office of the Controller of Examinations, many responsible persons such as superitendent, invigilators and headmasters were found helping the students in cheating in the recently held School Leaving Examinations (SLC) in different exam centers in the country.

Things certainly have become shameful when such responsible persons incite the students to use unfair means while sitting for the examinations.

Last week, two headmasters, five invigilators and even one campus professor were arrested when they were helping the students at an exam centre of Dhanusha district.

Similarly, Rajendra Raya, co-superintendent, of an exam center in Mahottari district and invigilators Shyam Kumar Mahato were suspended for their involvement in assisting the students to use chits and books in the exam halls. Shanta Bahadur Ale, an invigilator at Balawa exam center in Mahottari district, was also suspended for the notorious activity in the exam hall.

Despite big talks regarding the standard of education and enhancing the validity of the examinations these activities are on the rise to the dissatisfaction of parents and all the concerned.

Meanwhile, the Police also had to fire in the air to disperse the crowd gathered around the exam centers to help students in cheating.

News reports indicate such activities took place not only in the above mentioned places but in many other parts of the country.

Experts and academicians say taking actions against certain persons involved in such type of nefarious activities will not be the permanent solution to the problem. Many factors such as timely monitoring of schools, morale of teachers and the performance of the school management are among the important things to be considered to do away with such immoral practices.

'UML's List Misleading'

By Our Correspondent

The Ministry of Finance has denied the involved of joint secretary at the Ministry, Yubraj Bhusal in a case of the confiscation of gold at the Tribhuvan International Airport two years back.

The Ministry, in a press statement, has denounced the UML of including the name of Bhusal in the list of corrupt ones, announced by the party two weeks ago.

The Ministry has said Bhusal had come to the Finance Ministry on Magh 21, 2054 B.S. about seven weeks before the incident happened, and thus the news of him being in the UML’s list of corrupt ones as wrong and misleading.

The CPN-UML had announced the name of corrupt ones, which included
leaders of different political parties, businesspersons and others.

Cook's Visit Enhance Nepal-UK Ties

By Our Correspondent

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook’s official visit to Nepal may open new vistas of cooperation between Nepal and Britain. The British Foreign Secretary completed his two-day visit to Nepal on Friday. This was the first ever visit of the British Foreign Secretary to the Himalayan Kingdom.

However, his two predecessors had also visited Nepal in 1962 and 1986, but only in the role of accompanying Queen Elizabeth II. Britain is the first country with which Nepal has established its diplomatic relations in 1842.

The visit may be instrumental in exploring new areas of co-operation in trade and investment such as British investment in Nepal including hydropower and Nepal’s export to Britain. Recently, the British Wool Development Board has been seeking market for British wool to Nepalese carpet.

Apart from discussions on friendly relations and promote bilateral trade and investment, Cook also talked on aid and Gurkha pay as well as Nepal’s Maoist problem and the refugee crisis with the government officials in Nepal.

At a dinner hosted in his honour, Cook said that the UK is always willing to provide cooperation to Nepal in the priority areas of rural development and human resources development, education and health which are instrumental in eradicating poverty.

He also informed that the British government wishes to double the current number of Nepalese students in Britain within next year.

Regarding Cook’s visit to Nepal Foreign Minister Chakra Prasad Banstola said, "British Foreign Secretary’s visit is a milestone for strengthening the oldest relations between the two countries.

Meanwhile, prior to his departure Secretary Cook appreciated the Gurkhas for being the central part of the British Army. He further said that the British government was always ready to listen to them. “All Gurkha pensions have now at least doubled,” Cook confirmed the press after he arrived in Kathmandu as the last leg of his five-day-long trip to South Asia.

Expressing his delight in getting a chance of visiting the Himalayan Kingdom where multiparty democracy has been preserved he said, “ I wanted to see for myself and applaud the multiparty system. Democratic process makes Nepal a firm partner with us in development activities.”

On Thursday, Secretary Cook opened the new office of Nepal Britain Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He also laid a foundation stone of the new British Council Building.

