Minister hints at privatising industrial districts

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KATHMANDU, Dec 14:Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Mahesh Lal Pradhan today hinted at privatising industrial districts in an attempt to minimise losses that the government is incurring through such industrial districts.

He said that giving continuation to the 10 industrial districts would neither help the industrialists nor the state and they should be privatised by adopting proper mechanism.

Minister said this while speaking at a two-day seminar jointly organised by Industrial Area Development Limited and Federation of Industries of Industrial Areas here today.

Minister Pradhan claimed that the original concept of setting industrial district was to transfer its ownership from the government to the industrialists. "The government is just receiving rent at present while the need is to privatise them as they are under utilised," he remarked.

"There is no option other than privatising these districts in order to minimise the unnecessary financial burden just because that they are state-owned", he added.

Pradhan also said that the prices of the districts should be fixed in such a way that neither the buyer nor the seller would be at disadvantage.

Minister Pradhan stated that the money the nation would get from the sale of those industrial districts would be utilised in setting up another such districts in other areas of the country.

The government currently holds 10 industrial districts including of Balaju, Patan, Hetauda, Nepalgunj, Pokhara, Butwal, Bhaktapur, Birendranagar and Rajbiraj. However, one such industrial district in Dhankuta is under construction.

Among the total 478 industries within the premises of the industrial districts throughout the country, 86 have already been closed. The government has invested Rs 7.5 billion in establishing those industrial districts which currently provide employment to 13,970 people.

Highlighting the huge failure of Birgunj Sugar Mill, Bhaktapur Tiles and Brick Factory and Himal Cement Factory, Minister Pradhan blamed the previous governments for the poor operation of those state-owned industries.

"The present government is neither in the position to finance these poorly performing factories nor to operate them," he added.

Minister Shrestha also requested the participants to suggest measures utilising his ministerial power for the promotion of the industrial development.

Nepse index up over four points

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KATHMANDU, Dec 14:Despite the economic jitters that was reflected in the recently released figure of last year’s frustrating economic growth rate, the index of Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse), the sole secondary market of the country, surged by over 4 points during the week.

According to information released by Nepse, the index of the secondary market went up by 4.28 points during the week as the index surged to 220.57 points on Friday, the closing day of the week against 216.29 points recorded on Monday. The index had gone down by 0.19 points the last week, while the Nepse index had plummeted by over three points during the transactions two weeks ago.

While analysing the group-wise trading participation during the week, despite a decline in the indices of all major groups including commercial bank, finance, hotel, manufacturing, insurance and development banks, the Nepse index still managed to gain by over four points. During the week, other group was the only group whose index recorded a marginal surge.

The performance of the commercial bank group, which commands a lion’s share in the whole Nepse transaction remained pessimistic during the week, as the index of the group went down by around two points. The index of the group, which had gone up by over ten points last week, slipped to 219.82 points on Friday against 221.28 points recorded on Monday.

The finance company group, another key financial group at the secondary market, also slumped by over two points during the week, as the data issued by Nepse reveals. The index of the group, which had recorded a jump of around six points last week, declined to 252.14 points on the closing day from 254.35 point registered on the opening day.

Similar is the story for the hotel group, whose index slipped down by around eight points to settle at 194.95 points from 202.33 points. The index of the group, during last week’s transaction had soared by about two points.

In the like manner, the index of the manufacturing group, which already had been seeing downturn in its index, recorded another slump of less than a point and landed at 244.36 points on Friday while its was at 244.62 points on Monday. Like the last week, the insurance and the development bank group failed to attract investors this week as well as their indices slid to 285.89 points and 259.62 points from 286.61 points and 261.13 points respectively.

Meanwhile, index of the trading group remained constant at 92.85 point throughout the week. In contrary to the gloom in almost all sectors, the index of other group soared by one point to touch 67.36 points from 66.36 points.

Despite a whopping slide, the commercial bank group, during the week, captured the largest chunk of stock trading carried out at the Nepse floor during the week. According to the Nepse, the commercial bank group captured 50.65 per cent against 76.33 per cent witnessed last week.

