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			'id' => '2770',
			'article_category_id' => '173',
			'title' => 'Emerging Trend: Diversification  Of Handicraft Products',
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			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepali handicrafts are produced following traditional methods, passed on from generations to generations. A set of ancestral heritage passed on from ancestors to forefathers to grandfather to father and to son. It continues and this continuity provides it the essence to remain distinct while reflecting and preserving diverse cultural values, indigenous aspects and traditions of Nepali lifestyle. Along with helping in the conservation of national heritage and culture, handicraft development creates employment opportunities and thereby contributes in alleviating poverty. Export of handicraft products has been growing since the last three decades. Arts and crafts is one of the major exporting industry of Nepal, earning foreign exchange and providing employment to thousands of Nepalis craftsmen, artisans, promoters and businessmen and generating revenue for the government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Due to the increased competition in the international market, product diversification has emerged as an essentiality for business growth. Along with other business sectors, it is vital for the handicraft industry to adapt and correspond to industry and consumer trends and to take advantage of them. One way of doing this is to diversify products. Growing or relatively new businesses choose to expand their product range and diversify into new areas as a way of appealing to new customers and offering more to existing customers. This necessity has been felt, understood and well adapted by Nepali handicraft industries.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Handicrafts in Nepal are mainly classified in two types: textile and non- textile products. Textile products mainly include: Pashmina, woollen, felt, silk, cotton, dhaka, hemp, and allo products. The non-textile products include silver jewellery, metal craft, handmade paper products, wood crafts, glass products, bone and horn products, crystal products, ceramics products, leather goods, incense, plastic items, paubha (thanka), beads items, stone craft, and bamboo products.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;The handicraft producers are coming up with more diversification in their product be it pashmina products or handmade paper products, one can get a range of diversification in these products,&rdquo; former president of Federation of Handicraft Association of Nepal (FHAN), Bikash Ratna Dhakwa said. &nbsp;&ldquo;The handicraft sector is responding to the product diversifying trend by expanding their product range without affecting their core business in a negative way,&rdquo; added Dhakwa.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Product diversification plays vital role in creating new markets by attracting its possible buyers,&rdquo; said Dhakwa while elaborating on the importance of the concept. He opines that handicraft producer must take time to think about the needs of the target market and try to identify new opportunities that will enable the business to stay ahead of competitors.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Product diversification is evident in the addition of new variety of handmade paper products in the local market. While accepting the benefits of the trend, Kiran Kumar Dangol, president of Handmade Paper Association of Nepal (HANDPASS) said, &ldquo;we are following the trend and this has resulted in the addition of a number of new product ranges to our existing ranges.&rdquo;He informed that the popular Nepali Lokta paper products are now being diversified further. &ldquo;We are moving ahead on diversifying Nepali Lokta paper products. Along with books and stationary products, we have moved on to produce fusion of handmade paper and cotton to develop wrapper products,&rdquo; said Dangol adding that they also have introduced new technology for using multicolour print in the handmade paper.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Dangol stressed on product diversification and encouraged its growing trend in the Nepali market where handicraft products hold a great importance. According to him, the market is flooded with a number of traditional handicraft products and now it&rsquo;s time that the handicraft producers offer new designs and new products that will once again bring boom in the national and international market of Nepali handicrafts.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He pointed to the need of producing products with competitive prices through creative incorporation of new technologies as one of the major reason for diversifying product ranges. &ldquo;Our traditional products are expensive. Production of new products through the use of new technologies assist in producing cost efficient products. Through renewed and upgraded marketing strategies we can market these products,&rdquo; Dangol said while providing the introduction of handmade paper jewelleries in handicraft products range as an instance to his statement.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Product diversification has also positively impacted the industry stakeholders. Dhakwa says that the manufacturers and producers have been encouraged to hire skilled manpower from the local market to bring diversity in their product ranges. &ldquo;Now we are getting more skilled technical manpower in this field,&rdquo; he said. The field is becoming more open to innovative designers who can add their creativity to traditional handicraft products. As such the products become more competitive in the national and international market.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Federation of Handicrafts Association of Nepal (FHAN) says that their members are becoming more quality conscious, upgrading their products and making product prices more competitive. In the recent years, corporate houses have started using handmade papers and even Pashmina products are being purchased at the local level compared to previous years.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/t3%20(Copy).jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 466px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Our new diversified product range now includes accessories for laptops and mobile,&rdquo; Dhakwa said and added that international buyers are also adding up new designs through their customized demands. Handicraft exporters claim that diversified products are playing an important role to increase export volume of handicraft products in the international market. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Handicraft has become a major source of foreign currency and is one of the major industries that have good international market. Government has been promoting this sector by recognising it as producer of competitive products for the international market. Along with existing players, new traders and producers are joining this industry and some of them are taking it online for making their products directly accessible to the international customers and market.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	During the first six months of the current fiscal year handicraft products (paintings, sculptures and statuary) worth Rs 292.10 million were exported to the international market, which is an 34 per cent increment compared to the same period last year, the Trade and Export Promotion Centre noted. Though the woollen carpet export increased by 40.3 per cent totalling up to Rs 3.63 billion trade, export of woollen and pashmina shawls during the same period increased only by ten percent with a total export of Rs 1.20 billion.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-25',
			'modified' => '2014-05-07',
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			'description' => 'The handicraft producers are coming up with more diversifi cation in their product be it pashmina products or handmade paper products, one can get a range of diversifi cation in these products.',
			'sortorder' => '2617',
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	(int) 1 => array(
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			'id' => '2723',
			'article_category_id' => '40',
			'title' => 'Nepali Women As Entrepreneurs',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Siromani Dhungana</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepali women entrepreneurs have not broken the glass ceiling, says Pramila Rijal, president of SAARC Chamber Women Entrepreneurs Council (SCWEC). &ldquo;But they have already made the first cracks.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Rijal&rsquo;s idea rightly summarizes the present conditions of women in business in Nepal. Alka Rajouria Rijal, executive director at Federation of Women Entrepreneurs&rsquo; Association of Nepal is also of the same opinion. Women entrepreneurs have come far but they still have a long way to go, she opines.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	According to her, there are many issues that still need to be improved: access to finance, gender-responsive policies, family barriers and deconstructing stereotypes about women entrepreneurs.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs6(1).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 300px; height: 410px;" />Business: It was Men&#39;s Domain&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Hajuri Bista, one of the forerunners in the arena of women entrepreneurship says, &ldquo;I had never seen men and women work together. It was really challenging to get out of the dogma that women should take care of household chores and not venture into the business world.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In 1990, the country adopted a &nbsp;democratic political system but women entrepreneurs still finding not an easy path at that time, she recalls. Late Yangzi Sherpa, Ambica Shrestha, Rita Thapa, Maggie Shah, Renchin Yonjan, Shyam Badan Shrestha, Shanti Chadha, Nilam Pande, Mohini Lama, Brinda Rana and some other faces were managed to shine in this period as entreprenuers. They were the trailblazers at that time, Bista recalls.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&quot;Even after democracy, I have seen many times aspiring women entrepreneurs breaking into tears in meetings due to unexpected hurdles and apathy from their family and the society,&quot; she said reflecting on her experience. &ldquo;Why should be women engaged in business?&quot; &nbsp;was a common mindset at that time, she adds.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Fortunately, times have changed now. There are host ofefforts underway to boost women&rsquo;s participation in business and women are in the condition to get guidance &nbsp;in all phasesof entreprise development &nbsp;-- from training on leadership, to new forms of financing.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Entrepreneurship has been traditionally seen a male preserve and idea of women taking up entrepreneurial activities considered as a distant dream, she says. But the mindset has been changing, she adds. &ldquo;It takes time to change all the established social norms but we have achieved tremendous success in the field of women entrepreneurship.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs1(1).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; width: 300px; height: 204px;" />Has a Long Way to Go</strong></span></div>
<div>
	There are umpteen problems even now. Women face problem from their initial commencement of enterprise, says Barsha Shrestha, deputy chief executive officer at Clean Energy Development Bank.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The society still does not believe in their capacity and it is an uphill task for women to face such conflicts and cope with such challenges, she adds. Obtaining the support of bankers, managing the working capital, difficulty in getting credit are the problems to solve which male family member&#39;s support is still needed, she informs.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Now women are empowered enough and can lead big corporations too, says Ambica Shrestha, women entrepreneur and president of The Dwarika&rsquo;s Hotel. &ldquo;All they need is chance of working as freely as their male counterparts.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs2(1).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 300px; height: 188px;" />Absence of Entrepreneurial Aptitude</strong></span></div>
<div>
	If you have innovative idea to venture into business that is what we call entrepreneurship, says Renchin Yonjan. But male businessmen in Nepal lack entrepreneurial aptitude, she claims. Most of the women who are aspiring in entrepreneurs are involved either in their family business or in service sector that still does not have talents (male or female) with the basic ingredients of entrepreneurship. &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Parents want their daughter to be involved in jobs rather than entrepreneurship, shares Barsha Shrestha. The reason is clear. They do not want their daughters to take risk and put their money at risk.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Besides, even majority of women in the country lack entrepreneurial aptitude. Women have no entrepreneurial bent of mind, informs Pramila Rijal. &ldquo;But this problem does not prevail only among women but also among men too.&rdquo; &ldquo;Yes, women are more inclined towards household chores and existing social structure does not allow them to think broadly,&rdquo; she adds.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs3(1).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; width: 300px; height: 187px;" />Expand Access to Finance&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Women in the country have been facing many problems to get going with their business ideas. Finance shortage is one of them. Women entrepreneurs always suffer from inadequate financial recourses and working capital, says Rita Bhandary, president of Federation of Woman Entrepreneurs Associations of Nepal (FWEAN). They are not able to afford external finance due to absence of tangible assets as security. Women have very less property and bank balance in their name. Male members of the family do not want to invest their capital in the business run by women due to lack of confidence in the women&#39;s ability to run a venture successfully.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Most of the women entrepreneurs fail due to lack of proper financing facilities, because finance is life blood of every business activities, according to Shrestha. Marketing and financial problems are such obstacles where even training doesn&#39;t significantly help the women. Some problems are structural in nature and beyond the control of entrepreneurs. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Bankers often deny women credit on the ground of lack of collateral security, Shrestha says. Therefore, their access to risk capital is limited. Women cannot start big business ventures unless equal access of finance is ensured, Shrestha claims.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>A Wave of Progress in SME</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are possibly one of the best and most cost-effective avenues for furthering economic development. Slowly but gradually, women have been expanding their foothold in this SME field. Currently, women own about 14,300 small and medium enterprises in Nepal, accounting for 2 percent of GDP (registered formal sector) and employing over 200,000 workers. A study commissioned by IFC, private sector lending arm of the World Bank Group, suggests that meeting their current credit requirements of US$ 106 million can increase their contribution to the economy, according to SAARC Chamber Women Entrepreneurs Council (SCWEC).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Throughout the country, women have been setting up small and medium enterprises after acquiring the skills, resources, and support necessary to grow and sustain their businesses, says Alka Rajouria Rijal.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is very positive aspect of women in entrepreneurship that they are creating jobs at a time when the country is reeling under massive unemployment problem.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, women&rsquo;s involvement in entrepreneurship will not only contribute to create jobs but also to change the stereotyped role of women which is largely limited to household chores. All should motivate women entrepreneurs to give them the moral support for their business ideas.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs4(1).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 300px; height: 166px;" />Networking: Key to Success&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The equation is very simple: you have to expand your business once you start it, you have to develop a network to expand business and you have to have a free-society to develop a network, says Barsha Shrestha who believes that Nepali women are struggling to this end.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Women should have a very strong network at three levels: in the sector concerned, with all entrepreneurs and national and international level, according to women entrepreneur Renchin Yonjan.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Women have tremendous potential for networking as they are polite and soft compared to their male counterparts, she opines. In business, exposure gives knowledge. Exposure is key that will help women to materialize their dreams. Women entrepreneurs should get out from social restrictions, expand their contacts and start business ventures. Women entrepreneurs should not hesitate to create their brand.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Full-time entrepreneurs should have the broadest networks. Long-held belief is, however, that women have weaker networks and rely excessively on family and friends to build their business. This logic is directly linked with the perception that women cannot handle business independently and they are reliant on family and friends for networking, says Yonjan. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Dream Big&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The number of women-owned business has been growing over the past decade or so. However, evidences show that most of these businesses don&#39;t scale up. Further, women entrepreneurs are still considered suitable only in small and medium enterprises.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Over the last few years, it is found that women entrepreneurs often seem to be pigeonholed into the &lsquo;lifestyle business&rsquo; category or education sector in Nepal. This is obviously good but not enough, says Ambica Shrestha. Women entrepreneurs are still missing out on the chance of a bigger slice of the pie.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Women-owned businesses are still a drop in the ocean of commerce, according to Pramila Rijal. She suggests women entrepreneurs to dream high. &ldquo;It is time that women entrepreneurs start dreaming of setting up big corporations and running big businesses.&rdquo; We have to dream and we have to work to full our dreams, opines Rita Bhandary.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs5(1).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; width: 300px; height: 168px;" />Changing Scenario</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Picture a woman and you might imagine a women busy in domestic chores and childcare. Further, if someone speaks about a female entrepreneur and you might imagine a woman at the helm of a small business, perhaps in a cosmetic outlet or childcare centre.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For decades the symbol of women entrepreneurship has been, to many, the pickle, fashion or childcare. They were considered shadow of their male counterparts. Time has come now to break the stereotypes and women should take the baton.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On the one hand, the mindset of society has been changing, Yonjan opines. &ldquo;But challenges have also increased and women have to compete in the highly competitive world.&rdquo; Access to Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and better exposure to the rest of the world have provided unique opportunities to the women entrepreneurs to expand their footholds,&rdquo; she claims.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Our aim is not to steal the profit pie, which male entrepreneurs have been enjoying but to seek new chances of generating new and innovative sectors where women can see their future, says Yonjan. However, these sectors should not be limited to the small and medium industries.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;I am definitely seeing more women enter the entrepreneurship sector,&rdquo; Shrestha says. Is entrepreneurship a man&rsquo;s world? No not at all, she firmly believes. We need to break all the stereotypes prevailing regarding women in business.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Conclusion</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Women across the country have started several business ventures at their own initiatives. It is time to taking bigger steps towards providing flexible workplaces for women to get in the entrepreneurship. &quot;We know that where women are venturing now had been a male bastion. But that should not deter them. Women are equal partners in business,&rdquo; says Yonjan. All section of the society should encourage their effort of entering into the entrepreneurship because people&rsquo;s dream of peace and prosperity is directly related to the economic growth. Women&rsquo;s involvement in entrepreneurship should be encouraged because it will not only create more opportunities but also ensure inclusive growth. It will be imperative in achieving highest sustainable economic growth and employment and in raising living standard.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs1b.jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 611px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
