KATHMANDU, July 25: If a proposal forwarded by the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation is endorsed by the government, foreigners coming to the country will not need to spend even a single penny as visa fee.

In a bid to attract more foreign tourists to the country and make Nepal Tourism Year (NTY) 2011 campaign a grand success; MoTCA has proposed the government to waive visa fee at least for the campaign period.
Nepal has set a target to welcoming more than one million foreign tourists in 2011. More than half a million foreign visitors had visited the country in 2009.

Laxman Bhattarai, spokesperson and joint secretary at MoTCA, said the proposal have been forwarded to Ministry of Finance (MoF) to incorporate it in the budget for fiscal year 2010/11. He informed myrepublica.com that the proposal to introduce free-visa regime was worked out by the Nepal Tourism Year 2011 National Coordination Committee.

“Private sector in the tourism industry has also been putting pressure on us to boost up the number of foreign national visitors to the country Nepal,” Bhattarai said.

A source at MoTCA said the Finance Ministry is positive on the proposal about introducing free-visa regime in 2011.

At present, foreign visitors need to pay $25 as visa for 15 days and $40 for a month. But visitors from SAARC countries get visa free of cost. The government collects around Rs 200 million as revenue from visa fee.

“By introducing free-visa regime, we want to bring in more visitors to the country,” the source at MoTCA told myrepublica.com. “The term ´free´ makes positive impact on people. We hope to welcome more visitors by putting in place free-visa regime,” he added.

As a part of attracting more visitors to the country, the government has already offered free visa to Everest summiteers for two years.

Many countries like Thailand has adopted free-visa regime to resurrect their tourism image and welcome more visitors.

“Free visa system will have positive impact among prospective tourists coming to Nepal,” said Yogendra Shakya, national coordinator of NTY 2011 campaign. “Free visa will become one of the most effective promotional gimmicks for the country,” he said, adding, “But we also need to focus on marketing and promotion.”
(Dinesh Karki Writes for www.myrepublica.com)

NT is working out economic aspect of share and use of the optical fiber network. “We are discussing bandwidth, leasing period and financial aspect of the deal. We are constantly in touch with the Chinese telecom operator to discuss the related issues,” Surendra Thike, spokersperson of NT, told myrepublica.com on Sunday.

NT currently has optical fiber connection with India and it sends and receives data toward Hong Kong, Korea, Japan and other countries through India.

“If optical fiber connection with China is established, the cost of telecommunication services to and from other countries will significantly drop,” Bhattarai said.

He also added that China and India would reach to an understanding to connect their telecommunication networks through Nepal once the Nepal establishes optical fiber connection with the northern neighbor.

Thike said voice quality and data transfer speed will improve tremendously once the optical fiber connection is established as the connection will be based on next generation network (NGN) technology. “We will get alternative route to send and receive data through physical network of China Telecom, he added.

NT is currently establishing connections to Europe and America using satellite technology.

Amarnath Singh, managing director of Nepal Telecom, has already made public the state-owned telecom giant´s plan of expanding optical fiber network to all district headquarters.

NT already has east-west optical fiber connection. It plans to start its north-south optical fiber connection within the coming fiscal year. NT also plans to introduce WiFi services to different places across the country and introduce 3G mobile connections in Bhairahawa and Biratnagar by the coming fiscal year.

NT has provisioned Rs 32 billion as the budget for the current fiscal year and Rs 12 billion of it has been allocated for capital expenditure.

“The budget for the coming fiscal year more or less the same,” Bhattarai said.
(AS Published in Republica Daily)

Birendra Kumar Singh, joint secretary at the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA), told myrepublica.com that they had already permitted Avia Club Nepal and NASA to organize the gala event. “We have permitted the event after the organizers fulfilled necessary requirements,” Singh said.

Natasha Shrestha, managing director of Avia Club that runs air sports activities in Pokhara, told myrepublica.com that the event would help promote Nepal´s tourism industry by bringing in air sports lovers during the NTY 2011 campaign. “We hope to get around 200 participants for the event,” she added.