It was followed by finance group (36.61 per cent), insurance company group (5 per cent), manufacturing group (1.07 per cent), development bank group (1.17 per cent), hotel group (2.79 per cent), and other group (0.70 per cent).

During the week, a total of 53,770 share units worth Rs 12.56 million were traded through 725 transactions, while the last week, 53,452 share units were traded at Rs 17.18 million from 725 transactions.

During the week-long transaction, with 109 transaction, Union Finance remained number one in terms of number of transactions while in terms of share units and value of transaction, Gorkha Finance topped the list with the trading of 13,750 units of shares valued at Rs 2.2 million.

Shares of Nepal SBI Bank, NB Bank, Everest Bank, Bank of Kathmandu, Nepal Merchant Bank and Finance, Nepal Development Bank and Development Credit Bank were traded throughout the week.

While shares of Nabil Bank, Nepal Investment Bank, NIC Bank, Himalayan Bank, Oriental Hotel, Nepal Housing and Development Finance and Nepal Housing and Merchant Finance were traded for four days.

Similarly, shares of Bishal Bazaar, Nepal Insurance Company, Alliance Insurance, Kathmandu Finance Company, Hisef Finance, Universal Finance and Investment and Goodwill Finance were traded only once during the week.

‘Restore peace’ 

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KATHMANDU, Dec 14:Rajendra Kumar Khetan, acting President of Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) has pointed out the need for restoration of peace in the country for industrial growth, states a press release issued today.

Inaugurating the Ninth General Convention of Gorkha Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he requested local industrilaists to continue their business and assured support from FNCCI for the same purpose. During the programme, Khetan also highlighted the various activities of the federation and informed about the recent initiation to empower Revenue Advisory Committee to sort out the chronic revenue problems related with industries.

Meanwhile, he also suggested that the government provide for the regular monitoring of internal security conditions to ensure effective domestic supply of daily consumable goods to remote parts of the country. On the occasion, Anada Raj Mulmi, former president of FNCCI demanded the clear vision from the district chambers before they proceed with any activity. "Many district chamber themselves do not know their functions," remarked Mulmi.

Earlier, Ishwor Kaji Shrestha, President of Gorkha Chamber of Commerce and Industry delivered the welcome speech to the participants.

Industrialists rap raid on business outlets

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KATHMANDU, Dec 14:Industrilaists have lambasted the recent ad-hoc raid on several business outlets, for the inspection of sub-standard and counterfeit products, from the government and demanded support of full evidence before taking any actions against the business community, stated a press release issued today.

Speaking at a programme organised by Nepal chamber of Commerce on "Consumers’ Protection Act 1997", several speakers admitted the recent action from the Department of Commerce as admirable for the protection of public rights but again requested that government should examine products carefully before declaring any product as sub-standard or counterfeit.

On the occasion, Rajesh Kaji Shrestha, president of Nepal Chamber of Commerce pointed out the need to increase awareness of quality of goods among the public.

Shrestha also suggested the government for in-depth examination before taking any action. "Any manufacturer could be discouraged if the government confiscated good quality product in their search of poor quality products," he added.

Meanwhile, he also pointed out the need of including educational books regarding the consumers’ rights in the school syllabi.

However, Krishna Hari Baskota, Director General of Department of Commerce denied having takem action without proper homework.

"We only punish those we have enough evidence against," he added. At the same time, he also assured that such action woule be initiated on a regular basis in future to discourage the sale of adulterated consumables.

On the same occasion, Bhupendra Bahadur Thapa, Director General of Department Drugs of Administration claimed that his office was always cautious to counter any mishandling by the sellers. However, at the same time he admitted that the practice of selling counterfeit and sub-standard drugs are increasing within the valley.

Highlighting the increasing negative trend of selling consumable goods around the country, Prem Lal Maharjan, President of Consumers’ Forum pointed out the need to set consumer courts for handling issues related with consumers.