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						<span style="font-size:18px;"><strong>World&rsquo;s Top 10 Influential Female Entrepreneurs&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Wu Yajun" src="/userfiles/images/1%20(Copy)(5).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 117px;" />Wu Yajun</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Wu Yajun holds the title of229th richest person in the world. The journalist-turned Chinese businesswoman is the Chairwoman of Longfor Properties, an investment holding company, which manages several businesses including real estate and property investment, development and management across China. Born to an ordinary family in 1965, she and her former husband founded Chongqing Zhongjianke Real Estate Co Ltd in 1995, which was later renamed as Longfor Properties. &nbsp;Her net worth as of 2013 is estimated at USD 4.4 billion. Wu is also serving as the member of China&#39;s National People&#39;s Congress. She is among the top 50 in Forbes&#39; Power-Women list.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Zhang Yin" src="/userfiles/images/2%20(Copy)(5).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 119px;" />Zhang Yin</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Zhang Yin is the founder and director of China&#39;s biggest paper maker- Nine Dragons Paper Holdings Limited. The company buys scraps from US and other parts of the world and turns them into cardboard boxes to export Chinese goods. At the age of 49 in 2006, she became the first woman to top the list of richest Chinese businesspersons, according to the Huron Report. Zhang Yin&#39;s net worth is estimated at USD 3.9 billion as of 2012.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Rosalia Mera" src="/userfiles/images/3%20(Copy)(5).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 119px;" />Rosalia Mera</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Rosalia Mera is the co-founder of Inditex, a worldwide fashion retailer, which owns famous brands such as Zara, Massimo Dutti, Pull and Bear and Bershka among others. At the age of 11 Mera dropped out of school and began to work as a sales person in a clothing store. With her former husband, she co-founded the Zara clothing chain in 1975, which later became the world&#39;s largest fashion retailer. Mera died on 15th August 2013 after suffering a stroke at the age of 69. At the time of her death she was the richest woman in Spain and the world&#39;s richest self-made woman. Before her death, Rosalia&#39;s net worth was estimated at USD 6.1 billion.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Oprah Winfrey" src="/userfiles/images/4%20(Copy)(4).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 117px;" />Oprah Winfrey</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Oprah Winfrey has been ranked as the richest African-American of the 20th century who is currently North America&#39;s only black billionaire. The 60- year old celebrity entrepreneur and philanthropist is best known for her talk show &quot;The Oprah Winfrey Show&quot;, which was considered as the highest-rated program of its kind in history from 1986 to its ending in 2011. She was also the world&#39;s only black billionaire in between 2004-2006. Winfrey is the founder of Harpo Productions, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) television channel and Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls. Oprah received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013, the highest civilian award of the United States. Her net worth is estimated at USD 2.9 billion as of 2013.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Arianna Huffington" src="/userfiles/images/5%20(Copy)(3).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 117px;" />Arianna Huffington</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Arianna Huffington is the creator of the Pulitzer-prize winning news website and blog &quot;The Huffington Post.&quot; She started the website in 2005. In 2009, she ranked 12 in Forbes&#39; list of the Most Influential Women in Media. The 63-year old Greek-American author and syndicated columnist has an estimated net worth of USD 35 million. In 2011, after the sale of The Huffington Post to AOL for USD 315 million, she became the President and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group. &nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw" src="/userfiles/images/6%20(Copy)(2).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 119px;" />Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is the chairman and managing director of Biocon Limited, a biotech company based in Bangalore. Partnering with an Irish firm to make industrial enzymes, she founded the company in 1978 when she was just 25 with a seed capital of Rs 10,000. She is regarded as India&rsquo;s first biotech entrepreneur. The 60-year old businesswoman is also the Chairman of Indian Institute of Management (IIM-Banglore). She is in the Forbes&#39; list of the world&#39;s 100 most powerful women and the Financial Times&rsquo; top 50 women in business list. As of 2010, her net worth is estimated at USD 900 million.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Yelena Baturina" src="/userfiles/images/7%20(Copy)(2).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 115px;" />Yelena Baturina</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Regarded as the richest Russian woman and the Russia&#39;s only woman with net worth more than USD one billion, Yelena Baturina is the founder of construction and infrastructure investment company Inteco. She founded the company in 1991 as a plastic manufacturer but later changed its business. Baturina witnessed her net worth fell dramatically during the height of the financial crisis of 2008/09. The 50-year old entrepreneur also owns a hotel chain and is the founder of BE OPEN, a cultural and philanthropic foundation.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Giuliana Benetton" src="/userfiles/images/8%20(Copy)(2).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 116px;" />Giuliana Benetton</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Giuliana Benetton is the founder of Benetton Group, a worldwide fashion brand, which operates a network of more than 6,500 stores and outlets across 120 countries. The Italian company, which is fully owned by the Benetton family, owns famous clothing line-up brands such as United Colors of Benetton, Undercolors of Benetton, Playlife and Sisley. Giuliana started the family business in 1965 by knitting sweaters. At the age of 76, Giuliana is currently serving asdirector of Benetton Group and Edizione S.R.L, a financial holding company of the Benetton family. Her net worth is estimated at USD 2 billion as of 2013.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Mary Perkins" src="/userfiles/images/9%20(Copy).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 119px;" />Mary Perkins</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Mary Perkins is the richest self-made British businesswoman. Alongside with her husband Douglas Perkins, she co-founded Specsavers in 1984, a leading global retail chain of optics (eyeglasses and contact lenses), hearing equipment and optician services. Born in 1944, Mary was the daughter of an optician who studied optometry at Cardiff University where she met Douglas.</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						Specsavers Optical Group Ltd which is fully owned and by Perkins family operates 1,650 stores across the globe. Mary became the first female optician in the UK to receive the title of &quot;Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire&quot; (DBE) in 2007. She was also included in the list of BBC Radio 4&#39;s 100 most powerful women in the UK. As of 2011, her net worth is estimated at USD 1.15 billion.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Yoshiko Shinohara" src="/userfiles/images/10%20(Copy)(1).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 119px;" />Yoshiko Shinohara</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Yoshiko Shinihora is considered as the most influential Japanese female entrepreneur. At the age of 77, she is currently the chairman and CEO of Tempstaff Co. Ltd, a human resource management and consulting firm that specializes in contingent hiring, job placement along with childcare services. The company operates and provides services to its 59,000 clients across the world including Japan,United States, China, Singapore, India, Indonesia and South Korea. Shinohara started the company as a temporary job recruitment agency with a seed capital of USD 9,000 in 1973 in her apartment after divorcing at the age of 38. At first, she struggled to find clients as she had to lobby against Japan government&#39;s stiff opposition to temporary job placements. Her business flourished in the 1990s as economic downturn coupled with rising deflation forced Japanese companies to abandon long-term job guarantees to their employees. Tempstaff now has 5,000 staffs and earns USD 2.9 billion annually.&nbsp;</div>
				</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-07',
			'modified' => '2014-05-07',
			'keywords' => 'new business age cover story news & articles, cover story news & articles from new business age nepal, cover story headlines from nepal,  current and latest cover story news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali cover story economic news and events,  ongoing  cover story news of nepal',
			'description' => 'Women entrepreneurship is gaining importance in Nepal as well. In this issue, NewBiz focuses on the problems, issues, challenges faced by Nepali women entrepreneurs, and ways to overcome them.',
			'sortorder' => '2616',
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	(int) 2 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2760',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Retreat Of The Meek Fellow',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Finally, the new coalition government has taken a shape. But it took complete three months since the second elections to the Constituent Assembly (CA-II), on 19th of November, 2013. Prime Minister Sushil Koirala who first allegedly agreed two weeks ago to entrust Home Ministry portfolio to its potentially unavoidable coalition partner, the CPN-UML, had flickered and temporarily back-tracked on this commitment; once he got sworn in to the post. It invited a nasty public exchange of diatribes between the leaders of the ruling Nepali Congress and major partner, the UML. But, if he wanted to save his government, Koirala had no other viable alternative to succumbing to UML demands of Home Ministry to be led by none other than the &#39;big muscled&#39; &nbsp;UML Vice-chairman Bamdev Gautam. Koirala&#39;s space of political maneuvering was further tapered by complete non-cooperation from his own party colleague Sher Bahadur Deuba which compounded the task of giving a complete shape to the government. The perception of insecurity in Koirala was not unfounded. He indeed was apprised of the potential danger by those who have knowledge of informal level of intimacy between Deuba and UML Parliamentary Party leader K P Oli. Unlike Koirala, who hardly suffered any mention-worthy length of jail term during the panchyat days, Deuba and Oli for years spent in the same prison cell. And, now they share same wavelength of banter and modus operandi of &#39;practical politics&#39; of money, muscle, maneuvering and machinations.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As the bare arithmetic in the House has it, Nepali Congress doesn&rsquo;t have any other option than placating the UML unless it had chosen to appease both UCPN (Maoists) and Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal (RPP-N) to sum up to the magic number of three hundred and one to save the government. But, the latter option to materialize involved a lot of ground-work and maneuvering, yet disposing the possible coalition always to walk on the razor-edge. Nonetheless, given the track record of the UML, the Maoists and the RPP-N would perhaps have been relatively easier bed-fellows for Congress. Yet, it is mere a conjecture.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This unpleasant episode of Home Ministry row at the very initial days of the Koirala-led coalition has three clear indications. First, Koirala as the prime minster has very little flexibility than resorting to the politics of give-and-take. Second, he takes hard stances at wrong turnings, the only consequence of which is to back-track rather humiliatingly, virtually in no time. Third, no party is reading the crucial arithmetic of the House before resorting to high-pitched verbal bashing in a political reality that is mandated for nothing but a coalition rule.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Why is the Home Ministry such a big controversy in every stage of government formation? Not only in the cross-party power sharing as is now, there are instances even when a single party majority rule, the portfolio is contested to the extreme among the aspirants. There may be some political arguments forwarded by its minister-aspirants to bag the post, but the craving is rather a political anti-thesis. This time around, Gautam could convince his party that the party would perform better if he became the home minister. The Congress aspirants who stopped Koirala from conceding the ministry to UML have had similar claims. Essentially, these were just the premonitions to destabilize and debase democracy by advocating straight rigging in the elections, misusing the state machinery. But the current political values of Nepal seem to have, unfortunately, accepted is as part of the game. If we evaluated history, any such impact of altering election results or adding the political clout of the party awarded with this portfolio, however, are mere perceptive fallacies. The reality is something different.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Home Ministry is a marrying point of politics with crime. Apart from possible corruption avenues, the minister will have unhindered access to unearmarked security expenses under titles like &#39;for intelligence operation&#39; and &#39;FADA&#39; (financial assistance, donation and awards). Being the joint head of the civil administration with extensive quasi-judicial rights at the district level represented by the chief district officers (CDOs) and of two police organizations ensure the incumbent a stream of incomes in enormous sizes. Such lucre comes from every source you can think of, or may be even beyond that, including the contrabands, counterfeits, smuggling, extortion and human trafficking. Therefore, it is not any surprise why every ex-home minister has a noted underworld operator under his protection and some parties have even given them seats in the party central committees. That is that.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In his entire political career, Koirala&#39;s main working strategy has been the procrastination of the crucial decisions. This old habit of his doesn&#39;t seem to have died, even though he is the prime minister now. At his personal level, indecision comes in two forms; he doesn&#39;t read any file to be decided upon, it depends on some of his &#39;trusted&#39; lieutenants to do the job and brief him. And, he doesn&#39;t &#39;trust&#39; those briefings too and begins to investigate whether there could be any vested interest involved of the person who briefed thus. And, the safest he finds is not to decide anything. This is not a desirable quality in any chief executive, that too of Nepal in these pressing hours when many important agenda await decisions, rather sooner.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The phrase &#39;within one year&#39; becomes a wont in tongue of all major politicians in the coalition. The initial promise was to write and promulgate the new constitution within a year from the date of the CA elections-II. It is now the fourth month running since and parties are signing so called agreements to deliver a constitution again, within a year. The understanding between the two major coalition partners, Congress and UML, to shuffle the prime ministership after a year makes us apprehensive. Implicitly, they are saying shamelessly, that the constitution will not be written within a year from now on. The intentions are not honest.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For now, Koirala&#39;s quest for corruption-free governance is a task impossible in view of the coalition made shaky by severe intra-party wranglings and factionalisms in both of the major ruling parties. Gautam at the helm of Home Ministry is sure to let loose all possible &#39;channels&#39; of illegal trade in gold, currencies and goods. He proudly repeats &#39;one year in the ministry is enough to finance the personal politics for a decade and even larger benefit to the party in the longer-term.&#39; It is not difficult to foresee that Koirala would helplessly witness the drama of the ministers who behave more smartly than himself, albeit merely in their vested interests. Technically, he cannot afford to break the coalition. In practice, he cannot assert designs due to his meekness. And, politically he is a redundant deadwood who doesn&#39;t enthuse with vision and mission of his own, and keeps on bungling processes as he did in forming the current government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He has severe diplomatic drawbacks. He is not &#39;wholly&#39; trusted by the southern neighbour. There was a point in history when he was alleged of having connections with the people with dubious backgrounds like late Jamin Shah and the likes who were suspected of mobilizing funds from suspicious sources. The West is apprehensive for the same reason as India is and China knows &#39;very little&#39; about him as their official press points out. Therefore, his identity crisis couples with his crisis of confidence to run the government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is not difficult to see that even the second CA election has not taught any lesson to our leaders. Therefore, the priority is still being given to power-sharing games than to writing of the constitution. As pointed out by UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal that constitution is &#39;unlikely&#39; to be written even by this CA appears to be self-fulfilling. The priorities of the coalition partners are different from constitution writing. The Oli-Gautam duo in UML wants to exploit every possible benefit of being in the government to win the party presidency for Oli in its national convention slated for coming May. There is even a widespread concern that the local elections now considered for April might be pushed further away due to the convention to elect new executive.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are enormous challenges and externalities. Leaders like Dahal and Kamal Thapa of RPP-N would be happier to see that this coalition failed, just because they wanted to prove that no one is better in terms of delivery. Being in the government is perhaps the sweetest part of the cake. When the process of finalizing the provisions of the new constitution actually begins, demands and impediments from outside of CA are likely to rule the roost. Madhesis, janjatis and pro-identity federalist have plans of forwarding their agenda through protests on streets to incorporate them in the constitution; ignoring the fact that they were largely rejected by the voters. The moves of Maoist-Baidya group could even be more irksome.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The only good sign is that the two largest parties in the CA have been able to form a coalition. A couple of other fringe parties have come to their support. Ideologically, the coalition is perhaps the closest-- best explained by their unconditional stance on ballot-based democracy. Above all, the coalition commands more than two-thirds of majority in CA and the Legislature Parliament.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But the prime minister must develop a habit of deciding things than only being a meek onlooker. And, the work on constitution writing must now begin without any further delay.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-11',
			'modified' => '2014-04-11',
			'keywords' => 'new business age  nepal politics news & articles, nepal politics news & articles from new business age nepal, nepal politics headlines from nepal,  current and latest nepal politics news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali nepal politics economic news and events,  ongoing  nepal politics ne',
			'description' => 'Prime Minister Sushil Koirala who first allegedly agreed two weeks ago to entrust Home Ministry portfolio to its potentially unavoidable coalition partner, the CPN-UML, had flickered.',
			'sortorder' => '2615',
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	(int) 3 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2724',
			'article_category_id' => '91',
			'title' => 'A Donor-Dependent Private Sector',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Siromani Dhungana and Hom Nath Gaire&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Aid orientation has been evident among Nepal&rsquo;s private sector organizations as they are hell bent on bagging projects from donor agencies to carry out activities for their own welfare and day to day activities. Sometimes, their race for getting projects appears to be &lsquo;unhealthy&rsquo;.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Here are some examples:&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>USAID Nepal Economic, Agriculture and Trade (NEAT) activity provided grant to the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) to conduct Public Private Dialogue (PPD) on draft of Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Act (FITTA) last year. The draft was prepared by the Institute of Policy Research and Development (IPRAD). CNI&rsquo;s rival, the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), started to criticize the activities under that project. The dispute became visible when the FNCCI formally organized a programme to challenge some provisions of the draft such as allowing Nepali investors to invest abroad, and accused that the draft was totally in favour of some businessmen affiliated to CNI. Due to the controversy, the Ministry of Industry could not table the draft at the Cabinet meeting. Government officials say that the reason behind the conflict between FNCCI and CNI was nothing more than the grant from USAID NEAT, which phased out last year.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>European Union had tentatively agreed, according to a FNCCI source, to provide a grant of five-million euro to FNCCI for the promotion of products listed in the Nepal Trade Integration Strategy in the European market. Later, the project was bagged by CNI in the name of &ldquo;Go International&rdquo;. In informal discussions, FNCCI officials still blame CNI for using all kinds of tricks to get the project. In this case, even employees at EU were dragged into controversy. Now, the project is being handled by CNI instead of FNCCI.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Similar is the case of the SAARC Trade Promotion Network (SAARC TPN), a regional trade facilitation project supported by German International Cooperation (GIZ). There was a big hue and cry on which organization should represent Nepal&rsquo;s private sector in this project as the project seeks participation from all SAARC countries. Both FNCCI and CNI were at loggerheads over the participation. Later, the GIZ decided to include all umbrella organization creating different sub committees to settle the dispute. The third organization, Federation of Nepal Cottage and Small Industries (FNCSI), also became a part of the project due to dispute between two big organizations, FNCCI and CNI.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Businessmen affiliated with Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) started a new initiative, National Business Initiatives (NBI) with grants from International Alert and GIZ. Many consider it as NCC&rsquo;s attempt to get projects from donor agencies.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Foreign Aid: A Meeting Agenda</strong></span></div>
<div>
