MAOIST STANDING COMMITTEE MEETS

Kathmandu, 28 Dec.: Maoist standing committee began meeting Tuesday one day after government decided to convene a winter session of parliament 9 January.
The committee will discuss party demands for electing a successor of Caretaker Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, pressure to extend the tenure of UNMIN that ends 15Janauary 2011 and other issues.
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PRINT SLC QUESTIONS IN NEPAL

Kathmandu, 28 Dec.: Parliament’s public account committee Monday directed government to print this year’s SLC question papers in Nepal.
CIAA one week earlier issued a similar directive to the education ministry.
Last year’s question papers were printed in India.
Education Minister Sarbendra Nath Sulka assured the committee Monday the questions will be printed in Nepal, ensuring security.
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THREE BANGLADESHIS ARRESTED

Kathmandu, 28 Dec.: At a time when Rubel Chaudhary, Bangladeshi son-in-law of Deputy Prime Minister Sujata Koirala has been suspected for protecting his country’s nationals in Nepal for illegal involvement in the lucrative international telephone call bypassing racket, three more Bangladeshis were arrested Monday in the capital.
Mojam Mohimed, Mohamed Saleh Ahamed and Mohamed Sorabujaman were arrested along with Nepali national Raju Panthi in raids by Central Investigation Bureau in four places in the capital in an operation codenamed Operation Voice Fox.
Rubel himself was suspected for illegal involvement in the racket.
Equipment, sim cards, recharge cards were seized in the raid.
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MEDIA GOOGLE

“The UML is most likely to be at the helm but it’s still unclear who the next prime minister will be. The leader whom everyone in the party trusts can lead the new government. We should not run after rumours.”

(KP Sharma Oli, The Himalayan Times, 28 Dec.)

‘Gyanenda, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Bokassa couldn’t impose their will. Prachanda and Jhalanath, just because they wish, can’t impose their wish on others.”

(PM Nepal on Nepal Television)
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NEPAL TO COMPENSATE INDIA $48,000

Kathmandu, 28 Dec.: The government has decided to repay India’s state-owned Security Printing and Minting Corporation for the loss it had to incur due to aborted deal over the supply of four million machine readable passports, The Himalayan Times reports.
… highly placed source said the amount is to the tune of $ 48,000
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ATTEMPT TO BOOST GARMENT EXPORT


Kathmandu, 28 Dec.: Exporters believe that the revised European Commission (EC) regulation will give a boost to Nepali textile exports, The Himalayan Times reports.

The EC revised Rules of Origin (RoO) for products imported under generalised system of preferences (GSP) on November 18. The new rule will come into effect from January 1, 2011.

“Since the new RoO provides special agreement for Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Nepal can also benefit,” said Rajendra Singh, an officer at the Trade and Export Promotion Centre (TEPC). “The duty free provisions of RoO gives enough room for benefit to Nepal.”

“The new regulation relaxes and simplifies rules and procedures for LDCs wishing to access the EU’s preferential trade arrangements,” Uday Raj Pandey, president of Garment Association of Nepal (GAN), said, adding that the current RoO, which dates back to 1970s, is more complex compared to the new one.

In the current rule, Nepal, along with Laos and Cambodia, gets derogation but it has to comply with buying raw materials from SAARC, ASEAN and some African countries. “But the new regulation is more relaxed as it does not set the provision to import raw-materials,” Pandey said, adding that new regulation has brought both challenges and opportunities.

“On the one hand, we have to compete with other LDCs but on the other we are free to import raw materials according to our convenience,” he said. Importing raw materials from China and Taiwan may significantly reduce our present cost of production, according to him.

“If properly utilised, new regulation will create a conducive environment to operate more textile factories and provide opportunities to generate more jobs,” said Singh.

After Multi Fibre Arrangement expired in 2005, Nepal’s garment exports to the US significantly dropped and the EU replaced it as number one.

Out of the total Rs 4.5 billion exports of Nepali garments products in the lst fiscal year, the EU alone has imported Rs 3.4 billion worth garments, followed by the US that has imported Rs 1 billion worth garments and India has imported Rs 500 million worth garments from Nepal, according to GAN.

In the new regulation, silk, wool, coarse animal hair, fine animal hair, horsehair, cotton, paper-making materials and paper, flax, true hemp, jute and other textile bast fibres, sisal and other textile fibres of the genus Agave, coconut, abaca, ramie and other vegetable textile fibres, synthetic man-made filaments are listed as the basic textile materials by the EC.

New RoO has listed 126 category of product such as agricultural and processed agricultural products, fishery products, chemicals, metals, textiles and clothing and shoes to its duty-free list.



Rules of Origin is used to determine whether imported goods really originate from the countries covered by preferential trade arrangements, thereby making eligible for a preferential customs tariff.
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