ACD Building Complexes To House People

By Our Correspondent

Among other things, Kathmandu will face severe shortage of houses in the future. In fact, it already has.

Already Kathmandu is short of 300,000 units of houses to its current population and the requirement of houses is said to be increasing by 7 per cent every year.

It is estimated that fifty per cent or more people in Kathmandu valley live on rented rooms. Even many of those who have houses live a crammed life. It will only go worse if something is not done quickly. Obviously, that something means building more houses. But how?

The bowl-shaped valley delimits the horizontal expansion of the city. But that will not be the best option if more people are to be housed.

Horizontal expansion of the city and claiming more land for residential purposes will not only take up the precious land which can be used for other better purposes, such as business and commerce and even for agriculture.

That clearly indicates Kathmandu has to grow vertically, and the only way to do it is to have the system of apartments or group housing.

“We need to depart from the traditional way, of living only on landed property, if the shortage of houses is to be mitigated,” said Binod Chaudhary, President of the Chaudhary Group of Nepal.

The Group has recently formed a joint venture company Ansal Chaudhary Developers (ACD) Pvt. Ltd. with the Ansal Buildwell Limited, one of the most prestigious real estate developers of India, for a housing project in Kathmandu. The project was announced in Kathmandu on Monday.

“If people in metropolises in other countries can live apartments, why can’t we?” Chaudhary asked.

The Company plans to build 36 apartment blocks by the banks of Bagmati river at Baghdol in Lalitpur on 1.76 acres of land at the cost of Rs. 300 million.

Called as the Kathmandu Residency, each block will be two or three storeyed with studio and one- to three- bedroom apartments. There will be a total of 124 apartments.

The construction of the Complex has already begun.

The Company says all the apartments will be of modern designs with contemporary amenities and services such as abundant water supply, sufficient electricity and power back-up, and effective drainage system, private parking, 24-hour security, in-house club, crèche and convenient shopping. Moreover, it says they are affordable.

The studio apartment costs about Rs.400,000 with the price of the apartments ranging from Rs. 899,000 for the cheapest one-bedroom apartment to Rs. 1.829 million for a three-bedroom one.

The company says has also announced three different plan. According to the down payment plan if 80 per cent of the payment is done within 45 days of booking there is a 15 per cent rebate. Under the construction linked payment plan with the payment spread over 13 installments. Similarly, it has also offered a 36 months interest free installment plan.

The complex is expected to be ready in three years, and when the occupants will have handed over the keys, the apartments will be ready to live, except for the beds and bedding, with all the external and internal finishing completed.

This is the first time such a venture has been taken by the private sector seriously. It can be said the venture is a first major step to change the style of living in Kathmandu and a serious attempt to do away with the housing shortage at present and also of the future.

Tourists Arrival Up In March

By BMD

Although the different tourism related associations and entrepreneurs were claiming that the suspension of Indian Airlines flight to Kathmandu had an adverse impact on tourist arrivals, the statistics show otherwise.

During the month of March, the initial month of the Spring season, a total of 35,220 visitors from various part of the globe visited Nepal by air alone. Of them, about 6,000 were Indian tourists, an increase of about17 per cent compared to the previous month.

The figure is especially encouraging because even in the month of March in 1998, when Nepal observed the Visit Nepal Year as a national tourism campaign, a total of 33,162 tourists had visited Nepal. The number of Indian tourists was only 8,085. In the same month of the next year, Nepal attracted 36,650 tourists, including 8,055 from India. These figures do not show a wide difference in the number of visitors in three consecutive years.

According to Ashok Pokhrel, Chairman of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) and director of Shargi-La Tours, the hijacking incident has not affected the tourists coming from the third countries to Nepal directly.

He, however, says the immediate aftermath of the hijacking witnessed a decline in the number of tourists.

“The hijack has influenced the country’s tourism as a whole. But it has not obstructed the direct flow of tourists from Europe and other parts of the globe.”

He informs that the business of his company has not seen slackness even after the hijack drama took place since the visitors he has been handling do not visit Nepal via India.