	According to some members of CNI and FNCCI, members of both umbrella organizations get engaged in heated debates over foreign aid during their board meetings.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Some members directly accuse the leadership of inefficiency if the rival organization gets a donor-funded project, a member of FNCCI told The Corporate on the condition of anonymity.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a shame that our businessmen openly ask for projects during talks with representatives of the donor agencies,&rdquo; a CNI member said, &ldquo;They should be rather talking about bilateral trade or expanding Nepali business abroad or even inviting foreign investors.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Making Umbrella Organizations a Begging Bowl&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Why is our private sector making the umbrella organizations a begging bowl? It is tough question. It is no surprise as our private sector has &lsquo;feudal mindset&rsquo; and they are hell bent on amassing profit, ethically or unethically, says Deependra Bahadur Kshetry, former vice-chairman at National Planning Commission.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is shameful that they are also dependent on the government to carry out their activities. But they scold the government whenever they get the chance just to cover their own weaknesses, he claimed.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepal&rsquo;s private sector lacks innovative approach, he opined. &ldquo;They utilize their creativity just to make profit from the policy lapses. For instance, they amassed billions from the multi-billion VAT scam. Problems such as under and over-invoicing, income splitting and transfer pricing are rampant,&rdquo; said Kshetry.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Instead of making the umbrella organizations a begging bowl, the private sector should utilize their income source to become self-reliant, he said.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Major umbrella organizations &ndash; FNCCI, CNI and NCC &ndash; are member-based organizations and they should run from their members&rsquo; contributions, a businessman suggested. Besides, FNCCI, CNI and NCC earned millions by issuing Certificate of Origin. But the problem is they are never transparent, according to him.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Dependency to what Extent?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	It may sound ridiculous but it is a fact that Nepal&rsquo;s private sector seeks help from the government not only for promotional activities but also to get opportunities for foreign trips and organizing events such as seminars, summits and conferences. For example, some umbrella organizations wrote to the government demanding that the government bear their travel costs to participate in the Ministerial Meet of WTO held in Bali, Indonesia. But the government refused the proposal.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Representatives of the umbrella organisations promote their businesses abroad but ask the government to provide air-fare and other essential cost, an official said. This suggests that Nepal&rsquo;s private sector is completely dependent and inefficient, Kshetry claimed. &ldquo;Many evidences show that, apart from some genuine firms, we can categorize our private sector just as household businesses.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td bgcolor="#E5E4E2">
				<div>
					<div>
						<div style="text-align: center;">
							<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>They Get Aid From</strong></span></div>
						<div style="text-align: center;">
							&nbsp;</div>
						<div>
							<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>FNCCI:</strong></span> FNCCI has been actively cooperating with various foreign / international organizations such as UNDP, USAID, DFID, UNIDO, UNCTAD/GATT/ITC, THE WORLD BANK, ILO, PPPUE, SEQUA-GTZ Private Sector Promotion Project, UNFPA, Asia-Invest, JICA, IOE, NIKKEIREN, APO, JETRO, SAARC Secretariat, ICIMOD, AOTS etc in carrying out various activities for the promotion of business and industry. (Source: FNCCI)</div>
						<div>
							&nbsp;</div>
						<div>
							<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>CNI:</strong></span> USAID, European Union, GIZ, DFID, IFC, Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship etc.</div>
						<div>
							&nbsp;</div>
						<div>
							<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Nepal Chamber of Commerce:</strong></span> Nepal Chamber of Commerce is representing Nepal as a national focal point for Regional Investment Information and Promotion Services (RIIPS) of UN\ESCAP. The Chamber has been conducting seminar and training, related to business and economy, with the help of International organizations, such as International Trade Centre &ndash; ITC (UNCTAD &ndash; WTO) and the Asian Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology (APCTT). (Source: NCC)</div>
					</div>
				</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-09',
			'modified' => '2014-04-10',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'The umbrella organisations of the Nepali private sector are vying with each other to lure foreign grants. This is damaging their public image.',
			'sortorder' => '2614',
			'image' => null,
			'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00',
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	(int) 4 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2725',
			'article_category_id' => '109',
			'title' => 'Mid-term Monetary Review Creates Sell-off In Stocks',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By TC Correspondent</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In an apparent sign of continuing weakness, Nepal stock Exchange Limited (Nepse) index closed nearly 9.15 points lower on Sunday, the first trading day of the week. Declined in the barometer of country&rsquo;s capital market is attributed by fall in the majority sub-indices traded in the day. Along the Nepse, sensitive index which represents share trading of class &lsquo;A&rsquo; listed companies fell 2.22 points. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Out of total seven sub-index traded Sunday, six were in red. The Insurance sub-index was the biggest loser which fell 40.36 points followed by Hydropower sub-index (16.92) and Banking sub-index (11.99 points). Similarly, sub-indices of &lsquo;Others&rsquo;, Hotels and Development Banks fell respectively by 4.7 points, 3.58 points and 3.41 points. In the mean time, Finance sub-index was only the gainer of the day which increased 6.89 points. Sunday around 732 thousand units of shares of 125 companies were traded through 2347 transactions, which worth Rs. 300 million as daily turnover. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Weekly Indices" src="/userfiles/images/weekly.jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 354px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Weekly Review</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepse index fell 20.05 points last week. The benchmark index which was closed on Sunday due to public holiday started its weekly trading on Monday at 825.70 points and settled down at 805.65 points on the last day (Thursday). After witnessing three straight weeks of gains, Nepse, retreated back last week as investors went to secure their gains through profit-booking strategy.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Analysts say that the investment in the domestic market lost steam after the central bank in its mid-term review of monetary policy of FY 2013/14 hinted to the tightening of margin lending against share certificates. In recent months, margin lending has become one of the attractive investment tools in the country&rsquo;s financial sector as the swelling liquidity is leaving the banks without much investment options in real sectors.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, analysts also opine that settlement of political issues regarding the formation of new government has also affected the domestic stock market. Investors were highly encouraged to book their profits that they earned from the stocks that they purchased during post election months. This indicates that the positive impact of new political development by second CA election is fading.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepse registered as highest as 811.04 points on the opening day (Monday) and observed lowest level at 800.05 points on Tuesday of the last week. During the last week, 3.69 million units of shares worth Rs 1.19 billion were traded in the stock market through 9,514 transactions. The weekly turnover declined 19.32 per cent while, number of transactions shed 12.98 per cent compared to the previous week. Meanwhile, unit of shares traded rose 3 per cent. Nepal Bank Limited climbed to the top spot in terms of weekly turnover. Similarly, Nabil Balance Fund-1 grabbed the top position in terms of number of share units being transacted for the week. In terms of market capitalization, Nepal Telecom maintained its top spot as earlier weeks. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Most of the trading sub-indices saw declining trend last week. Hotels sub-index was the biggest weekly gainer with 37.37 points followed by Hydropower (21.04 points), Insurance (9.85 points) and Finance (0.13 points).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&lsquo;Others&rsquo; was seen as the biggest weekly loser as the sub-index declined 16.44 points. Sub-indices of development banks and commercial banks, meanwhile, lost 7.37 points and 6.68 points respectively. Sub-indices of Trading, Manufacturing and processing, meanwhile, remained unchanged for the week. Reflecting the declining trend in major sub-indices, Sensitive Index representing the share trading of blue chip stocks belonging to class &lsquo;A&rsquo; listed companies also fell 1.63 points. &nbsp;</div>',
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			'created' => '2014-03-09',
			'modified' => '2014-04-09',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'In an apparent sign of continuing weakness, Nepal stock Exchange Limited (Nepse) index closed nearly 9.15 points lower on Sunday, the first trading day of the week. Declined in the barometer of country’s capital market is attributed by fall in the majority sub-indices traded in the day. Along the Nepse, sensitive index which represents share trading of class ‘A’ listed companies fell 2.22 points.',
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	(int) 5 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2766',
			'article_category_id' => '52',
			'title' => 'Housing The Business',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The housing and the real estate business (HREB) has a double-sword positive effect on the economy. It is a global perspective to this business, perhaps barring Nepal. It is a capital intensive business like any other profit making venture and, at the same time, helps to solve a pressing problem of shelter to the populace. But despite the potential, Nepali HREB languishes in absurdities and hangs on to uncertainties. It has been more than one and a half decades since HREB began in an organised fashion led by private sector investment. But the bottlenecks of policy confusions, information asymmetries and public (mis)perceptions remain the same as they used to be a decade ago.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	According to a rough estimate, Nepali HREB is now worth more than Rs 150 billion, which is a third of the current year&#39;s national budget. There is an estimated annual demand of some forty five thousand units of family apartments, mainly in the urban centres of the country. Half of the demand is only in the Kathmandu valley. But, the total annual cumulative supply of apartment-type living is limited only to sixteen thousand units nation-wide. The demand and supply mis-match is one half of the story and the price and financing mismatch is the other.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	What&#39;s wrong with Nepali HREB as an investment and growth industry? Perhaps everything! The government doesn&#39;t have a comprehensive policy on it. In addition, the very perspective of the government about HREB is largely bigotry. Some regulations regarding ownership have been issued but implementation has not been as effective as expected. Given the fact that the private sector is doing a national service by providing housing facilities to the people which otherwise is the government&rsquo;s responsibility, it should have acknowledged and treated accordingly. As long as the government considers itself as the vehicle to an egalitarian society, it is indeed the government&rsquo;s responsibility to address problems like this.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	One emulative recent example could be the British government&rsquo;s initiative of Help-to-Buy (HTB) scheme, introduced by Chancellor George Osborne&rsquo;s last fiscal year budget, targeting the first time home owners. The &pound;25 billion scheme that began in January 2014 plans equity finance of 20 percent of the cost of buying or constructing a new house. The government plans to implement the HTB scheme in a three year time horizon. The objectives are well defined. First, to help revive the ailing HREB and also simultaneously support lower end populace to own a house of their own.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But in our case, the government is treating the investors and developers as criminals and crooks, let alone contemplating providing an equity financing. It was true that there was a degree of over-exposure of the finical sector to HREB. But that was a compulsion at a point of time due to utter lack of other sectors for the BFIs to invest. Shouldn&#39;t the government share the blame for failing to create an atmosphere for a diversified business and thus the BFIs&#39; investment? Instead, the government apparatus is at complete loss of direction to address the problems of the sector. On top of that a rung of top public service officials were determined to ruin the entire HREB.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Without naming names, there are projects in limbo which would have been completed well if the institutions like the central bank wouldn&#39;t have been vindictive to some chosen promoters of the schemes. It is true that some developers had had multiple business stakes and resorted to some duplicity. But the right approach for the government and central bank strategy should have been to save the projects and investment and penalize and admonish only the wrong-doers. To say the least, the government has not been sensitive to the potential ramifications of its apathy and antipathy to HREB.</div>',
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			'created' => '2014-03-24',
			'modified' => '2014-04-09',
			'keywords' => 'new business age  from the editor news & articles, from the editor news & articles from new business age nepal, from the editor headlines from nepal,  current and latest from the editor news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali from the editor economic news and events,  ongoing  from the edi',
			'description' => 'The housing and the real estate business (HREB) has a double-sword positive effect on the economy. It is a global perspective to this business, perhaps barring Nepal. It is a capital intensive business like any other profit making venture and, at the same time, helps to solve a pressing problem of shelter to the populace. But despite the potential, Nepali HREB languishes in absurdities and hangs on to uncertainties. It has been more than one and a half decades since HREB began in an organised fashion led by private sector investment. But the bottlenecks of policy confusions, information asymmetries and public (mis)perceptions remain the same as they used to be a decade ago.',
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	(int) 6 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2767',
			'article_category_id' => '46',
			'title' => '“Hospitality Is The Right Industry”',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;">Anil Malik is the general manager of Radisson Hotel Kathmandu since August 2013. He has wide experience in the hospitality sector and this is his third tenure with the Carlson Group. Earlier he has worked with the Grand Hyatt, Centara Hotels and Resorts and the O Hotel. He spoke to the New Business Age about his experience in Nepal and the tourism possibilities of the country.&nbsp;</span><strong style="font-size: 16px;">Excerpts:&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Tell us about your career and corporate journey?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Right from my childhood I have seen my mother hosting guests at home. I did Bachelor of Science with geology as major. However after graduation I got interested in hospitality. I appeared in the all India entrance examination, I was qualified and with great hard work I jumped into the hospitality industry.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Why hotels and hospitality? What points of attraction and challenges mark work in hotel sector?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	I personally feel that hospitality is the only sector where you meet so many unique people, learn new culture and learn new food habits. That&rsquo;s why I personally feel that hospitality is the right industry for a person like me who loves food and meet new people.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Carlson Group is the only group, which is expanding, in large capacity. In India we in 2014 we are expecting to have 50 new properties. We are expanding in China, and Hong Kong. In Nepal there are possibilities of expansion and my company is seriously looking to it. Because the country has lots of potential and I have also visited some of the places such as Chitawan and Pokhara, which hold high possibilities. A feasibility report for these possibilities is underway and which I look forward to present at the Carlson office. Carlson has got various brands under its umbrella. We have got budget segments therefore possibilities can be worked out according to the demand. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>What major practices have you introduced in Radisson in the last quarter?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	When I joined I found training opportunities lacking here. There are many hotel management colleges in the country but the biggest challenge is that most of the graduate go aboard to work thereby creating scarcity of skilled manpower. Since my initial days here I have always tried to engage with the staff and to make them more management friendly. There are a number of union issues in Nepal and here also there were some issues in the past. I have been trying to resolve this issue in a professional way by engaging with the employees and interacting with them through open communication channels. As part of this strategy, we started organizing Friday town hall meeting where the general manager interacts about the budget and other management issues with the staff. This is one of the initiations that I took. Apart from that we have started participating in various corporate social responsibility programmes and as a part of it we have made some donation to the Red Cross Nepal and on February 15 we organized Radathon in association with the Nepal Tourism Board.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>What contribution have you made specifically in making the hotel more hospitable?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Last year we added around hundred rooms to existing 160 rooms capacity of hotel Radisson. The additional hundred rooms are very modern compared to other hotels. And now my task is to see that the corporate people target these hundred rooms. To achieve this objective we are building close ties with the corporate sector. Besides this we are going to open the doors of our new Indian cuisine restaurant to our guest and adding to that a Japanese restaurant opening in the pipeline.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>What are the major challenges of hotel industry in Nepal? How do you think they can be addressed?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Recently Trip Advisor rated Nepal as the hottest destination. The only challenge I personally feel here is that the tour operators who are getting this groups in the country they are somehow trying to undersell Nepal as a major tourist destination. The occupancy must have grown but not the revenue and let&rsquo;s not forget that tourism plays a very important role in the development of the country&rsquo;s economy. Therefore we should try not to undersell Nepal. Costly airfare is another problem. It costs around Rs 50,000 to fly back and forth to Delhi. Such a high fare, I think, is bringing down the number of Indian tourist visiting Nepal. At the same time the rooms are expensive as we have 18 hours power cuts and we cannot compromise with our services for our guests. That is revenue is less and expenses are more.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Tourism potentials are very high in Nepal but the income is still around $ 5 billion and 11 per cent of the nation&rsquo;s GDP. Where is &nbsp;the disconnect? What can be done in this context by the private sector and the government?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	In Nepal there are many areas, which can be explored. Tourist visit Nepal mostly to see Kathmandu. The government of Nepal along with the Nepal Tourism Board should brand it as &lsquo;Explore Nepal&rsquo; and they should come out with new destinations that are still to be explored. I personally feel that the government should identify new values and new areas to attract much more tourist.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>What is the situation of skilled manpower in the hospitality industry?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	There are eight five-star hotels since a very long time. Though the government has itself not taken any measures to expand it, very soon three hotels are coming to Nepal. Along with that the government has also signed agreements with around ten other five-star properties. Opening of these hotels will open new job opportunities. What I have found is staff appointment in Nepal is very low. Job openings are available only if a person retires from the position or moves abroad. So how do you expect to have new talent when there are no new hotels and no new vacancies?</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>What are your suggestions to the major hotel and tourism management colleges? What inputs should they make to develop talent here?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	They have to be more professional, the corporate culture has to be taught and exposure has to be given to them. And the same time they should have a tie up with some groups of hotel where some concrete steps can be taken. At the moment my hotel has around 80 trainees but what about the other students as there are only eight five-star hotels. &nbsp;Definitely the remaining students will move abroad.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>What is your personal management philosophy with regards to hotel management and its efficient leadership?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Speaking on a personal note there has to be a leadership quality and attitude has to be very positive. Along with it one should have an urge to teach the juniors, should believe in teamwork as it&rsquo;s not possible to achieve the objectives without team work. At the same time one should try to impart maximum knowledge to juniors to make the team competent. The country should also have a corporate culture, which I hope will definitely grow.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>',
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			'created' => '2014-03-24',
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			'description' => 'Anil Malik is the general manager of Radisson Hotel Kathmandu since August 2013. He has wide experience in the hospitality sector and this is his third tenure with the Carlson Group. Earlier he has worked with the Grand Hyatt, Centara Hotels and Resorts and the O Hotel. He spoke to the New Business Age about his experience in Nepal and the tourism possibilities of the country. Excerpts:',
