Govt hands over 14 mega projects to Investment Board

The government on Saturday handed over 14 mega projects tagged as National Pride Projects to the Investment Board for their speedy implementation.
It also endorsed the long-pending regulations of the board to allow it to recruit required manpower, set up office and lay down appropriate norms so that interested investors could directly approach it by following the stipulated rules.
Projects that have been handed over to the board include hydropower projects like West Seti (750 MW), Upper Karnali (900 MW), Upper Marsyangdi (600 MW), Tamakoshi - III (650 MW) and Arun - III (900 MW). The board has also been tasked to oversee the much-talked 76-km Kathmandu-Tarai fast track, Nijgadh international airport project, Metro Railway in Kathmandu and the project to upgrade Tribhuvan International Airport.
Likewise, the board has also been asked to oversee various highways along North-South corridor, Kathmandu Waste Management Project, Chemical Fertilizer Plant Project, Nepal Infrastructure Bank and establishment of star hotels on government land.
A meeting of the board held earlier in the day which was chaired by Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai also passed the Investment Board Regulations, which will allow the board to get a full shape.
The regulations provide a detailed framework for smooth functioning of the board.
Until now, the board´s office was limited to a single room at the Prime Minister´s Office. But soon it will have two offices in the future, said a senior IB official.
According to a member of the board, who preferred to remain anonymous, the board will have one office on the premises of Singha Durbar and another outside. "The aim of establishing two offices is to speed up the work and reduce accessibility hassles for international investors," the member said.
The board, which is supposed to carry out the government´s ambitious plan of bringing in foreign investment worth 1 billion US dollars within the first half of the fiscal year 2012/13, will soon start screening investors who have already approached IB.
"West Seti, Upper Karnali and Arun-III hydropower and Kathmandu-Terai fast track are the projects which will soon find investors as well see speedy work," the board member told Republica.
However, project such as Kathmandu Waste Management, Chemical Fertilizer Plant and North South Corridor will have to wait for some time, the board member added.
The government has announced the year 2012/13 as Investment Year.
Radesh Pant, the board´s chief executive officer, talking to Republica after getting the responsibility of executing the 14 mega projects, said, "We will have to move fast along with sound coordination with all the line ministries and stakeholders."

Global map to show Nepali dry ports

Nepali dry ports will soon be visible in the global map of United Nations so that importers and exporters from any part of the world can figure out the origin or destination ports of their cargos or goods.
Government is preparing to register Nepali dry ports with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). The dry ports, which have been operational since the early 2000s are still not listed in the global map. “Our dry ports will be visible in the global map once we register them with the UNECE,” Sarad Bikram Rana, president of Nepal Intermodal Transport Development Board told Republica on Saturday.
Once registered the dry ports will be assigned codes. “In order to register them with the global map of the UNECE, they should first be registered in the national government authority,” Rana elaborated on the government´s preparation for a Dry Port Registration Regulation (DPRR). Ministry of Commerce and Supply is preparing to endorse DPRR which will give them code recognized by UNECE.
“We were facing problems since our dry ports were nowhere in the global map,” Rana explained, “This will not be the situation anymore. Anyone who wants to dispatch cargos and goods can easily locate the dry ports where they want to send and vice versa.” Currently exporters who trade with Nepal, use the location of Calcutta port.
Dry ports in Birgunj, Biratnagar and Bhairahawa were developed under the government´s Nepal Multimodal Transit and Trade Facilitation Project (NMTTFP) with an estimated total cost of US$ 28.5 million, which include US$ 23.5 million credit from the World Bank and US$ 5.0 million from the government. The project was initiated in 1998 to construct rail based inland containers depots (ICD) in Birgunj and road based ICDs in Biratnagar and Bhairahawa.
In addition, the government has recently signed a memorandum of understanding with China to develop a dry port in Larcha, Tatopani. Similarly, it is working on a feasibility study to develope dry port in Chandani-Dodhara.
“After endorsing the DPRR, there would be a proper guidance as well for the management of ICDs,” Himal Thapa, under secretary of the MoCS said.

Nepal ranks 124th in ETI

Enabling Trade Index (ETI) -2012 has ranked Nepal in the 124th position with foreign trade environment in the country deteriorating over the last two years.
The ETI ranking is based on indices such as access to domestic and foreign markets, efficiency of customs administration, efficiency of export-import procedure, transparency of border administration and availability and quality of transport services, among others.
World Economic Forum (WEF), which develops the ETI, had ranked Nepal in 118th position in 2010. The ETI has ranked Singapore in the first position. This report has been made public following the release of World Bank’s trading logistics report a couple of weeks ago.
The Global Trade Enabling Report 2012, which has prepared the ETI on the basis of 9 pillars, has ranked Nepal in the 106th position in terms of access to domestic and foreign markets, 121st in terms of customs administration efficiency, 118th in efficiency of import and export procedure, 126th in transparency of border administration, 124th in availability and quality of transport services and 129th in physical security.
The report has also listed problematic factors affecting import and export. Inappropriate production technology and skills, failure to identify potential markets and buyers meet quality/quantity requirements of buyers are the first three major barriers for Nepal´s export growth.
Though Nepal´s import has surpassed the export volume, the report has outlined burdensome import procedures, tariff and non-tariff barriers and corruption on the border as the major problems facing imports.
Nepal ranked in the 118th position in ETI -2010. WEF has also added seven other countries -- Angola, Haiti, Iran, Lebanon, Moldova, Rwanda and Yemen -- in the report.
Other South Asian countries such as India, Bangladesh and Pakistan also have lost their previous positions and have been ranked in the 109th, 113rd and 116th position respectively.