But J. L. Khanna, Acting President of Nepal Association of Tour Operators (NATO) and Managing Director of the Yeti Travels, whose customers enter the country via India, especially Varanasi, Bombay, Delhi and Calcutta, has a different experience.

Khanna says that the arrival of tourists even from the third countries has reduced considerably after the suspension of IA flight.

The period of time beginning from April to July is a peak season for Indian tourists coming to Nepal.

“If the IA flight does not resume even from the present season, we are bound to lose a lot of traffic. So, both India and Nepal have to reach to an agreement as soon as possible for the resumption of the flight,” Khanna says.

This view is seconded by Bhola Bickram Thapa, who is the President of Nepal Association of Travel Agents (NATA) and managing director of President Travels.

Thapa complains that even after the suspension of IA flight, the government has not taken steps to strengthen the national flag carrier—RNAC.

“If we had a strong national flag carrier, we would not have been worried about the suspension of IA flight and our tourism also would not have been affected so adversely,” he says.

But the IA flight suspension has not affected trekking and mountaineering. Until the beginning of March this year, 30 expedition teams have been given permissions for climbing various peaks this spring. Now the number of expedition teams has crossed fifty. Of them, three are Nepalese teams.

Raid Gauloises Event Starts This Saturday

By Our Correspondent

The much-awaited 10th Trans Himalaya 2000, an adventure tourism event,is to start from 29th April. The 13-day event, the first of its kind in South Asia, is expected to enhance Nepal’s image as a major destination for adventure tourism in the world.

The cross-country race will begin from Tibet Autonomous Region of China and will end in the plains of Janakpur in southern Nepal. Seventy different teams are scheduled to perform various sporting activities to cross about 700 kilometers.

Organised by a Paris-based organisation- Raid Gauloises, more than 80 journalists from all over the world and several TV crew will be covering the event. The world’s renowned TV channels such as Euro Sports International, ABC of the US, NHK of Japan and others will telecast about 20-minute programmes every day during the event, covering the leading and the last teams, environment of the local landscape and culture and lifestyle of the local ethnic groups.

On the final day of the event, presumbed to 11 May, the TV will be telecasting around an hour-long programme that includes the highlights of the entire event. Starting from 1989, the organisation has so far successfully completed nine such events in various parts of the world.

According to the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation, the government will censor all the images to be recorded in the event before they are made public in order to telecast only the positive images of the Himalayan Kingdom.

Putting Thamel On Global IT Map

By Our Correspondent

The thamel.com, the newly launched website about Thamel looks to be a big hit. In the first four days of its launching, the website has already been visited by 4,000 visitors.

The website is the first of its kind in Nepal giving all the information about the most cosmopolitan area of Kathmandu.

It already has about 110 affiliated organisation of Thamel and around.

The site contains an integrated digital map of the entire Thamel area and around, wild search facility for anything relating to Thamel and tourism in Nepal, e-mail, web and map directory, interactive information on international time, flight schedules and air tickets' information, weather forecast, foreign currency conversions, bullion watch.

It also contains an interactive tutorial for learning basic conversation in Nepali, entertainment, and other information regarding general and touristic.

According to the organisation, the site also has database management of Thamel and around including company profile or the affiliated organisations with weblink to their own website and wild search facility by names, company or even telephone numbers.

The organiser also say it will have manual map and manual directory of all the affiliated companies of Thamel within the next three months. The thamel.com is intended to put Thamel on the global IT map.

Now, anybody who wish to travel Nepal and Thamel may get all the formation about the place.

Nepal Development Forum Meeting
Donors Endorse Nepal's Reform Agenda

By Krishna Shrestha

Based on information available from Paris and a Video Press Conference organised in Kathmandu, it can be said that the Paris meeting of the Nepal Development Forum was successful.

Nepal’s development partners have endorsed Nepal’s comprehensive reform agenda and reaffirmed support for poverty reduction programmes The two-day meeting of the Forum concluded last Wednesday.

According to information made available by the World Bank's European Office in Paris, Nepal’s partners for development have reaffirmed their commitment to assist Nepal in addressing the challenge of poverty reduction and economic growth in line with the performance on accelerated policy and institutional reform.