After its inauguration at Tundikhel, Shrestha said the event would be organized in Bandipur, Chitwan and Pokhara. Different air sports like ultra light flight, paragliding, para-motor and hang gliding, among others are the major attractions of the event.

Shrestha said the event would be organized in close coordination with Federation of International Aeronautics (FIA) which is an umbrella organization of air sport companies from 140 countries. “Our tie-up with FIA might help us get more participants,” Natasha said.

NTY 2011 officials have identified adventure sports activities as one of the important events during the year-long tourism promotional campaign.

Published on 2010-05-26 23:04:40

Ramirez, together with 12 other UK nationals, enjoyed tourist attractions in Nepal for 10 days after entering Nepal on March 25 following an adventurous road trip passing through 13 countries.
It took 45 days for OZ Bus to reach Nepal. The journey began from London and traveled through parts of France, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and India. Despite the difficult journey, all 12 visitors were all praises for Nepal and its tourism attractions.

“We had heard a lot about Nepal. But what we experienced here was different from what we had perceived. Smiling faces and warm hospitality were the most notable experiences for me in Nepal,” another visitor told myrepublica.com.

The visitors are on their way to Sydney that takes almost 92 days. Before leaving for Sydney on Sunday, Jessica Lack (18) – the youngest member in the party – said, “I want to come back to Nepal again.”

Jerem Heath, the oldest person onboard, said she thoroughly enjoyed rafting in Trishuli River and Jungle Safari at Chitwan National Park during her stay in Nepal.

One needs a lot of commitments and sacrifices to embark on such a long journey. Ramirez, a hotel receptionist by profession, expects that his employer won´t hire him again after his long holiday. “After returning to London, I will have to search another job,” he added. But he said he won´t regret because he had enjoyed so many things during this trip.

Nicola Buckley, who hails from Portsmouth, however, had no such worries as she joined to journey to utilize her free time after completing her Masters in Architecture. She said she would always remember the wonderful elephant safari and the rhino calves.

Besides, bungee jumping, rafting and jungle safari, the passengers of OZ Bus also enjoyed mountain flight and paragliding and ultra-light flight in Pokhara. They also visited world heritage sites in Kathmandu Valley.

According to Yala Adventure, the local partner of the OZ Bus, this is the first time that the company put Nepal in its destination in their partnership spanning one and a half years.

“The visitors were visibly greatly impressed by the natural beauty and hospitable Nepali people,” Yadu Lamichhane, managing director of Yala Adventure, told myrepublica.com. He hoped such a journey would greatly help boost Nepal´s tourism image.

Journey from London to Kathmandu costs 1999 pound sterling which includes breakfast, accommodation and surprise dinner in every country. The fare is the same for Kathmandu-Sydney trip, according to Lamichhane.
(as published in Republica Daily)

15 hours after his complete unconsciousness, the team of doctors declared Koirala’s demise and central committee of NC formally told to the media that Koirala was no more living. However, the close inmates of his Party NC and family members of Koirala had told to the media about his death before the declaration of doctors. He was suffering from respiratory and digestive disorder quite a long period of time and the situation was worsening several months ago.

He was like a guardian of Nepali politics who had played a great role for the democratization process of Nepal to transforming it into the new republic system breaking down the active monarchy.

Koirala was four times Prime Minister in different times of Nepali political phases. Decade long Maoist insurgency was also ended after the active initiation taken by Koirala to bring Maoist into the peaceful political mainstream.
Nepal is totally shocked and tensed on it’s dear leader’s demise.

An investor informed myrepublica.com that representatives of California-based company that will be the main investor in the project have arrived in Nepal. Nepalese investors coordinated by noted banker Prithvi Bahadur Pande are having a series of preparatory meeting to make IMAX 3Ddocumentary film at the cost of around $10 million.

Along with Pande, leading stock trader Nirmal Pradhan and proprietors of Jay Nepal Cinema have teamed up to invest on IMAX documentary film, which is expected to play a remarkable role in promoting Nepal in international arena, according to Yogendra Shakya, coordinator of NTY 2011 campaign.

