TOURIST ARRIVALS INCREASE 13.7 PERCENT IN FEB.

TOURIST ARRIVALS INCREASE 13.7 PERCENT IN FEBRUARY
Kathmandu, 2 March: Tourist arrivals increased 13.7percent compared to the previous year as 42,716 visitors arrived by air in February, Nepal
Tourism Board (NTB) said..
Arrivals from India increased 28.8 per cent but declined 23.1 percent
from China.
In South Asia, arrivals from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan also
Fell 12.4 per cent, 16 per cent and 23.8 per cent, respectively.
Arrivals from Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and Thailand increased by 33.2 per cent, 19.8 per cent 31.5 per cent and 7.9 per cent, respectively.
European arrivals jumped 17.5 percent compared to February 2011
and visitor arrivals from Australia and USA increased
18.5 per cent and 10.4 per cent, respectively.
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MEDIA GOOGLE

“In Sri Lanka’s case, India made a strategic choice to support the government against the rebels (LTTE) and in Nepal’s case India supported the rebels (Maoists) against the government.
(Indian Gen. Ashok Mehta considered close to New Delhi establishment, The Himalayan Times, 2 March)
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MIGRANT WORKERS BUY RS. 594M INSURANCE POLICIES
Kathmandu, 2 March: Nepali insurance companies, in the last seven months, have sold policies worth Rs 594.1 million to Nepalis joining foreign jobs. Migrant workers have to buy an insurance cover for health and accidents for the entire tenure of their job, The
Himalayan Times reports.

Migrant workers joining major overseas jobs in Gulf countries — Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait — and Malaysia are paying around $ 38 (Rs 2,960) for an insurance for a job period of one year. Migrant worker pay around Rs 6,000-Rs 9,000 for a job period of two to three years. Gulf countries hire Nepali workers for two years and Malaysia contracts workers for three years.

“Insurance companies sold premiums worth Rs 594.1 million to migrant workers,” said director at Department of Foreign Employment Purna Chandra Bhattarai. “This increase can be attributed to the department’s mandatory insurance policy for migrant workers who return to Nepal and re-enter the job market.”

According to the department, about 272,841 Nepalis have joined foreign jobs in the current fiscal year. “Among them, 55,107 had re-entered as migrant workers,” he said. Nepalis joining jobs in Qatar, the first preferred destination for Nepali migrant workers since last March, deposited an insurance premium worth Rs 130.2 million while workers joining Malaysian jobs contributed around Rs 111.1 million followed by Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait. The destinations had hired 52,652, 41,075, 32,760, 30196 and 9,376 workers respectively.

Insurance at home provides welfare benefits to migrant workers through the Foreign Employment Promotion Board. The board provides a medical facility of up to Rs 100,000 and a compensation worth Rs 150,000 to each deceased migrant worker’s family who die at the job place.

Likewise, the board is offering scholarships to children of migrant workers and refunding the orientation fee of women migrant workers.

Outsourcers unite

Nepali outsourcing agencies who were divided into two groups — Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA) and Foreign Employment Association (FEA) — united on Wednesday. The umbrella organisations united during a joint meeting, said president of the newly formed body Som Lal Bataju. Earlier, about 760 outsourcers were associated with NAFEA and 151 outsourcers were at FEA.
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MINSTER PUN ASKS FOR DEMANDS STATUS REPORTS
Kathmandu, 2 March::: Public Enterprises Directorate Board today directed ministries to submit a status paper of the concerned Public Enterprises to study their existing
Situation, The Himalayan Times reports.

“Ministries have been asked to submit the legal basis for appointing a chief executive officer, current status of the board and chief executive along with the process for selecting the chief executive officer at the public entity,” said chairman of the board Bimal Wagle.

Public Enterprises Directorate Board had recently decided to seek details about the appointment status of the board of directors and chief executives of all public enterprises (PEs).

The board wants to implement the budgetary provision of appointing chiefs of public enterprises through open competition, said Wagle.

“The chief executive officer or general manager of a PE will be selected through open competition considering their capacity, academic qualifications and their proposal to reform the concerned entities,” the budget speech had mentioned.

Recently, the cabinet had endorsed the working procedure of the Public Enterprises Directorate Board which has envisioned that the chiefs of public entities will be selected through competition, informed Wagle, saying the board will start announcing vacancies for the post after receiving the status paper.

The chief executive officers who were appointed without any competition will be asked to retire after the start of the fresh appointment process, according to Wagle.

The board will try to appoint competent human resource to enhance the working performance of the PEs, said joint secretary at the Finance Ministry Khum Raj Punjali.

The board has developed a marking system to select chief executive officers, according to him. “Competitors will have to submit a business plan, financial plan, their experience along with their educational status to fight for the post of CEO,” he clarified.

The board will assess their performance and tally it with plans they submit during selection, he said, adding that the board can fire them if their performance is unsatisfactory.

Ministry lends Rs 60 million to JCF

The Finance Ministry will provide a loan of Rs 60 million to Janakpur Cigarette Factory (JCF), according to the ministry. “The government has decided to provide the loan to JCF for administrative costs,” joint secretary at the ministry Khum Raj Punjali said. “The loan will be utilises to distribute salaries to its staffers and for other day-to-day costs.” Janakpur Cigarette Factory had sought Rs 140 million to distribute salaries but the ministry has decided to provide only Rs 60 million.
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NEPAL MEERGING AS HASH SUPPLY POINT FOR JAPAN
Kathmandu, March 2: Police say drug traffickers have begun using Nepal as a supply point of narcotics to Japan. Narcotics Drugs Control Law Enforcement Unit (NDCLEU), Baneshwor, say they reached the conclusion after analyzing recent seizures of narcotics in Nepal and Japan, Shreejana Shrestha reports in Republica.