“The level of assistance for the year 2000-2001 will be US $ 1.25 billion,” says a communiqué issued by the World Bank, European Office. The size of assistance committed is slightly bigger than that of four years back, when the assistance of one billion dollar was pledged.

But this amount is slightly less than what Nepal had asked for. Nepal had asked the major aid donors for some US$ 2.1 billion in aid over the next two years, and a system of rapid disbursement of aid to give momentum in its fight against poverty.

Speaking at the World Bank-sponsored meeting Finance Minister Mahesh Acharya had said, “An analysis of the internal and external balance for the period through FY 2001/02 shows that the foreign exchange gap would be a constraint to finance the economic development of Nepal. It shows that the external assistance required for the period would be around US$ 2.1 billion. The foreign assistance, therefore, will be critical in achieving our goals of alleviating poverty and accelerating economic growth rate.”

Although the size of assistance pledged seems seem that what Nepal had wanted, the door still seems open. “The development partner emphasized that actual level of assistance will reflect programme in policy and institutional reforms, improvement in aid effectiveness, and they noted that aid levels could even be higher if pace of reforms is accelerated,” says the communiqué of the World Bank.

According to the World Bank, the Development Forum agreed that Nepal could do much better in improving revenue and public expenditure management, as well as effective use of development assistance, and ensuring that economic growth is broad-based and equitably distributed.

In the meeting, it was noted that Nepal’s socio-economic indicators remained at very low levels despite all past development efforts.

At a press conference after the meeting, the Nepalese Finance Minister Acharya also shared the donors’ frustration.

He, however, told the representatives of the donor countries and organisations that the government would establish a mechanism to regularly monitor progress and outcomes on the reform and poverty reduction agenda and invite the development partners to share the findings of these reviews.

Minister Acharya told the meeting that Nepal had only three alternatives: “First go ahead with the reform process with time-bound action plan; second, do nothing; and third, roll-back the reform process. Though it may be painful for short-run, we have chosen the first alternative.” Minister Acharya also told the meeting that the whole of the reform agenda has been focussed toward eight per cent growth rate.

In the last fiscal year, Nepal had achieved the growth rate of less than four per cent.

In the meeting, Nepal had presented comprehensive agenda of institutional and policy reforms. The government’s reform agenda, tabled for discussion at the meeting, had outlined priority actions in the areas of macro-economic stability, civil service reform, anti-corruption activities, decentralisation, financial sector reform and private sector development, aid effectiveness and the role of civil society in national development.

Including all those components, a matrix of priority reform actions was also presented in the meeting. Beside, Nepal also pledged its commitment for reform process.

“The commitment to reform is real and sincere,” Minister Acharya said at the press conference.

However, Nepal’s development partners stressed the need for realism and prioritisation and added that effective implementation would be the true test of the government’s agenda.

Nepal has assured in the meeting that the government would announced Foreign Aid Policy shortly, which will address the issues relating to the utilisation of foreign aid.

Besides, according to the World Bank, the development partners advised that the actions envisaged in the government’s reform agenda would call for enduring political will, building broad consensus and deeper partnerships with civil society and the private sector to sharpen the focus on poverty reductions.

The meeting of Nepal Development Forum, previously known as Nepal Aid Group, was the first donor gathering during the last four years. In the past, the meeting was postponed or rescheduled so many times mainly because of the political instability in the country. For the meeting of Nepal Development Forum, as informed by Finance Minister Acharya in the meeting, “series of interactive sessions were organised in Kathmandu among the government representatives, development partners, civil society organisations experts, opinion-builders, and professions aimed at boiling down to the key issues and action agenda.”

In the meeting, representatives of the governments of Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States were present. Similarly, representatives from the Asian Development Bank, European Commission, International Fund for Agriculture Development, International Monetary Fund, Kuwait Fund for Economic Development, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Saudi Fund for Development, United Nations Development Programme and World Bank were present.

In the meeting, Nepal expressed it s desire to hold the next meeting of the Forum in Kathmandu.