The production team will be led by world famous producer/director Macgillivary Freeman, who had earlier made documentary film ´Everest´ that became the highest grossing documentary of all time in 1998.

“That film portrayed good image of Nepal and the number of quality tourists increased due to the positive impacts of that film,” Shakya said, adding, “This documentary (´Return of Everest´) will also give leverage to Nepal´s brand tourism promotion.”

The documentary will be focused on climate change, global warming, high altitude sickness and lifestyle of Sherpa community.

According to Sabra Pande, project developer on Nepalese investment in the film, the Nepali investors will soon form a consortium to jointly invest in the project. There has been understanding among the major stakeholders of the project that 5 to 7 percent of the profit will be spent of charitable activities in Nepal.

About 100 hours of shooting has been already been completed in the vicinity of Mount Everest and it is expected that the remaining shooting and post-production works will be completed within the next two years, said Pande. The shooting began in 2007.

Nepal has lately adopted a policy of promoting cinema tourism for the tourism promotion, targeting the upcoming NTY 2011, according to Sharad Pradhan, a tourism expert at Nepal Tourism Board (NTB). “This kind of concept will promote Nepal among foreigners,” he added.

(As published in Republica daily and www.myrepublica.com)

The decision of CMEC has come at a time when the Asian Development Bank was unwilling to move ahead with its agreed share structure of 15 percent in West Seti. The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed in the presence of Nepal’s Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal in the Nepal Embassy in Beijing during his weeklong official visit of China. Besides West Seti, there are other projects like Trishuli 3A (60 megawatt), and Budhi Ganga (18 megawatt). The Upper Trishuli 3A is going to be built under the Chinese Exim Bank’s line of credit while Budhi Ganga is going to be built under a grant assistance of the Chinese government.

There has been a competition between Chinese and Indian companies to build Nepal’s hydropower projects. The competition in construction has been lowered down in the tender prices. The recent example of such a competition is seen in the Upper Tamakoshi Hydroelectric Project of 456 megawatt where the Chinese company Sino Hydro and India’s Hindustan Construction Company had competed. The competition between the two companies for this project had lowered the costs by Rs 1.3 billion from the estimated cost for civil construction. In the first quarter of 2010, the financial closure of Upper Tamakoshi should be finalized. Otherwise, there is uncertainty of the project’s completion on time.
The initial signs of the year 2010 in the hydropower sector don’t show good hope for the Nepali people. The upward trend in load shedding has forced us to forget our immense hydropower potential of supposedly 300,000 megawatts. It is a joke when we see our river potential and the quantity of power Nepal has generated. This year also, the hours of load shedding will reach 16 hours per day though there is the maintenance of Duhabi-Kataiya transmission line and the completion of the 70-megawatt Middle Marsyangdi Hydro Electric Project (MMHEP). The MMHEP being a run-of-the river-type project, its production in the dry season will be lowered to its one-third capacity, which is around 25 to 30 megawatt. The reason behind the same level of load shedding like last year is due to the negligence in addressing the increased demand for power. Nepal could not give momentum to initiatives of producing power for its people although the Pharping hydropower project, established 99 years ago, was the second of its type in Asia.

Still Nepal is not being able to fulfill its internal demand for domestic energy consumption. Electricity being an essential infrastructure for industries, Nepal lacks industrial economy due to this reason. Therefore, the contribution of industry to Nepal’s gross domestic product (GDP) is below 15 per cent.

There is no specific hydropower project in Nepal which can be commissioned before two years so as to reduce the scarcity of electricity. The more Nepal delays to develop power quickly, the more its power crisis becomes chronic, further complicating the management of its power sector. Major hydropower projects are either in their study phase, or the developers are in their wait-andwatch mood due to Nepal’s own political instability. Every year, Nepal should achieve its power needs by additional 70 to 80 megawatt due to the increased demand but it has failed to do so as the present installed capacity is 250 megawatt less than the demand. We have only 650 megawatts of stalled capacity from all the hydropower projects.

Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), the sole authority for power generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in Nepal, is going to be worse in 2010 due to its chronic losses and financial indiscipline while no initiatives have been taken for its reform. Its direct impact will fall on the hundreds of thousands of electricity consumers and hydropower development of Nepal. As NEA is the single buyer of electricity and the sole institution to develop transmission line networks, its irregularities, corruption, indecision all have hindered the development of hydropower.

NEA, having an annual loss of nearly four billion rupees with an accumulated loss of around 12 billion rupees, is facing rampant interventions from the Ministry of Energy in each of its decision process. The minister of Energy is the head of the board of directors of this organization. According to senior officials at NEA, this institution is being weakened more due to the intervention on every small and tiny thing from the ministry – from peon recruitment to tender processes of huge amounts. Experts opine that the rescue and reform of NEA is possible only when the provision of the minister concerned being the head of its board of directors is changed, and its managing director is appointed through an open competition.

If the political consensus is made firmly in India and Nepal about Pancheshwar Multipurpose project, it will also move forward in the direction of its pre-construction works in 2010. The lack in commitment has derailed this project for 14 years. The ministerial meeting due to be held in January 2010 on hydro power and water resources issues will also leverage the Pancheshwar project. The storage and multipurpose project of 6,000 megawatt will be ready for production of energy after nine years of uninterrupted construction.

Dinesh Karki reports on hydropower and energy for Republica.

Although being a monthly business magazine, its outlook is different than common magazines. It has simple cover page layouts and eye-friendly internal page design as well. Talking about the advertisements published in this newspaper, Dr. Malcher said: “We have never offered disxounts for advertisements. The rates for the advertisement have remained the same.”  The rate for a full page ad is 15.000 Euro per page. Basically they do not publish any promotional stories in the name of getting advertisement in the next issue. Brandeins is selling 110 thousand copies in a month. The unique character in ethics has been the asset of this monthly magazine in terms of credibility. This magazine has selected the measure to be away from bribe and corruption by its firm ethical code. If an influential business newspaper tries to earn more by unethical means there can be plenty of means to acquire that. So, fair economic journalism can only reveal the negative things in the corporate and business world by being a responsible and credible watchdog.

Due to the global recession and the success of the new media, newspapers all over the world are cutting  jobs to sustain themselves. On the contrary, Brandeins is among those few magazines which have so far not felt any effects of this as it is generating profit. This is a business magazine which does not look after  current affairs. They don’t deal with economic terms and terminologies which are hard for a layman to understand. They write their stories in a way that non-economists can understand them. That is the secret of their success. Brandeins is a business magazine in German language which focuses on small and medium size companies success stories and their problem. They discuss background information and question economic phenomena that others take for granted. For example: Gross Domestic Product (GDP), an economic term to show a country’s production status, does not include environmental and social issue. “We wanted to put the GDP in a social and environmental perspective”, said Dr. Malcher. They made a story on how the GDP is emasured and how small and medium enterprises are affected by a decreasing GDP.  According to Dr. Malcher he writes in a way that normal people understand the things. The core team of editors in Brandeins consists of 5 editors. None of them is an economist. Rather they are psychologists, historians and sociologists. “Therefore we sometimes need to ask silly questions to the experts, but this is an advantage, so as to make normal people understand the thing”, opined Dr. Malcher.

In each issue, there are about 10 to 20 freelancers who contribute stories in the magazine. For research based stories published on 6 pages, the reporters receive between 1800 and 2000 Euros from the magazine management. “The freelancer should have to work at least for 3 weeks for a complete story”, Dr. Malcher said. Paying that amount of renumeration for a freelancer is good money even in Germany.

I am impressed by the ethical driving force of Brandeins. Sometimes I used to think I can work for such type of newspaper which is famous for its principle not only in ideology but also in its pragmatic approach. I found Brandeins unique in code of ethics and its practicability.