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	(int) 7 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2765',
			'article_category_id' => '47',
			'title' => 'A Visionary Developer',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Sujan Tiwari</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Om Rajbhandary, Executive Chairman of Brihat Group and Chairman of Comfort Housing is a long-familiar name in Nepali real estate sector. Many may find it hard to believe that one of the most prominent developers and the pioneer of community housing in Nepal actually started his career as Medical Representative. Rajbhandary, a promoter of planned urbanization has conquered a lot in the real estate sector, and has a lot more up his sleeve.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Rajbhandary, a real estate expert, developer and builder and pioneer of community living in Nepal doesn&rsquo;t like to be known only as a businessman. &ldquo;I am not just working for my business, I am working for the betterment of entire real estate sector of Nepal,&rdquo; says Rajbhandary. Rajbhandary, over the years, has made enormous contribution for the professional management of the sector. Brihat Group has been publishing a newsletter for the last six years to educate and aware the people about the sector and about its market. Rajbhandary was the first person to work as a Real Estate Faculty Member of Ace Institute of Management and in Apex College. He has taught Real Estate, an optional subject to MBA and BBA students in these colleges.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Rajbhandary has been promoting real estate, infrastructure and urbanization through presentations in various national and international programmes. He is also the Visiting Speaker of Thai Real Estate School of Business, and is regarded as a key speaker in Asia-Pacific region. He was also the first to introduce Real Estate Marketing Agent Course in Nepal in 2009 to generate certified real estate marketing agents. At present, Brihat Group has produced more than a hundred such agents. &nbsp;He has played a major role in many fairs and expos, and has been the coordinator of various real estate exhibitions. Rajbhandary has also addressed the issue of the sector in the government, and is always coordinating with government authorities and international agencies like IFC and IMF for improving the sector.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>The Genesis</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Surprisingly, Rajbhandary started his career as a Medical Representative for a company called Winthrop in the year 1984. Soon, he was promoted to District Sales Manager. He left the job in 1992, when he was further promoted and had to go to India. &ldquo;I always wanted to work in my own country and become an entrepreneur. So I left the job after nine years,&rdquo; said Rajbhandary. His experience in Winthrob taught him corporate culture, and he also learnt a lot about administration. Back in his head , he had plans of doing his own business. In the same year, he, with five other partners, started CE Constructions. The company then started dealing with construction business, successfully carrying out government and private construction projects.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The first project of CE Constructions was the installation of transmission line in Lumbini. Other major projects accomplished by the company in the following decade include Gokarna Golf Resort, Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management (NATHM), Sagarmatha Chaudhary Eye Hospital in Lahan, Siddhartha Children and Women Hospital in Butwal, Buddha Maya Garden Hotel at Lumbini and extended portion of B and B Hospital among others.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;After a decade of its inception, CE Constructions was a popular name in Nepali market. Around the same time, Rajbhandary came up with the concept of community housing, which was a relatively new concept in Nepal back then. In the year 2001, he started the construction of Comfort Housing with the concept of community living. &ldquo;It was started with the concept of providing customers with stand-alone housing units with property ownership, infrastructure and amenities,&rdquo; explained Rajbhandary. But like any new idea, his idea of community living wasn&rsquo;t readily accepted in the market. It took some time for the market to get used to the new concept.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There were 76 houses in his first Comfort Housing Community Living project at Sitapaila, and it took him two years to sell all the houses. Within the two years&rsquo; time, the concept gradually picked up, and his second such project at Budhanilkantha was completely booked in two days, and sold within six months. &ldquo;This proved that the market has slowly accepted the concept of community living. We were encouraged by this, and constructed even more such housings,&rdquo; says Rajbhandary. &nbsp;The popularity and credibility of the housing grew so much that the next Comfort Housing project at Ichhangu had to be sold with lottery system. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Going Beyond</strong></span></div>
<div>
	According to Rajbhandary, he is committed to enhance the quality of life of Nepalis. &ldquo;For this, we had to go beyond Kathmandu. So we searched for good locations, and constructed our fourth Comfort Housing in Dharan,&rdquo; says he. At the same time, Rajbhandary again started something new, the idea of Vertical Community Living or apartments. Then he constructed The Comfort Housing (TCH) Tower-2 at Lazimpat which was ready by year 2006. It also was a huge success as all the apartments were sold out in a single day. In 2007, TCH Tower-3 was ready. &ldquo;There were 41 apartments, and for that we received 350 applications. That too was sold with lottery system,&rdquo; says he. For the sale of his next two ventures TCH Community Living at Thaiba and TCH Tower-4 at Sitapaila, potential buyers were informed three months in prior. &nbsp;The demand was so high that these two properties also had to be sold on lottery basis.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As Comfort Housing only concentrated on community living houses and apartments, Rajbhandary thought of constructing other housing structures like senior housing, rental housing, environment friendly housing and low cost housing among others. &ldquo;To move on further with this, I started Brihat Investments Pvt Ltd in the year 2008,&rdquo; says he. According to him, Brihat Investments was started to promote real estate investment, entrepreneurship and marketing. Under the company, he constructed first environment-friendly community living with the theme of eco-urbanization at Ramkot. These houses have eco-friendly features like UV protected windows, reduced use of wood, rain water conservation, solar street lights and proper disposal of household wastes among others. There are 76 units in the community, and 30 units are handed over and 18 units are already occupied. Brihat Group now has four companies under it, Brihat Investments Pvt Ltd, Brihat Developers and Builders Pvt Ltd, Swayambhu Hotels and Apartments Pvt Ltd and Pioneer Developers and Builders Pvt Ltd.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Early Life</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Rajbhandary was born in 2019 BS in Yangal of Kathmandu to Late Bishnu Bahadur Rajbhandary and Narayan Devi Rajbhandary. Growing up, he was very close with his grandfather Bhairab Bahadur Rajbhandary. He is the youngest among two sisters and a brother. He did his schooling from Laboratory School till grade 8, and did his SLC from Viswa Niketan School. He did his Intermediate and Bachelor degree in science from Amrit Science Campus.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Present and Future</strong></span></div>
<div>
	After the recession in housing sector about four years back, there have been some issues in lending and project financing. According to Rajbhandary, Nepal still has deficit of housing, but owing to the increased price of land, huge housing projects are not a possibility for now. &ldquo;To cope with this problem, we have come up with the idea of cluster housing. There are only houses in cluster housing without other infrastructures and community facilities,&rdquo; explains Rajbhandary. He is launching three such projects in Kathmandu within 2014.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In the future, Rajbhandary wants to develop the core city area of Kathmandu as a safe shelter to reduce the risk of earthquakes. He also wants to transform the area with better management in terms of transportation, sanitation and ventilation. Rajbhandary is also in favour of conserving our cultural heritages. &nbsp;He also wants to develop new towns to adjust with the growing population, and has dreams of bringing a public limited company for housing sector. &ldquo;I want planned urbanization to foster, not only in Kathmandu but all over Nepal,&rdquo; says the ambitious builder.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Personal Side</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Rajbhandary married Purnima Rajbhandary in the year 2050 BS. &ldquo;My wife has an enormous contribution towards my success. We are very compatible with each other, and enjoy a very friendly and happy relation,&rdquo; says he. &nbsp;She is an MBA graduate, also the CEO of Brihat Investments. The couple is blessed with a son Brihat, and under his name, the entire group is established. He is doing his engineering in Canada, and Rajbhandary wants his son to support his business with newer technologies, and take it to newer heights. &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He says he is a very helpful person with a light heart, and is popular among his friends, family and acquaintances. He considers leadership and eloquence among his strengths, and advocates independence and freedom of decision making. &ldquo;I believe in god, and respect my ancestors. I pay respect to the both every morning before I have my breakfast,&rdquo; says the faithful man. Besides his work, he is busy socializing. He loves travelling, listening to music and loves gadgets. Rajbhandary doesn&rsquo;t want to splurge on cars, and drives a Kia Sportage and Ford Classic.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Afterword</strong></span></div>
<div>
	A strong believer of entrepreneurship, Rajbhandary is contented with the fact that he has contributed to the nation through his constructions and employment. &ldquo;As our country is in political transition, the society has expectations form business leaders like us. We should be responsible towards the society,&rdquo; says he. According to him, knowledge is not a private property, and all should transform knowledge for the better good of society and country. &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Involvements</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Founding Chairman and Promoter, CE Constructions&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Director, Ace School</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Board Member, Industrial Promotion Board, Department of Industries&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Board Member, Kathmandu Valley Water Supply Management Board</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Executive Committee Member, FNCCI</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Coordinator, Urban Development Forum, FNCCI</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Third Vice President, Nepal Land and Housing Developers&rsquo; Association&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>National Team Member, Habitat for Humanity International&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Member, Canada Nepal Business Executive Committee&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Lifetime Special Member, Confederation of Asia-Pacific Chambers of Commerce of Industry (CACCI)</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Executive Committee Member, SAARC Chambers of Commerce and Industry (SCCI)</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Administrative Director/General Secretary, Hospice Nepal</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Senior Vice President/Fund Raising Committee Coordinator, Nepal Ambulance Service</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Chairperson-Vocational Service Project, Rotary Club of Kasthamandap</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-24',
			'modified' => '2014-03-25',
			'keywords' => 'new business age personality news & articles, personality news & articles from new business age nepal, personality headlines from nepal,  current and latest personality news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali personality economic news and events,  ongoing  personality news of nepal',
			'description' => 'Om Rajbhandary, Executive Chairman of Brihat Group and Chairman of Comfort Housing is a long-familiar name in Nepali real estate sector. Many may find it hard to believe that one of the most prominent developers and the pioneer of community housing in Nepal actually started his career as Medical Representative. Rajbhandary, a promoter of planned urbanization has conquered a lot in the real estate sector, and has a lot more up his sleeve.',
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	(int) 8 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2764',
			'article_category_id' => '42',
			'title' => 'Stocks Gear Up To 6 Years High',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<strong>--By Bikram Chitrakar</strong></div>
<div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Secondary market of Nepal spurted to new high after six years helped by partial settlement of political uncertainty. The Nepse, benchmark index of country&#39;s capital market, surged 37.20 points or 4.52 % to rest at 822.67 on February 20 as the highest of the review period while the lowest was 769.51 on February 03, 2014. On November 09, 2008 stock market index of Nepal had hovered around 810.81, and that has been surpassed by this review period&rsquo;s closing. The prime factor for this gear up has been pointed to the latest political developments which includes coming of the Constituent Assembly into function and the formation of Sushil Koirala-led Nepali Congress-CPN-UML coalition government. This tipped off the market with optimism and pushed the index to a new high after nearly six years.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		The growth in benchmark index has been primarily contributed by insurance and hydropower sectors. Insurance sector has been the new hot cake of investors since the middle of previous fiscal year. Likewise investors have preferred most of the hydropower companies. During the review period, the sub-index of insurance sector has gone up by 652.17 points and hydropower sub-index jumped 344.22 points.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Market capitalization for this period has been fueled up by 5% as compared to the preceding month. Flexible margin lending (loan against share certificates as security) by different financial institutions, excess liquidity in the banking system, narrow down of market interest rates and lack of better investment alternative have underpinned the recent growth in the capital market. &nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) has revised its list of category &ldquo;A&rdquo; stocks. The new list has 130 companies compared to 120 in the last year. As per the bylaws, companies with minimum of Rs 20 million paid-up capital with at least 1000 equity holders can be categorized in this group. Besides, the company should also post profit for three straight years and its book value must be above paid-up value.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		The momentum of this &quot;A Class&quot; category stocks has been reflected by the sensitive index. With the inclusion of new 10 companies in this category, the ratio of &#39;A&#39; graded companies with total listed companies now stands at 57%. Thus, the movements of the sensitive index and Nepse index show similar pattern. This indicates the need for introducing more categories and classification. &nbsp; &nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Performance by Sector</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Following the positive trend of previous weeks, most of the sub-indices under Nepse registered growth during this review period too in addition to banking and &lsquo;others&rsquo; sub-indices. Insurance sub-index turned to be the highest gainer of the review period with a growth of 652.17 points followed by hydropower sub-index, which increased by 344.22 points. Hotel sub-index also added 245.11 points to rest at 1402.23. Development bank sub-index went up the hill to 54.52 points while trading sub-index registered a growth of 15.04 points. However, banking sub-index faced the losing session with downfall of 14.40 points to rest at 765.85 while &#39;Others&#39; sub-index settled at 793.02 down by 3.52 points during the review period. &nbsp;Meanwhile, Sensitive index that reflects the movement of &ldquo;A Category&rdquo; stocks of Nepal Stock Exchange ascended 4.09 points or 2.29% to settle at 178.64 points while float index went up 2.55 points to 55.19. &nbsp;During the review period, total of Rs. 5.98 billion turnover was realized from 16.67 units of share traded through 53,942 transactions.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		During the period, 44.51 percent of the total turnover was captured by commercial banks. Insurance sector grabbed the second position with 20.79 percent while 18.23 percent was occupied by hydropower sector. Rest of the portions of total turnover were covered by remaining sectors.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Technically, the Simple Moving Average (SMA) of Nepse index is aggressive when SMA of these 30 days and the past 200 days are compared. Despite the positive expectations, chances of correction at this level seem prominent. However, Nepse index may further rise to test some psychological levels and perhaps next resistance. As per the pivot analysis, the next resistance of Nepse range is at 840.39 and 858.11, while the support levels stand at 787.23 and 751.79 at lowest.</div>
	<div style="text-align: right;">
		<em>(Chitrakar is a Stock Analyst with Jamb Technologies Pvt Ltd.)</em></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<img alt="Stock Taking" src="/userfiles/images/st(3).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 193px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
</div>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
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			'description' => 'The Nepse, benchmark index of country's capital market, surged 37.20 points or 4.52 % to rest at 822.67 on February 20 as the highest of the review period.',
			'sortorder' => '2609',
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	(int) 9 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2763',
			'article_category_id' => '37',
			'title' => 'Investment Issues  In Nepali Insurers',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<div>
		<strong>--By Ujjwal Chand &amp; Suraj Bansal</strong></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Currently, there are 25 insurance companies in Nepal -16 of them provide non-life insurance services and &nbsp;eight &nbsp;provide life insurance services while one provides both of these services. Insurance companies use their funds consisting of capital, reserves, premiums and loans to finance claim payments and other expenses. The remaining fund is invested as per the Investment Directives from the regulatory body, i.e. Insurance Board (Beema Samiti). As of FY 2011-12, these companies had investments to the tune of Rs. 60 billion out of which Rs. 52 billion was from life insurance companies and the rest was from non-life insurance companies.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		The insurance companies can put their investment funds in the sectors specified &nbsp;in the investment guidelines which specify that Life insurance companies must invest a minimum of 75% and non-life insurance companies minimum of 65% of their investment funds in combination of government securities, fixed deposits of commercial banks and development banks, and mutual fund/Citizen Investment Trust Schemes. They can put a maximum of 5% of their total investment fund in ordinary shares of public limited companies. Other areas for investment are secured debentures of Banks and Financial Institutions (BFI)s and Fixed Deposits (FDs) in finance companies. Non-life insurance companies can additionally invest in shares of real estate development or public limited housing company.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Importance of Returns from Investment&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		The operations of life and non-life insurance companies are different. Non-life insurance companies generate profit through both returns from investment and from regular insurance business. Life insurance companies, however, are suffering loss in the regular insurance business. Therefore, it is only due to the returns from investment that they are able to report positive bottom lines. Ganesh Dahal, deputy manager of Sagarmatha Insurance puts that &ldquo;the contribution of investment returns to the company&rsquo;s bottom line is at 40%&rdquo;and in similar vein Suraj Rajbahak, CA of Shikhar Insurance, shared that &ldquo;about 30% of the company&rsquo;s returns are from investment returns&rdquo;. Life insurance companies are far heavily reliant on the investment returns. Dip Bahadur BC, chief financial officer at Prime Life Insurance says, &ldquo;Investment returns not only sustain the company&rsquo;s expenses but also contribute to the bottom line&rdquo;. Bigyan Shrestha, finance chief at National Life Insurance, seconds this and states that &ldquo;the investment returns have been sufficient to sustain normal operations&rdquo; for the company.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<img alt="Returns from Investment" src="/userfiles/images/ep1%20(Copy)(6).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 227px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Investment returns of insurance companies&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Of the twenty-five insurance companies, only twenty had published their annual report for FY 2011-12 by September 2013. An analysis of the same shows that 15 of the 20 companies posted returns from 8.5% to 10.5% from investments. This was primarily due to the high interest rates on the fixed deposits of the BFIs.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		But, the returns from their investment in ordinary share was relatively weak during this period &nbsp;- ranging from 0% to 5.42%. However, during the same period, Nepse increased by 14.7%. This shows that the insurance companies underperformed Nepse in terms of returns from ordinary shares investments.