“Transaction of illegal drug, especially hashish, from Nepal to Japan proves that Japan is emerging as one of the major drug destination lately,” said Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Nawa Raj Silwal.

In a recent case, Japan police intercepted six kgs of hashish from the recidence of Nepali national Sanjeep Budhathoki in Japan on January 24. Budhathoki is a medical student in Japan. “Japan police arrested Budhathoki as hashish was delivered to his address, but they later found that some other people had used his address to deliver the hashish to Japan,” said an official at NDCLEU.

Police released him after 20 day. Officials involved in the investigation suspect the involvement of both Nepali and Indian nationals as the parcel was dispatched from Delhi.

Similar is the case of Sabita Shrestha. She was also arrested in Japan after 2.80 kgs of hashish was delivered to her address. Police later said she was innocent and that eight other people were involved in the illicit trade. The parcel was sent from Biratnager in July 2011.

A special team of NDCLEU also arrested two Japanese national, Kenji Watanabe and Hirokazu Tamura, from Tribhuwan International Airport in 2010 with possession of 10.25 and 1.20 kgs of hashish respectively.

SSP Silwal, who is the deputy chief of NDCLEU, said the hashish produced in Nepal were in demand in many countries as it contains more intoxicant.

The NDCLEU has listed America, Thailand, Germany, France and Russia among others as major drug destinations. Police say 70 per cent of hashish smuggled out of Nepal were bound for India and 20 per cent to America.

The production of hashish was banned in Nepal after the government introduced Narcotics Drug Control Act in 2033. Though illegal, Hasish is mainly cultivated in Bara, Parsa, Sarlahi, Rautahat, Mahottari, Siraha and Saptari.
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WEST SETI RAISES EQUITY CONCERN
Kathmandu 2 March: The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China Three Gorges Corporation on Wednesday to construct the 750 MW West Seti Project may have breathed new life into a project that had failed to take off for so long, but it has also raised serious questions about the modality of this venture, Prem Dhakal writes in Republica..

The proposed modality of investment and equity sharing have come under scrutinty because this project has been awarded through bilaternal negotiations rather than international competitive bidding.

The MoU on the project says that Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) will have a minimum of 25 percent share in the project and China Three Gorges a maximum of 75 percent.

Experts have raised questions about the very rationale behind this equity division: What is the benefit to Nepal for offering China Three Gorges a 75 percent share in West Seti? The only apparent benefit, if it can be called that, is that China Three Gorges will help NEA get a soft loan from Exim Bank of China--or from other sources if the soft loan is not sufficient-- for NEA´s equity investment.

"There is no judicious benefit-sharing in the agreement with China Three Gorges," says former water resources secretary Surya Nath Upadhyaya.

If we look back at the MoU with India´s GMR for the development of the Upper Karnali Project signed in January, 2008, the Indian developers agreed to provide 27 percent free equity and 12 percent free energy to the government for the use of Nepal´s river. In West Seti´s case Nepal will have to make an investment, borrowing from the Chinese, to get a 25 percent equity in its own river.

Joint Secretary at MoE Arjun Karki, who signed the MoU with Executive Vice-chairman of China Three Gorges Wang Shofeng on Wednesday, contends that the cases of the Upper Karnali and West Seti are different.

"The Upper Karnali Project is export-oriented and GMR provided the benefits to Nepal because it can add the additional cost thus incurred to its generation cost and demand a higher rate while selling electricity in India, but West Seti will be built solely for domestic consumption," Karki argues.

Why didn´t MoE ask China Three Gorges to build this project wholely themselves and ask for benefits like we did with GMR? Karki claims that asking for benefits now would raise the cost of electricity production, which would eventually be reflected in the power purchase agreement (PPA).

"If we had asked them for the benefits now, they would have added the additional cost to its accounts and the government would be forced to do the PPA at a higher rate. So, the Nepali people would have to buy the energy at a higher tariff," he adds.

By not asking for benefits now, Karki insists, we have ensured that the PPA will be concluded at a lower rate.

But the experts argue that international bidding would have resulted in greater benefits for Nepal, with bidders competing to bag the project. "There was already a procedure in place to go for competitive bidding but the ministry has bypassed it and done the agreement without any transparency," states Upadhyaya, who is also a former chief commissioner of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA).

Senior officials at MoE claim that the ministry can never satisfactorily explain how the proposal of China Three Gorges is better than what potential bidders would have offered had there been international bidding.

Energy Minister Posta Bahadur Bogati argued that the ministry went for a bilateral agreement for the reservoir project in order to save time. "We need to complete the project as soon as possible. The project would have been delayed had we opted for competitive bidding," Bogati contends.

But avoiding competitive bidding for a project with an estimated cost of US$ 1.6 billion just to save a few months of time, experts insist, is a clumsy excuse.

Bogati´s predecessor at MoE, Gokarna Bista, opines that the government should have built the project on its own through a development committee, or NEA and should have gone for bidding if it could not arrange the necessary funds.

Besides the benefit issue, Bista also took exception to a provision for the National Grid Company Limited to build transmission lines to connect the project to the national grid, with a loan from Exim Bank. "Why should the government pay for constructing transmission lines for a project which is 75 percent owned by a foreign company?" he asks. Senior officials at the ministry concede that an individual project has to build its own transmission lines up to a certain point to connect its energy to the national grid.

Bista further points out that the provision of allotting 2-5 percent of shares to locals of the project site is against MOE policy, which has proposed allotting up to 10 percent of shares to locals.
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