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Issues with current ordinary shares investment&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		There are few internal issues of the insurance companies themselves behind poor &nbsp;returns from ordinary shares investment. &nbsp;Additionally, there are some issues with the current ordinary shares investment practices that could damage these returns in the long run of the insurance companies. These internal issues are:</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Passive investment &ndash; Over-reliance on dividends&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Of the 20 insurance companies analyzed, four hadn&rsquo;t invested in ordinary shares at all in FY 2011-12. In the remaining sixteen insurance companies, dividends contributed about 99.97% of the overall return from this avenue in 2011-12. This means only 0.03% of the returns came from capital gains. Thus passive investing, thereby over reliance on dividends for income from ordinary shares investments remained as the most important reason for poor performance in ordinary shares investments by insurance companies.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Lack of experts, research-based decision making</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Further, the insurance companies did not follow research based decision making approach while selecting ordinary shares for investment. This is despite the fact that the insurance companies accept the high importance of investment decisions to the bottom-line. Moreover, investment team in these companies is made of up of generalists, i.e. overseeing all aspects of finance in the company, rather than specialists with specific field expertise.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Lack of Diversification</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Investment gurus advocating diversification of fund always caution that &ldquo;putting all your eggs in one basket is very dangerous&rdquo;. These insurance companies lack proper diversification in ordinary shares investments, which could damage the returns from this avenue in the long term. The ordinary shares investments were heavily concentrated in stocks of major BFIs, constituting 96% of total ordinary shares investments. In terms of diversification at company level, they fare even worse. Although they had invested in 67 securities, they heavily concentrated on six companies, constituting 67% of the total ordinary shares investments.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Issues with overall current investments&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		High interest rate exposure is found to be triggering volatility on the overall investment returns. This exposure was also due to the conservative guidelines that made it mandatory for the insurance companies to park their fund in interest-rate volatile investment avenues like fixed deposits. The conservative investment guidelines are curtailing the diversification of investments, and thereby introducing concentration risk on the investments.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>High interest risk exposure</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Due to regulatory constraints, large portion of the investment fund is parked in BFIs as fixed deposit. This brings about high interest rate risk in the investments returns of the insurance companies. Sushil Kumar Luniya, manager at Gurans Life Insurance, sees &ldquo;the decrease in interest rates of fixed deposits hampering insurance company returns for the current fiscal year&rdquo;. Manoj Shrestha, head of finance department at NLG Insurance, too regards &ldquo;the volatile bank interest rates as major factor deciding the investment returns&rdquo;. &nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Due to high interest rates prevalent during the sample period (average of 8.125% for commercial banks in FY 2011-12 as per the central bank&rsquo;s Monetary Policy document), most of the insurance companies had fair returns on the investments. Imagine the effect of decrease in the rates to 5.2%, as predicted by NRB Monetary Policy for 2013-14, on the investment returns !&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Now lets simulate this Simulating such scenario by decreasing the FY 2011-12 returns from fixed deposits of BFIs by the same proportion as the decrease in interest rate, i.e. from 8.125% to 5.2%. In FY 2011-12, it was found that only one insurance company was making loss. If the interest rates during this period were only 5.2, four insurance companies would have been at loss.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Lack of diversification options</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		The conservative investment guidelines put by the regulatory board give little room for diversification to insurance companies. Majority of the fund is to be parked in government bonds, and fixed deposit of commercial and development banks. Even in ordinary shares investments, insurance companies are finding hard to diversify from a stock market with over 76% concentration in BFIs. Thus there is huge concentration risk. &nbsp;If one bank or finance institution goes bust, the whole insurance industry would suffocate. One such event in Gurkha Development Bank has already occurred. Few insurance companies are still provisioning the losses from this bank&rsquo;s tragedy.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		But, investment guideline isn&rsquo;t the only sore finger. There is also lack of innovativeness among insurance companies in terms of diversifying their investments. As Dr. Fatta Bahadur KC, chairman of Insurance Board, claims, &ldquo;The investment guidelines clearly indicate flexibility of alternative investment avenues for the insurance companies&rdquo;. Upon request by insurance companies, the Board is ready to look into alternative investment proposals. But as this includes some hassles and would put the insurance company management under scrutiny if the innovation backfires, the insurance companies are reluctant to tread on this way.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Asset-liability mismatch</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Asset-Liability mismatch is a major issue with life insurance companies. Safer investment assets with longer maturity are hard to find in Nepali market, where bonds and debentures have minimal presence. Debentures of commercial banks bring concentration risk with them for the insurance companies, which already have major portion of their investment fund in the banks as fixed deposits and their ordinary shares. Dr. KC, sees &ldquo;Asset-Liability mismatch for life insurance companies as they issue policy for long term whereas they can invest for short term only&rdquo;. Dip Bahadur BC, CFO of Prime Life, also considers &ldquo;asset-liability maturity mismatch as a prevalent issue in all life insurance companies&rdquo;.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 18px;"><strong>The Way Ahead</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Resolving Internal Issues</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Internal issues - lack of research based decision making, diversification and active investing - can be resolved through robust internal research systems. To boost their ordinary shares investment performance through research backed investments, the insurance companies could build their own internal system and processes but at a huge cost. It would also mean taking two diverse businesses in parallel, i.e. insurance business and investment business. Outsourcing of ordinary shares investment management by availing the customized portfolio management service given by several financial intermediaries like Kriti Capital, Nabil Invest and Beed Management, seems more beneficial. Such outsourcing &nbsp;will not only enable insurance companies to focus on their core business, but also get better returns from their investments via expert handling of their funds at a relatively lower cost.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<img alt="Isues with Investment" src="/userfiles/images/ep2%20(Copy)(2).jpg" style="margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; width: 550px; height: 400px;" /></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Resolving external issues</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		There are limitations faced by insurance companies while investing their fund as per current investment guidelines. Fixed deposits have inbuilt interest rate risks. The life insurance companies face an additional issue of asset-liability maturity mismatch, with investments maturing in about 1-1.5 years and liabilities remaining active for about 10-13 years. There is need for long term investment alternative.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Further, diversification of fund is hard in a secondary market with heavy concentration of BFI stocks. With the investment fund increasing rapidly (CAGR of 21.35% from 2004-05 to 2011-12), there is a need to look for additional investment avenue to resolve these issues. This is not just voiced by the insurance company professionals but also by the insurance regulatory board.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Dr. KC feels that &ldquo;although the investment guidelines give flexibility to insurance companies to come up with alternative investment proposals, the time has come to review the overall investment guidelines&rdquo;.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		A suitable avenue to be added in the investment guidelines could be private placements in infrastructure companies. This will not just help the insurance companies to resolve the issues of diversification and the infrastructure companies in getting easier financing, but also help the overall economy of the nation. Dr. KC says that the Board is &ldquo;positive on investment made by insurance companies in hydropower and other infrastructure companies, and these avenues could be opened for investments&rdquo;. Most of the insurance companies also state that they are willing to invest in hydropower and other infrastructure companies, if allowed by investment board.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Insurance Board should allow investments by the insurance companies via private placements, as the secondary market doesn&rsquo;t have appropriate diversification opportunities. Further, the insurance companies would be able to invest at a bargain in the infrastructure companies due to their sheer investment fund size. Also, if SEBON comes up with more liberal rules on the issuance of shares at premium, the infrastructure companies could benefit hugely from private placements. Even if the insurance companies decide on being risk averse and just invest in debentures, they could do so in infrastructure debentures. As there isn&rsquo;t presence of these instruments in secondary market, private placement would be ideal way for diversification of &nbsp;by insurance companies. On the other hand, the infrastructure companies would have lower issue costs and lesser regulatory hassles than going public for raising finance. Also, in case of debentures, these companies would be avoiding interest rate exposure. Similarly, the promoters of infrastructure companies would be able to delay issuing the shares to public, thereby being in position with better financial statements before going public. This would help get better response on public issuance of shares at premium.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Thus the insurance companies should initiate this by coming up with effective proposal and lobbying with the Insurance Board for liberal investment guidelines.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		But, investment in private placements of the infrastructure companies (if allowed by the Board) requires expert knowledge on these companies and regular monitoring. Also, the entry and exit strategies must be taken into account as these investments are relatively less liquid as compared to secondary market investments. There will be need of diversification as well as policy and strategy development for the insurance companies vying to invest via private placements. So, to benefit from this additional investment avenue, insurance companies will have to develop in-house expertise or outsource private placements management services for financial intermediaries.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<em>(The article is based on a joint research conducted by Ujjwal Chand and Suraj Bansal as part of their academic requirement at KUSOM. The researchers can be contacted at: chandujjwal@gmail.com)</em></div>
</div>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
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			'description' => 'Insurance companies use their funds consisting of capital, reserves, premiums and loans to fi nance claim payments and other expenses.',
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	(int) 10 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2762',
			'article_category_id' => '31',
			'title' => '“Young Mind Is Always  Very Inquisitive Mind”',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;">The first Round Table was formed in Norwich, England in 1927. It was a club where the young business men of the town gathered on a regular basis. Louis Marchesi, founder of the Round Table International used to mention three things: there are things we must do, there are things we can do and there are things we should do. He was of the view that chance can be achieved with young minds. The same organization has been working in the various parts of the world now with the aim of increasing youth&rsquo;s involvement in businesses. Siromani Dhungana of the New Business Age spoke to its President Moffat Nyirenda during his recent visit to Nepal on issues surrounding youth entrepreneurship among others. Excerpt:&nbsp;</span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>RTI emphasizes on youth involvement in business. Why?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The young generation is the future of the society both in the corporate as well as in the civil society. So, it&rsquo;s very important to emphasis on them. Young mind is always very inquisitive so it can be easily tapped and prompted for entrepreneurship.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>How important is &lsquo;inquisitive mind&rsquo; in business?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	First of all, the world has been very dynamic and the issue of globalization has emerged as a crucial issue. The world has become really competitive. If you do not have inquisitive mind, you will easily die in the corporate world. You should always check the challenges and find out possible solutions to overcome those challenges. Also, you have to expand your business contacts. And only inquisitive mind can identify what&rsquo;s going on around the world.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>It is said that businessmen always seek favour from political parties. Can business organization run without political inclination?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Yes. If you have political inclination sometimes you have to compromise your business interest. Your professionalism, your business opportunity can face adverse situation due to direct political affiliation. So, it is extremely important to maintain neutrality in business.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>The phrase adopt, adapt and improve is a key facet of the RTI. How do you relate this phrase in business organization?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Yes, adopt, adapt and improve have always been our motto since our establishment in 1927 when young entrepreneur members felt the need for a club where they could come together with similar members and share their business experiences. In business &lsquo;adopt, adapt and improve&rsquo; is very relevant. First, we have to adopt the situation then we have to adapt it and we have to improve our way of doing according to necessity. The world is very dynamic, we need to adopt and also be ready to improve. This phrase is equally important in society too.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>How to inspire young generation in business sector?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	There are few aspects. First, young generation should realize that they need to do something. World is dynamic and this means that they will have to face the new challenges now and then. This realization leads them to involve in entrepreneurship. Further, they should realize that they have to contribute in the society. And, entrepreneurship is the best way to do so. Further, all concerned stakeholders should always encourage youth generation to be involved in entrepreneurship.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>What is more important: investment (capital) or idea to set up new venture?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	It depends on the how the country is structured. Idea and innovation is a must to start new venture for entering into the business world. At the same time, we cannot set up new business without capital. So the government, in many countries, provides special facilities and loans to innovative minds to let them start new venture. There should a balanced approach between capital and idea.</div>',
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			'keywords' => 'new business age business visitors news & articles, business visitors news & articles from new business age nepal, business visitors headlines from nepal,  current and latest business visitors news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali business visitors economic news and events, ongoing busin',
			'description' => 'The first Round Table was formed in Norwich, England in 1927. It was a club where the young business men of the town gathered on a regular basis. Louis Marchesi, founder of the Round Table International used to mention three things: there are things we must do, there are things we can do and there are things we should do.',
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			'id' => '2726',
			'article_category_id' => '137',
			'title' => 'Nepal Vying For 4.5% GDP Growth In 2014: ADB',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By TC Correspondent</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepal&rsquo;s gross domestic product (GDP) growth will rise to 4.5 per cent this fiscal year, a new Asian Development Bank (ADB) report has projected. &nbsp;&ldquo;The positive political outlook, expected increase in agriculture production following a favorable monsoon, modest improvement in capital expenditure following the timely full FY 2014 budget, and a strong services sector performance supported by remittance income are expected to boost gross domestic product (GDP) growth (at basic prices) to 4.5 per cent in FY 2014, up from 3.6 per cent in FY 2013,&rdquo; the Manila-based regional development bank in its latest macroeconomic update for Nepal informed.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The bank, however, mentioned that the forecast is lower than the government&rsquo;s projection of 5.5 per cent GDP growth due to less than expected increase in capital spending and a slightly lower services sector. &nbsp;&ldquo;Despite the timely full budget, expenditure performance was not satisfactory in the first half of FY 2014. Of the total planned expenditure of Rs 517.2 billion, only 30.3 per cent was spent largely due to the lower than expected capital spending. The slow pace of spending so far indicates that the capital budget will likely continue to be under spent as in the previous years,&rdquo; the report noted. &ldquo;In addition to the improvements in agriculture production, both domestic and foreign investment commitments increased remarkably in the first half of FY 2014.&rdquo;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The bank said that there is an urgent need to ramp up both the quantum and quality of capital spending as it not only &lsquo;crowds in&rsquo; private investments, but also helps create the foundations for the lackluster growth to take off on an employment-centric, high, inclusive and sustainable growth path.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	According to the report, Nepal may not meet its yearly revenue target this year due to the depreciation of the Nepali rupee against the US dollar which is slowing down import demand in the country. &ldquo;Even though the Rs 163.4 billion revenue mobilized in the first half of FY 2014 is 21.5 per cent is higher than the revenue mobilized in the corresponding period in FY 2013, it still is lower than the half-year target set for this fiscal year,&rdquo; it said.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, the bank forecasted the inflation rate to stand at 10 per cent in FY 2014, higher than the government&rsquo;s target of 8.5 per cent. &ldquo;Despite the expected improvement in agriculture harvest, the wage pressures, the persistently high price level in India, the rise in administered fuel prices, lower interest rates, the persistently weak Nepali rupee and the supply-side constraints, average annual consumer price index (CPI) inflation in FY 2014 is forecast at 10 per cent,&rdquo; ADB mentioned. The bank informed that inflation averaged 9.1 per cent in the first half of FY 2014, down from 10.7 per cent in the corresponding period in FY 2013. The decline in prices is mainly driven by the sharp slowdown in non-food and services prices. However, the persistence of the high inflation level is supported by rising food and beverage prices, which averaged 11.5 per cent in the first half of FY 2014 against 9.8 per cent during the same period in FY 2013, the report notes.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-09',
			'modified' => '2014-03-24',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'Nepal’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth will rise to 4.5 per cent this fiscal year, a new Asian Development Bank (ADB) report has projected.  “The positive political outlook, expected increase in agriculture production following a favorable monsoon, modest improvement in capital expenditure following the timely full FY 2014 budget, and a strong services sector performance supported by remittance income are expected to boost gross domestic product (GDP) growth (at basic prices) to 4.5 per cent in FY 2014, up from 3.6 per cent in FY 2013,” the Manila-based regional development bank in its latest macroeconomic update for Nepal informed.',
			'sortorder' => '2606',
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	(int) 12 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2761',
			'article_category_id' => '39',
			'title' => 'Chachan Group: Trader To Manufacturer',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Gaurav Aryal and Om Prakash Khanal</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<table align="right" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;" width="25">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>
				<img alt="Satish Chachan, Director, Chachan Group" src="/userfiles/images/cf1%20(Copy)(5).jpg" style="border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; width: 200px; height: 239px;" /></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
				<div align="center">
					<div>
						<strong>Satish Chachan</strong></div>
					<div>
						Director, Chachan Group</div>
				</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<div>
	Chachan Group evolved into a manufacturing and trading house when it changed its course into manufacturing from the family owned trading business. This move not only made the group grow leaps and bounds but also established itself as a leading industrial and trading house. The group in its initial days traded various commodities such as leather and leather products, cement, vegetable ghee, food grains, lentils, oil seeds, spices, consumer goods, fertilizer, pulses, edible oils and animal feeds. Today, the group not only trades these commodities but also produces them.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The group&rsquo;s expansion was not merely driven by the market force. There were visions and entrepreneurial skills of earlier generation of businessmen, Mahabir Prasad Chachan and Shree Maliram Chachan, who steered the business towards what it is today. When the group passed onto the new generation of businessmen, Babu Lal Chachan and Parmeshwar Lal Chachan who are Chairman and Vice-Chairman respectively, the group had reached to a position from where it would never have to look back.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Growing Larger</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Satish Chachan, Director of Chachan Group says that the group is continuously following the tradition established by its founders towards further growth of the company. He proudly says, &ldquo;Compared to the group&rsquo;s initial days, the company has achieved a remarkable success in cement manufacturing besides continuing its decades old cement selling business.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Within the last decade, the group has established three cement grinding plants each having a production capacity of 350 metric tonnes (MT) of cement per day in Birgunj. Similarly, the group has begun the construction of fourth cement grinding plant in Nepalgunj with the same capacity as that of a single unit in Birgunj.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Chachan says that the group had established a poly-plastic bag industry two years back in Birgunj. This factory has enabled the group&rsquo;s cement plants to use its own cement packing bags. &ldquo;This polyplastic bag industry has also earned a big business faith in the major sectors of the country. This clearly indicates the satisfactory present and past situation of the company and its growing capability to contribute a large amount of revenue to the nation.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Gaining Strength</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The group has shown remarkable progress in goods manufacturing that it has decided to specialise on. At present, it is producing cement, vegetable oil, leather goods, poly-plastic goods and various food products through its food processing units. Likewise, the group is also involved in trading through its three companies who have direct presence in over 19 different cities across the country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Chachan Group is today considered one of the leading business houses of Nepal based in Birgunj for producing variety of commodities with a wide reach across the country. Chachan claims that the products range that the company trades in and its wide network are suggestive of their market and the robust financial strength of the group.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He shares that the annual turnover of the group exceeds Rs 4 billion. He also adds that the staggering 70 per cent of the total turnover is generated by the cement wing of the group. While sharing the strength of the group, Chachan boasts that his business has been employing 1500 people directly along with a huge number of indirect employments in transportation and handling of the raw materials and finished products. He also adds that 300 employees are working in the cement wing alone. The group&rsquo;s beneficiaries such as construction companies, commercial enterprises, transporters, traders, farmers and consumers are spread over major parts of Tarai and hilly regions of the country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Changing the Course</strong></span></div>
<div>
	For decades, the group had been trading various commodities. Chachan says, &ldquo;This trade grew bigger and flourished gradually, which ultimately evolved into the establishment and identification of the Chachan Group. This can be regarded as the first and fundamental turning point of the company.&rdquo; Gradually the trading business expanded; meanwhile, various new manufacturing units were established.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Around one and a half decade ago, the group decided to establish cement manufacturing units realising the growing demand of construction materials and cement in particular. This demand was identified when the state owned cement plants such as Hetauda Cement, Udaypur Cement and other private cement producers were unable to meet the major percentage of cement demands. This inspired the group to establish Narayani Cement Udyog Pvt Ltd in Birgunj. This company today has production capacity of 1050 tonnes per day.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Roadmap Ahead</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Chachan believes that the group has kept its promise of offering best quality products and services at a reasonable cost and claims that it would open up new avenues for the group to expand its manufacturing and trading businesses in the days ahead. &ldquo;Our past experience gives us confidence that we have further opportunities and scope for expansion. We want to establish our own clinker producing units so that we can stand as one of the leading cement and clinker manufacturer of Nepal,&rdquo; envisions Chachan.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He reveals that the group has a clinker producing plant in the pipeline. He elaborated that this new plant will have a production capacity of 700 to 750 tonnes per day. Likewise, once the Nepalgunj based cement plant comes into operation, the group is planning to add another cement grinding plant there with production capacity and design similar to the existing one. Similarly, Chachan reveals that the group is planning to acquire a limestone quarry in a hilly area of Makawanpur district, few kilometres away from Hetauda. &ldquo;Besides this, we have been thinking to buy some additional land to establish the clinker producing plant. Though we are already in touch with some of the renowned Indian companies for establishing the clinker plant, we think this will materialise only after three to five years from now,&rdquo; he added. Similarly, Chachan is ready to expand other plants depending on the market demand and financial status.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Market Positioning</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Products of Chachan Group has a wide market coverage including major cities and towns such as Birgunj, Hetauda, Kalaiya, Narayanghat, Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Banepa, Batar, Pokhara, &nbsp;Bhairahawa, Krishna Nagar, Dang, Nepalgunj, Dhangadhi, Nijgarh, Gaur, Lahan, Janakpur, Jhapa, Morang, Ilam and other places in hilly and Tarai region. According to the group, major market for cement is in all the belts extending from Birgunj to Jhapa and in Hetauda, Narayangarh and major cities and towns of Bagmati zone.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	According to Satish Chachan, Director of the group, product placement is done through various dealers and transporters. Group&rsquo;s contact or branch offices and dealers are channels for distribution. Major product range includes daily commodities, construction materials, leather goods, fertilizers among others.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	All the factories of the group are being operated in full capacity to meet the market demand. &nbsp;Products are sold under different brand names such as Trishakti and Bajrashakti in the cement segment while other commodities also have their own niche brand value recognised in their market targets.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>CSR Commitments</strong></span></div>
<div>
	As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the group has given prime importance to environmental protection and freeing its locality from pollutants. The group is also strengthening and accelerating its sustainable environmental efforts through the reduction of environmental impacts and the conservation of the biodiversity. &ldquo;We have been aiming to provide satisfaction and gratification to as many stakeholders as possible. To this aspect, we believe and act ethically and relentlessly to seek improvement in the quality, safety, information security and reliability of our products and services,&rdquo; explains Chachan.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Satish Chachan, Director of the group says, &ldquo;We respect our customer and their culture and the community they belong to while we deal with them in the course of our business activities. We also engage in dialogues with various stakeholders in society and incorporate their feedback to enhance our CSR activities so that we can contribute our best to improve our surroundings, quality and the effectiveness of our activities.&rdquo;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, the company has dedicated itself in creating a safe and comfortable work environment for all its employees so that they can realise their full potential and have a fulfilling career, as a responsible corporate culture.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td bgcolor="#E5E4E2">
				<div>
					<div>
						<div>
							<div>
								<div>
									<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Sister Companies of Chachan Group</strong></span></div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Narayani Cement</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Jaya Bageshwari Cement</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Narayani Oil Refinery Udyog</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Narayani Leather Manufacturing Industries</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Narayani Modern Pulses Industries</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Shree Adhunik Dal Udyog</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Shree Agro Processing Unit</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Adarsh Oil Industry</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Adarsh Tel Udyog</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Adarsh Polyplastic Pvt Ltd</div>
								<div>
									&nbsp;</div>
								<div>
									<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Independent Trading Concerns under the Group</strong></span></div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Chachan Implex</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Devki International</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Manoj International Traders</div>
								<div>
									&nbsp;</div>
								<div>
									&nbsp;</div>
								<div>
									<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>SWOT Analysis</strong></span></div>
								<div>
									&nbsp;</div>
								<div>
									<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Strengths</strong></span></div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Customers</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Staff</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Good quality products and services</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Reasonable price</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Harmonic relationship with employees, customers and local surroundings</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Disciplined working attitude</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Timely revenue payments to the government</div>
								<div>
									&nbsp;</div>
								<div>
									<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Weaknesses</strong></span></div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Inability to give hundred percent employment to the local residents</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Cannot fulfilall the donation demands from local parties and their leaders</div>
								<div>
									&nbsp;</div>
								<div>
									<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Opportunities</strong></span></div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Prospects for growth of construction material businesses</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Growing domestic market and purchasing capacity of people</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Rapidly emerging technological innovations</div>
								<div>
									&nbsp;</div>
								<div>
									<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Threats</strong></span></div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Lack of smooth business environment</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Frequent bandhs and strikes</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Lack of environment to work peacefully and uninterruptedly where the group is based</div>
							</div>
						</div>
					</div>
				</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-12',
			'modified' => '2014-03-24',
			'keywords' => 'new business age corporate focus news & articles, corporate focus news & articles from new business age nepal, corporate focus headlines from nepal,  current and latest corporate focus news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali corporate focus economic news and events,  ongoing  corporate foc',
			'description' => 'Chachan Group has evolved into a industrial house though it began its commercial journey as a trader.',
			'sortorder' => '2605',
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	(int) 13 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2734',
			'article_category_id' => '91',
			'title' => 'World Bank Stresses On Bankable PDA',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By TC Correspondent&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The World Bank Group has suggested that the Nepali government should focus on infrastructure sector, including hydropower, to achieve economic prosperity.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Wrapping up a six-day visit to Nepal on Saturday, board members underlined the need of developing hydropower and better connectivity. They emphasized the need to sign a bankable PDA.&rdquo;Nepal urgently needs to improve connectivity and power sectors,&rdquo; Jorg Frieden, executive director of the World Bank Group said.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;We need private sector to take lead in hydropower. And, we&rsquo;re working on to have a bankable PDA signed. Once that is done then we can bring full weight of the IFC,&rdquo; said Kyle F Kelhofer, IFC country manager for Nepal,&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Bangladesh and Bhutan.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He further said that IFC may be interested in equity investment on Upper Karnali Hydro Project. &nbsp;&ldquo;Any reasonable proposal that is technically and economically sound would be considered positively,&rdquo; Frieden added.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	They also suggested improving road connectivity to ensure road safety. On possible World Bank assistance to Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track, World Bank Country Director for Nepal Johannes Zutt said the bank is in discussion with the Nepali government on the issue.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The board members said that they see Nepal as a country that needs more resources and the bank will try its best to facilitate better resource mobilisation. However, the members cautioned that mobilisation of the resources would make sense only if it is combined with high quality policy and projects.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;The attention on political transition we know is certainly the priority, but it is not enough,&rdquo; said Frieden adding &ldquo;Economic growth is crucial to support transition. You cannot get stability if the economic performance does not improve. Thus attention on economy is necessary to facilitate the transition.&rdquo; He further added that the government should focus on creating jobs.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The team also emphasized spending in the public sector for the high economic growth. The emphasis comes a week after this fiscal year&rsquo;s mid-term budget review pointed that the capital expenditure stood at 30 percent, while only 19 percent of the allocated budget was spent on national pride projects. With World Bank country office in Nepal currently working on new country assistance strategy, the board members assured that they would recommend to the country teams&mdash;World Bank and IFC&mdash;to listen to the new government, new political leaders and society at large to understand what can be achieved and what really is expected.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-10',
			'modified' => '2014-03-24',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'The World Bank Group has suggested that the Nepali government should focus on infrastructure sector, including hydropower, to achieve economic prosperity.',
			'sortorder' => '2604',
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			'id' => '2736',
			'article_category_id' => '138',
			'title' => 'UMN's 60 Years In Nepal Celebrated',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	United Mission to Nepal (UMN), a missionary INGO has celebrated its sixty-years in Nepal. A programme was held on March 5, Wednesday at the UMN headquarter in Thapathali. The occassion was marked by staff members releasing one hundred balloons, commemorating the contributions of UMN to the country in health, education, industrial development, community development and capacity building.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Congratulating UMN on these achievements, the Minister for Energy, Radha Kumari Gyawali said, &quot;The nation hopes for UMN&#39;s continuous service and contribution in the coming days; the work must go on.&quot; Recognising some current difficulties regarding UMN&#39;s headquarters property, Gyawali promised to work with all parties to achieve a fair and just resolution.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	A commemorative stone was unveiled by UMN&#39;s Executive Director Dr Mark Galpin and Madan Prasad Rimal, director of the Social Welfare Council. Rimal praised the organisation&#39;s work and commitment to the poor in Nepal. &quot;UMN came to work in Nepal in 1954. The Government of Nepal invited them to come and start work here. I can say confidently that all the work that UMN has done in these 60 years has been according to the priority and the need of the Government of Nepal,&quot; he said &quot;They have always been transparent in matters of resources and finance.&quot; More than 300 UMN staff and former staff, representatives of other INGOs, government, and the christian community observed the programme.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-10',
			'modified' => '2014-03-24',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'United Mission to Nepal (UMN), a missionary INGO has celebrated its sixty-years in Nepal. A programme was held on March 5, Wednesday at the UMN headquarter in Thapathali. The occassion was marked by staff members releasing one hundred balloons, commemorating the contributions of UMN to the country in health, education, industrial development, community development and capacity building.',
			'sortorder' => '2603',
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			'id' => '2770',
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			'title' => 'Emerging Trend: Diversification  Of Handicraft Products',
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			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepali handicrafts are produced following traditional methods, passed on from generations to generations. A set of ancestral heritage passed on from ancestors to forefathers to grandfather to father and to son. It continues and this continuity provides it the essence to remain distinct while reflecting and preserving diverse cultural values, indigenous aspects and traditions of Nepali lifestyle. Along with helping in the conservation of national heritage and culture, handicraft development creates employment opportunities and thereby contributes in alleviating poverty. Export of handicraft products has been growing since the last three decades. Arts and crafts is one of the major exporting industry of Nepal, earning foreign exchange and providing employment to thousands of Nepalis craftsmen, artisans, promoters and businessmen and generating revenue for the government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Due to the increased competition in the international market, product diversification has emerged as an essentiality for business growth. Along with other business sectors, it is vital for the handicraft industry to adapt and correspond to industry and consumer trends and to take advantage of them. One way of doing this is to diversify products. Growing or relatively new businesses choose to expand their product range and diversify into new areas as a way of appealing to new customers and offering more to existing customers. This necessity has been felt, understood and well adapted by Nepali handicraft industries.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Handicrafts in Nepal are mainly classified in two types: textile and non- textile products. Textile products mainly include: Pashmina, woollen, felt, silk, cotton, dhaka, hemp, and allo products. The non-textile products include silver jewellery, metal craft, handmade paper products, wood crafts, glass products, bone and horn products, crystal products, ceramics products, leather goods, incense, plastic items, paubha (thanka), beads items, stone craft, and bamboo products.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;The handicraft producers are coming up with more diversification in their product be it pashmina products or handmade paper products, one can get a range of diversification in these products,&rdquo; former president of Federation of Handicraft Association of Nepal (FHAN), Bikash Ratna Dhakwa said. &nbsp;&ldquo;The handicraft sector is responding to the product diversifying trend by expanding their product range without affecting their core business in a negative way,&rdquo; added Dhakwa.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Product diversification plays vital role in creating new markets by attracting its possible buyers,&rdquo; said Dhakwa while elaborating on the importance of the concept. He opines that handicraft producer must take time to think about the needs of the target market and try to identify new opportunities that will enable the business to stay ahead of competitors.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Product diversification is evident in the addition of new variety of handmade paper products in the local market. While accepting the benefits of the trend, Kiran Kumar Dangol, president of Handmade Paper Association of Nepal (HANDPASS) said, &ldquo;we are following the trend and this has resulted in the addition of a number of new product ranges to our existing ranges.&rdquo;He informed that the popular Nepali Lokta paper products are now being diversified further. &ldquo;We are moving ahead on diversifying Nepali Lokta paper products. Along with books and stationary products, we have moved on to produce fusion of handmade paper and cotton to develop wrapper products,&rdquo; said Dangol adding that they also have introduced new technology for using multicolour print in the handmade paper.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Dangol stressed on product diversification and encouraged its growing trend in the Nepali market where handicraft products hold a great importance. According to him, the market is flooded with a number of traditional handicraft products and now it&rsquo;s time that the handicraft producers offer new designs and new products that will once again bring boom in the national and international market of Nepali handicrafts.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He pointed to the need of producing products with competitive prices through creative incorporation of new technologies as one of the major reason for diversifying product ranges. &ldquo;Our traditional products are expensive. Production of new products through the use of new technologies assist in producing cost efficient products. Through renewed and upgraded marketing strategies we can market these products,&rdquo; Dangol said while providing the introduction of handmade paper jewelleries in handicraft products range as an instance to his statement.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Product diversification has also positively impacted the industry stakeholders. Dhakwa says that the manufacturers and producers have been encouraged to hire skilled manpower from the local market to bring diversity in their product ranges. &ldquo;Now we are getting more skilled technical manpower in this field,&rdquo; he said. The field is becoming more open to innovative designers who can add their creativity to traditional handicraft products. As such the products become more competitive in the national and international market.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Federation of Handicrafts Association of Nepal (FHAN) says that their members are becoming more quality conscious, upgrading their products and making product prices more competitive. In the recent years, corporate houses have started using handmade papers and even Pashmina products are being purchased at the local level compared to previous years.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/t3%20(Copy).jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 466px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Our new diversified product range now includes accessories for laptops and mobile,&rdquo; Dhakwa said and added that international buyers are also adding up new designs through their customized demands. Handicraft exporters claim that diversified products are playing an important role to increase export volume of handicraft products in the international market. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Handicraft has become a major source of foreign currency and is one of the major industries that have good international market. Government has been promoting this sector by recognising it as producer of competitive products for the international market. Along with existing players, new traders and producers are joining this industry and some of them are taking it online for making their products directly accessible to the international customers and market.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	During the first six months of the current fiscal year handicraft products (paintings, sculptures and statuary) worth Rs 292.10 million were exported to the international market, which is an 34 per cent increment compared to the same period last year, the Trade and Export Promotion Centre noted. Though the woollen carpet export increased by 40.3 per cent totalling up to Rs 3.63 billion trade, export of woollen and pashmina shawls during the same period increased only by ten percent with a total export of Rs 1.20 billion.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-25',
			'modified' => '2014-05-07',
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			'description' => 'The handicraft producers are coming up with more diversifi cation in their product be it pashmina products or handmade paper products, one can get a range of diversifi cation in these products.',
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	(int) 1 => array(
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			'id' => '2723',
			'article_category_id' => '40',
			'title' => 'Nepali Women As Entrepreneurs',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Siromani Dhungana</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepali women entrepreneurs have not broken the glass ceiling, says Pramila Rijal, president of SAARC Chamber Women Entrepreneurs Council (SCWEC). &ldquo;But they have already made the first cracks.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Rijal&rsquo;s idea rightly summarizes the present conditions of women in business in Nepal. Alka Rajouria Rijal, executive director at Federation of Women Entrepreneurs&rsquo; Association of Nepal is also of the same opinion. Women entrepreneurs have come far but they still have a long way to go, she opines.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	According to her, there are many issues that still need to be improved: access to finance, gender-responsive policies, family barriers and deconstructing stereotypes about women entrepreneurs.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs6(1).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 300px; height: 410px;" />Business: It was Men&#39;s Domain&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Hajuri Bista, one of the forerunners in the arena of women entrepreneurship says, &ldquo;I had never seen men and women work together. It was really challenging to get out of the dogma that women should take care of household chores and not venture into the business world.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In 1990, the country adopted a &nbsp;democratic political system but women entrepreneurs still finding not an easy path at that time, she recalls. Late Yangzi Sherpa, Ambica Shrestha, Rita Thapa, Maggie Shah, Renchin Yonjan, Shyam Badan Shrestha, Shanti Chadha, Nilam Pande, Mohini Lama, Brinda Rana and some other faces were managed to shine in this period as entreprenuers. They were the trailblazers at that time, Bista recalls.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&quot;Even after democracy, I have seen many times aspiring women entrepreneurs breaking into tears in meetings due to unexpected hurdles and apathy from their family and the society,&quot; she said reflecting on her experience. &ldquo;Why should be women engaged in business?&quot; &nbsp;was a common mindset at that time, she adds.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Fortunately, times have changed now. There are host ofefforts underway to boost women&rsquo;s participation in business and women are in the condition to get guidance &nbsp;in all phasesof entreprise development &nbsp;-- from training on leadership, to new forms of financing.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Entrepreneurship has been traditionally seen a male preserve and idea of women taking up entrepreneurial activities considered as a distant dream, she says. But the mindset has been changing, she adds. &ldquo;It takes time to change all the established social norms but we have achieved tremendous success in the field of women entrepreneurship.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs1(1).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; width: 300px; height: 204px;" />Has a Long Way to Go</strong></span></div>
<div>
	There are umpteen problems even now. Women face problem from their initial commencement of enterprise, says Barsha Shrestha, deputy chief executive officer at Clean Energy Development Bank.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The society still does not believe in their capacity and it is an uphill task for women to face such conflicts and cope with such challenges, she adds. Obtaining the support of bankers, managing the working capital, difficulty in getting credit are the problems to solve which male family member&#39;s support is still needed, she informs.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Now women are empowered enough and can lead big corporations too, says Ambica Shrestha, women entrepreneur and president of The Dwarika&rsquo;s Hotel. &ldquo;All they need is chance of working as freely as their male counterparts.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs2(1).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 300px; height: 188px;" />Absence of Entrepreneurial Aptitude</strong></span></div>
<div>
	If you have innovative idea to venture into business that is what we call entrepreneurship, says Renchin Yonjan. But male businessmen in Nepal lack entrepreneurial aptitude, she claims. Most of the women who are aspiring in entrepreneurs are involved either in their family business or in service sector that still does not have talents (male or female) with the basic ingredients of entrepreneurship. &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Parents want their daughter to be involved in jobs rather than entrepreneurship, shares Barsha Shrestha. The reason is clear. They do not want their daughters to take risk and put their money at risk.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Besides, even majority of women in the country lack entrepreneurial aptitude. Women have no entrepreneurial bent of mind, informs Pramila Rijal. &ldquo;But this problem does not prevail only among women but also among men too.&rdquo; &ldquo;Yes, women are more inclined towards household chores and existing social structure does not allow them to think broadly,&rdquo; she adds.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs3(1).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; width: 300px; height: 187px;" />Expand Access to Finance&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Women in the country have been facing many problems to get going with their business ideas. Finance shortage is one of them. Women entrepreneurs always suffer from inadequate financial recourses and working capital, says Rita Bhandary, president of Federation of Woman Entrepreneurs Associations of Nepal (FWEAN). They are not able to afford external finance due to absence of tangible assets as security. Women have very less property and bank balance in their name. Male members of the family do not want to invest their capital in the business run by women due to lack of confidence in the women&#39;s ability to run a venture successfully.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Most of the women entrepreneurs fail due to lack of proper financing facilities, because finance is life blood of every business activities, according to Shrestha. Marketing and financial problems are such obstacles where even training doesn&#39;t significantly help the women. Some problems are structural in nature and beyond the control of entrepreneurs. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Bankers often deny women credit on the ground of lack of collateral security, Shrestha says. Therefore, their access to risk capital is limited. Women cannot start big business ventures unless equal access of finance is ensured, Shrestha claims.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>A Wave of Progress in SME</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are possibly one of the best and most cost-effective avenues for furthering economic development. Slowly but gradually, women have been expanding their foothold in this SME field. Currently, women own about 14,300 small and medium enterprises in Nepal, accounting for 2 percent of GDP (registered formal sector) and employing over 200,000 workers. A study commissioned by IFC, private sector lending arm of the World Bank Group, suggests that meeting their current credit requirements of US$ 106 million can increase their contribution to the economy, according to SAARC Chamber Women Entrepreneurs Council (SCWEC).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Throughout the country, women have been setting up small and medium enterprises after acquiring the skills, resources, and support necessary to grow and sustain their businesses, says Alka Rajouria Rijal.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is very positive aspect of women in entrepreneurship that they are creating jobs at a time when the country is reeling under massive unemployment problem.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, women&rsquo;s involvement in entrepreneurship will not only contribute to create jobs but also to change the stereotyped role of women which is largely limited to household chores. All should motivate women entrepreneurs to give them the moral support for their business ideas.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs4(1).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 300px; height: 166px;" />Networking: Key to Success&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The equation is very simple: you have to expand your business once you start it, you have to develop a network to expand business and you have to have a free-society to develop a network, says Barsha Shrestha who believes that Nepali women are struggling to this end.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Women should have a very strong network at three levels: in the sector concerned, with all entrepreneurs and national and international level, according to women entrepreneur Renchin Yonjan.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Women have tremendous potential for networking as they are polite and soft compared to their male counterparts, she opines. In business, exposure gives knowledge. Exposure is key that will help women to materialize their dreams. Women entrepreneurs should get out from social restrictions, expand their contacts and start business ventures. Women entrepreneurs should not hesitate to create their brand.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Full-time entrepreneurs should have the broadest networks. Long-held belief is, however, that women have weaker networks and rely excessively on family and friends to build their business. This logic is directly linked with the perception that women cannot handle business independently and they are reliant on family and friends for networking, says Yonjan. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Dream Big&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The number of women-owned business has been growing over the past decade or so. However, evidences show that most of these businesses don&#39;t scale up. Further, women entrepreneurs are still considered suitable only in small and medium enterprises.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Over the last few years, it is found that women entrepreneurs often seem to be pigeonholed into the &lsquo;lifestyle business&rsquo; category or education sector in Nepal. This is obviously good but not enough, says Ambica Shrestha. Women entrepreneurs are still missing out on the chance of a bigger slice of the pie.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Women-owned businesses are still a drop in the ocean of commerce, according to Pramila Rijal. She suggests women entrepreneurs to dream high. &ldquo;It is time that women entrepreneurs start dreaming of setting up big corporations and running big businesses.&rdquo; We have to dream and we have to work to full our dreams, opines Rita Bhandary.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs5(1).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; width: 300px; height: 168px;" />Changing Scenario</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Picture a woman and you might imagine a women busy in domestic chores and childcare. Further, if someone speaks about a female entrepreneur and you might imagine a woman at the helm of a small business, perhaps in a cosmetic outlet or childcare centre.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For decades the symbol of women entrepreneurship has been, to many, the pickle, fashion or childcare. They were considered shadow of their male counterparts. Time has come now to break the stereotypes and women should take the baton.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On the one hand, the mindset of society has been changing, Yonjan opines. &ldquo;But challenges have also increased and women have to compete in the highly competitive world.&rdquo; Access to Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and better exposure to the rest of the world have provided unique opportunities to the women entrepreneurs to expand their footholds,&rdquo; she claims.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Our aim is not to steal the profit pie, which male entrepreneurs have been enjoying but to seek new chances of generating new and innovative sectors where women can see their future, says Yonjan. However, these sectors should not be limited to the small and medium industries.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;I am definitely seeing more women enter the entrepreneurship sector,&rdquo; Shrestha says. Is entrepreneurship a man&rsquo;s world? No not at all, she firmly believes. We need to break all the stereotypes prevailing regarding women in business.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Conclusion</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Women across the country have started several business ventures at their own initiatives. It is time to taking bigger steps towards providing flexible workplaces for women to get in the entrepreneurship. &quot;We know that where women are venturing now had been a male bastion. But that should not deter them. Women are equal partners in business,&rdquo; says Yonjan. All section of the society should encourage their effort of entering into the entrepreneurship because people&rsquo;s dream of peace and prosperity is directly related to the economic growth. Women&rsquo;s involvement in entrepreneurship should be encouraged because it will not only create more opportunities but also ensure inclusive growth. It will be imperative in achieving highest sustainable economic growth and employment and in raising living standard.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs1b.jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 611px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
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					<div style="text-align: center;">
						<span style="font-size:18px;"><strong>World&rsquo;s Top 10 Influential Female Entrepreneurs&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Wu Yajun" src="/userfiles/images/1%20(Copy)(5).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 117px;" />Wu Yajun</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Wu Yajun holds the title of229th richest person in the world. The journalist-turned Chinese businesswoman is the Chairwoman of Longfor Properties, an investment holding company, which manages several businesses including real estate and property investment, development and management across China. Born to an ordinary family in 1965, she and her former husband founded Chongqing Zhongjianke Real Estate Co Ltd in 1995, which was later renamed as Longfor Properties. &nbsp;Her net worth as of 2013 is estimated at USD 4.4 billion. Wu is also serving as the member of China&#39;s National People&#39;s Congress. She is among the top 50 in Forbes&#39; Power-Women list.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Zhang Yin" src="/userfiles/images/2%20(Copy)(5).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 119px;" />Zhang Yin</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Zhang Yin is the founder and director of China&#39;s biggest paper maker- Nine Dragons Paper Holdings Limited. The company buys scraps from US and other parts of the world and turns them into cardboard boxes to export Chinese goods. At the age of 49 in 2006, she became the first woman to top the list of richest Chinese businesspersons, according to the Huron Report. Zhang Yin&#39;s net worth is estimated at USD 3.9 billion as of 2012.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Rosalia Mera" src="/userfiles/images/3%20(Copy)(5).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 119px;" />Rosalia Mera</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Rosalia Mera is the co-founder of Inditex, a worldwide fashion retailer, which owns famous brands such as Zara, Massimo Dutti, Pull and Bear and Bershka among others. At the age of 11 Mera dropped out of school and began to work as a sales person in a clothing store. With her former husband, she co-founded the Zara clothing chain in 1975, which later became the world&#39;s largest fashion retailer. Mera died on 15th August 2013 after suffering a stroke at the age of 69. At the time of her death she was the richest woman in Spain and the world&#39;s richest self-made woman. Before her death, Rosalia&#39;s net worth was estimated at USD 6.1 billion.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Oprah Winfrey" src="/userfiles/images/4%20(Copy)(4).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 117px;" />Oprah Winfrey</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Oprah Winfrey has been ranked as the richest African-American of the 20th century who is currently North America&#39;s only black billionaire. The 60- year old celebrity entrepreneur and philanthropist is best known for her talk show &quot;The Oprah Winfrey Show&quot;, which was considered as the highest-rated program of its kind in history from 1986 to its ending in 2011. She was also the world&#39;s only black billionaire in between 2004-2006. Winfrey is the founder of Harpo Productions, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) television channel and Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls. Oprah received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013, the highest civilian award of the United States. Her net worth is estimated at USD 2.9 billion as of 2013.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Arianna Huffington" src="/userfiles/images/5%20(Copy)(3).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 117px;" />Arianna Huffington</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Arianna Huffington is the creator of the Pulitzer-prize winning news website and blog &quot;The Huffington Post.&quot; She started the website in 2005. In 2009, she ranked 12 in Forbes&#39; list of the Most Influential Women in Media. The 63-year old Greek-American author and syndicated columnist has an estimated net worth of USD 35 million. In 2011, after the sale of The Huffington Post to AOL for USD 315 million, she became the President and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group. &nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw" src="/userfiles/images/6%20(Copy)(2).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 119px;" />Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is the chairman and managing director of Biocon Limited, a biotech company based in Bangalore. Partnering with an Irish firm to make industrial enzymes, she founded the company in 1978 when she was just 25 with a seed capital of Rs 10,000. She is regarded as India&rsquo;s first biotech entrepreneur. The 60-year old businesswoman is also the Chairman of Indian Institute of Management (IIM-Banglore). She is in the Forbes&#39; list of the world&#39;s 100 most powerful women and the Financial Times&rsquo; top 50 women in business list. As of 2010, her net worth is estimated at USD 900 million.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Yelena Baturina" src="/userfiles/images/7%20(Copy)(2).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 115px;" />Yelena Baturina</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Regarded as the richest Russian woman and the Russia&#39;s only woman with net worth more than USD one billion, Yelena Baturina is the founder of construction and infrastructure investment company Inteco. She founded the company in 1991 as a plastic manufacturer but later changed its business. Baturina witnessed her net worth fell dramatically during the height of the financial crisis of 2008/09. The 50-year old entrepreneur also owns a hotel chain and is the founder of BE OPEN, a cultural and philanthropic foundation.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Giuliana Benetton" src="/userfiles/images/8%20(Copy)(2).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 116px;" />Giuliana Benetton</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Giuliana Benetton is the founder of Benetton Group, a worldwide fashion brand, which operates a network of more than 6,500 stores and outlets across 120 countries. The Italian company, which is fully owned by the Benetton family, owns famous clothing line-up brands such as United Colors of Benetton, Undercolors of Benetton, Playlife and Sisley. Giuliana started the family business in 1965 by knitting sweaters. At the age of 76, Giuliana is currently serving asdirector of Benetton Group and Edizione S.R.L, a financial holding company of the Benetton family. Her net worth is estimated at USD 2 billion as of 2013.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Mary Perkins" src="/userfiles/images/9%20(Copy).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 119px;" />Mary Perkins</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Mary Perkins is the richest self-made British businesswoman. Alongside with her husband Douglas Perkins, she co-founded Specsavers in 1984, a leading global retail chain of optics (eyeglasses and contact lenses), hearing equipment and optician services. Born in 1944, Mary was the daughter of an optician who studied optometry at Cardiff University where she met Douglas.</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						Specsavers Optical Group Ltd which is fully owned and by Perkins family operates 1,650 stores across the globe. Mary became the first female optician in the UK to receive the title of &quot;Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire&quot; (DBE) in 2007. She was also included in the list of BBC Radio 4&#39;s 100 most powerful women in the UK. As of 2011, her net worth is estimated at USD 1.15 billion.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Yoshiko Shinohara" src="/userfiles/images/10%20(Copy)(1).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 119px;" />Yoshiko Shinohara</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Yoshiko Shinihora is considered as the most influential Japanese female entrepreneur. At the age of 77, she is currently the chairman and CEO of Tempstaff Co. Ltd, a human resource management and consulting firm that specializes in contingent hiring, job placement along with childcare services. The company operates and provides services to its 59,000 clients across the world including Japan,United States, China, Singapore, India, Indonesia and South Korea. Shinohara started the company as a temporary job recruitment agency with a seed capital of USD 9,000 in 1973 in her apartment after divorcing at the age of 38. At first, she struggled to find clients as she had to lobby against Japan government&#39;s stiff opposition to temporary job placements. Her business flourished in the 1990s as economic downturn coupled with rising deflation forced Japanese companies to abandon long-term job guarantees to their employees. Tempstaff now has 5,000 staffs and earns USD 2.9 billion annually.&nbsp;</div>
				</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-07',
			'modified' => '2014-05-07',
			'keywords' => 'new business age cover story news & articles, cover story news & articles from new business age nepal, cover story headlines from nepal,  current and latest cover story news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali cover story economic news and events,  ongoing  cover story news of nepal',
			'description' => 'Women entrepreneurship is gaining importance in Nepal as well. In this issue, NewBiz focuses on the problems, issues, challenges faced by Nepali women entrepreneurs, and ways to overcome them.',
			'sortorder' => '2616',
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	(int) 2 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2760',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Retreat Of The Meek Fellow',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Finally, the new coalition government has taken a shape. But it took complete three months since the second elections to the Constituent Assembly (CA-II), on 19th of November, 2013. Prime Minister Sushil Koirala who first allegedly agreed two weeks ago to entrust Home Ministry portfolio to its potentially unavoidable coalition partner, the CPN-UML, had flickered and temporarily back-tracked on this commitment; once he got sworn in to the post. It invited a nasty public exchange of diatribes between the leaders of the ruling Nepali Congress and major partner, the UML. But, if he wanted to save his government, Koirala had no other viable alternative to succumbing to UML demands of Home Ministry to be led by none other than the &#39;big muscled&#39; &nbsp;UML Vice-chairman Bamdev Gautam. Koirala&#39;s space of political maneuvering was further tapered by complete non-cooperation from his own party colleague Sher Bahadur Deuba which compounded the task of giving a complete shape to the government. The perception of insecurity in Koirala was not unfounded. He indeed was apprised of the potential danger by those who have knowledge of informal level of intimacy between Deuba and UML Parliamentary Party leader K P Oli. Unlike Koirala, who hardly suffered any mention-worthy length of jail term during the panchyat days, Deuba and Oli for years spent in the same prison cell. And, now they share same wavelength of banter and modus operandi of &#39;practical politics&#39; of money, muscle, maneuvering and machinations.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As the bare arithmetic in the House has it, Nepali Congress doesn&rsquo;t have any other option than placating the UML unless it had chosen to appease both UCPN (Maoists) and Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal (RPP-N) to sum up to the magic number of three hundred and one to save the government. But, the latter option to materialize involved a lot of ground-work and maneuvering, yet disposing the possible coalition always to walk on the razor-edge. Nonetheless, given the track record of the UML, the Maoists and the RPP-N would perhaps have been relatively easier bed-fellows for Congress. Yet, it is mere a conjecture.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This unpleasant episode of Home Ministry row at the very initial days of the Koirala-led coalition has three clear indications. First, Koirala as the prime minster has very little flexibility than resorting to the politics of give-and-take. Second, he takes hard stances at wrong turnings, the only consequence of which is to back-track rather humiliatingly, virtually in no time. Third, no party is reading the crucial arithmetic of the House before resorting to high-pitched verbal bashing in a political reality that is mandated for nothing but a coalition rule.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Why is the Home Ministry such a big controversy in every stage of government formation? Not only in the cross-party power sharing as is now, there are instances even when a single party majority rule, the portfolio is contested to the extreme among the aspirants. There may be some political arguments forwarded by its minister-aspirants to bag the post, but the craving is rather a political anti-thesis. This time around, Gautam could convince his party that the party would perform better if he became the home minister. The Congress aspirants who stopped Koirala from conceding the ministry to UML have had similar claims. Essentially, these were just the premonitions to destabilize and debase democracy by advocating straight rigging in the elections, misusing the state machinery. But the current political values of Nepal seem to have, unfortunately, accepted is as part of the game. If we evaluated history, any such impact of altering election results or adding the political clout of the party awarded with this portfolio, however, are mere perceptive fallacies. The reality is something different.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Home Ministry is a marrying point of politics with crime. Apart from possible corruption avenues, the minister will have unhindered access to unearmarked security expenses under titles like &#39;for intelligence operation&#39; and &#39;FADA&#39; (financial assistance, donation and awards). Being the joint head of the civil administration with extensive quasi-judicial rights at the district level represented by the chief district officers (CDOs) and of two police organizations ensure the incumbent a stream of incomes in enormous sizes. Such lucre comes from every source you can think of, or may be even beyond that, including the contrabands, counterfeits, smuggling, extortion and human trafficking. Therefore, it is not any surprise why every ex-home minister has a noted underworld operator under his protection and some parties have even given them seats in the party central committees. That is that.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In his entire political career, Koirala&#39;s main working strategy has been the procrastination of the crucial decisions. This old habit of his doesn&#39;t seem to have died, even though he is the prime minister now. At his personal level, indecision comes in two forms; he doesn&#39;t read any file to be decided upon, it depends on some of his &#39;trusted&#39; lieutenants to do the job and brief him. And, he doesn&#39;t &#39;trust&#39; those briefings too and begins to investigate whether there could be any vested interest involved of the person who briefed thus. And, the safest he finds is not to decide anything. This is not a desirable quality in any chief executive, that too of Nepal in these pressing hours when many important agenda await decisions, rather sooner.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The phrase &#39;within one year&#39; becomes a wont in tongue of all major politicians in the coalition. The initial promise was to write and promulgate the new constitution within a year from the date of the CA elections-II. It is now the fourth month running since and parties are signing so called agreements to deliver a constitution again, within a year. The understanding between the two major coalition partners, Congress and UML, to shuffle the prime ministership after a year makes us apprehensive. Implicitly, they are saying shamelessly, that the constitution will not be written within a year from now on. The intentions are not honest.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For now, Koirala&#39;s quest for corruption-free governance is a task impossible in view of the coalition made shaky by severe intra-party wranglings and factionalisms in both of the major ruling parties. Gautam at the helm of Home Ministry is sure to let loose all possible &#39;channels&#39; of illegal trade in gold, currencies and goods. He proudly repeats &#39;one year in the ministry is enough to finance the personal politics for a decade and even larger benefit to the party in the longer-term.&#39; It is not difficult to foresee that Koirala would helplessly witness the drama of the ministers who behave more smartly than himself, albeit merely in their vested interests. Technically, he cannot afford to break the coalition. In practice, he cannot assert designs due to his meekness. And, politically he is a redundant deadwood who doesn&#39;t enthuse with vision and mission of his own, and keeps on bungling processes as he did in forming the current government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He has severe diplomatic drawbacks. He is not &#39;wholly&#39; trusted by the southern neighbour. There was a point in history when he was alleged of having connections with the people with dubious backgrounds like late Jamin Shah and the likes who were suspected of mobilizing funds from suspicious sources. The West is apprehensive for the same reason as India is and China knows &#39;very little&#39; about him as their official press points out. Therefore, his identity crisis couples with his crisis of confidence to run the government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is not difficult to see that even the second CA election has not taught any lesson to our leaders. Therefore, the priority is still being given to power-sharing games than to writing of the constitution. As pointed out by UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal that constitution is &#39;unlikely&#39; to be written even by this CA appears to be self-fulfilling. The priorities of the coalition partners are different from constitution writing. The Oli-Gautam duo in UML wants to exploit every possible benefit of being in the government to win the party presidency for Oli in its national convention slated for coming May. There is even a widespread concern that the local elections now considered for April might be pushed further away due to the convention to elect new executive.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are enormous challenges and externalities. Leaders like Dahal and Kamal Thapa of RPP-N would be happier to see that this coalition failed, just because they wanted to prove that no one is better in terms of delivery. Being in the government is perhaps the sweetest part of the cake. When the process of finalizing the provisions of the new constitution actually begins, demands and impediments from outside of CA are likely to rule the roost. Madhesis, janjatis and pro-identity federalist have plans of forwarding their agenda through protests on streets to incorporate them in the constitution; ignoring the fact that they were largely rejected by the voters. The moves of Maoist-Baidya group could even be more irksome.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The only good sign is that the two largest parties in the CA have been able to form a coalition. A couple of other fringe parties have come to their support. Ideologically, the coalition is perhaps the closest-- best explained by their unconditional stance on ballot-based democracy. Above all, the coalition commands more than two-thirds of majority in CA and the Legislature Parliament.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But the prime minister must develop a habit of deciding things than only being a meek onlooker. And, the work on constitution writing must now begin without any further delay.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-11',
			'modified' => '2014-04-11',
			'keywords' => 'new business age  nepal politics news & articles, nepal politics news & articles from new business age nepal, nepal politics headlines from nepal,  current and latest nepal politics news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali nepal politics economic news and events,  ongoing  nepal politics ne',
			'description' => 'Prime Minister Sushil Koirala who first allegedly agreed two weeks ago to entrust Home Ministry portfolio to its potentially unavoidable coalition partner, the CPN-UML, had flickered.',
			'sortorder' => '2615',
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	(int) 3 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2724',
			'article_category_id' => '91',
			'title' => 'A Donor-Dependent Private Sector',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Siromani Dhungana and Hom Nath Gaire&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Aid orientation has been evident among Nepal&rsquo;s private sector organizations as they are hell bent on bagging projects from donor agencies to carry out activities for their own welfare and day to day activities. Sometimes, their race for getting projects appears to be &lsquo;unhealthy&rsquo;.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Here are some examples:&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>USAID Nepal Economic, Agriculture and Trade (NEAT) activity provided grant to the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) to conduct Public Private Dialogue (PPD) on draft of Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Act (FITTA) last year. The draft was prepared by the Institute of Policy Research and Development (IPRAD). CNI&rsquo;s rival, the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), started to criticize the activities under that project. The dispute became visible when the FNCCI formally organized a programme to challenge some provisions of the draft such as allowing Nepali investors to invest abroad, and accused that the draft was totally in favour of some businessmen affiliated to CNI. Due to the controversy, the Ministry of Industry could not table the draft at the Cabinet meeting. Government officials say that the reason behind the conflict between FNCCI and CNI was nothing more than the grant from USAID NEAT, which phased out last year.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>European Union had tentatively agreed, according to a FNCCI source, to provide a grant of five-million euro to FNCCI for the promotion of products listed in the Nepal Trade Integration Strategy in the European market. Later, the project was bagged by CNI in the name of &ldquo;Go International&rdquo;. In informal discussions, FNCCI officials still blame CNI for using all kinds of tricks to get the project. In this case, even employees at EU were dragged into controversy. Now, the project is being handled by CNI instead of FNCCI.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Similar is the case of the SAARC Trade Promotion Network (SAARC TPN), a regional trade facilitation project supported by German International Cooperation (GIZ). There was a big hue and cry on which organization should represent Nepal&rsquo;s private sector in this project as the project seeks participation from all SAARC countries. Both FNCCI and CNI were at loggerheads over the participation. Later, the GIZ decided to include all umbrella organization creating different sub committees to settle the dispute. The third organization, Federation of Nepal Cottage and Small Industries (FNCSI), also became a part of the project due to dispute between two big organizations, FNCCI and CNI.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Businessmen affiliated with Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) started a new initiative, National Business Initiatives (NBI) with grants from International Alert and GIZ. Many consider it as NCC&rsquo;s attempt to get projects from donor agencies.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Foreign Aid: A Meeting Agenda</strong></span></div>
<div>
	According to some members of CNI and FNCCI, members of both umbrella organizations get engaged in heated debates over foreign aid during their board meetings.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Some members directly accuse the leadership of inefficiency if the rival organization gets a donor-funded project, a member of FNCCI told The Corporate on the condition of anonymity.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a shame that our businessmen openly ask for projects during talks with representatives of the donor agencies,&rdquo; a CNI member said, &ldquo;They should be rather talking about bilateral trade or expanding Nepali business abroad or even inviting foreign investors.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Making Umbrella Organizations a Begging Bowl&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Why is our private sector making the umbrella organizations a begging bowl? It is tough question. It is no surprise as our private sector has &lsquo;feudal mindset&rsquo; and they are hell bent on amassing profit, ethically or unethically, says Deependra Bahadur Kshetry, former vice-chairman at National Planning Commission.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is shameful that they are also dependent on the government to carry out their activities. But they scold the government whenever they get the chance just to cover their own weaknesses, he claimed.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepal&rsquo;s private sector lacks innovative approach, he opined. &ldquo;They utilize their creativity just to make profit from the policy lapses. For instance, they amassed billions from the multi-billion VAT scam. Problems such as under and over-invoicing, income splitting and transfer pricing are rampant,&rdquo; said Kshetry.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Instead of making the umbrella organizations a begging bowl, the private sector should utilize their income source to become self-reliant, he said.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Major umbrella organizations &ndash; FNCCI, CNI and NCC &ndash; are member-based organizations and they should run from their members&rsquo; contributions, a businessman suggested. Besides, FNCCI, CNI and NCC earned millions by issuing Certificate of Origin. But the problem is they are never transparent, according to him.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Dependency to what Extent?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	It may sound ridiculous but it is a fact that Nepal&rsquo;s private sector seeks help from the government not only for promotional activities but also to get opportunities for foreign trips and organizing events such as seminars, summits and conferences. For example, some umbrella organizations wrote to the government demanding that the government bear their travel costs to participate in the Ministerial Meet of WTO held in Bali, Indonesia. But the government refused the proposal.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Representatives of the umbrella organisations promote their businesses abroad but ask the government to provide air-fare and other essential cost, an official said. This suggests that Nepal&rsquo;s private sector is completely dependent and inefficient, Kshetry claimed. &ldquo;Many evidences show that, apart from some genuine firms, we can categorize our private sector just as household businesses.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td bgcolor="#E5E4E2">
				<div>
					<div>
						<div style="text-align: center;">
							<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>They Get Aid From</strong></span></div>
						<div style="text-align: center;">
							&nbsp;</div>
						<div>
							<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>FNCCI:</strong></span> FNCCI has been actively cooperating with various foreign / international organizations such as UNDP, USAID, DFID, UNIDO, UNCTAD/GATT/ITC, THE WORLD BANK, ILO, PPPUE, SEQUA-GTZ Private Sector Promotion Project, UNFPA, Asia-Invest, JICA, IOE, NIKKEIREN, APO, JETRO, SAARC Secretariat, ICIMOD, AOTS etc in carrying out various activities for the promotion of business and industry. (Source: FNCCI)</div>
						<div>
							&nbsp;</div>
						<div>
							<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>CNI:</strong></span> USAID, European Union, GIZ, DFID, IFC, Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship etc.</div>
						<div>
							&nbsp;</div>
						<div>
							<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Nepal Chamber of Commerce:</strong></span> Nepal Chamber of Commerce is representing Nepal as a national focal point for Regional Investment Information and Promotion Services (RIIPS) of UN\ESCAP. The Chamber has been conducting seminar and training, related to business and economy, with the help of International organizations, such as International Trade Centre &ndash; ITC (UNCTAD &ndash; WTO) and the Asian Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology (APCTT). (Source: NCC)</div>
					</div>
				</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-09',
			'modified' => '2014-04-10',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'The umbrella organisations of the Nepali private sector are vying with each other to lure foreign grants. This is damaging their public image.',
			'sortorder' => '2614',
			'image' => null,
			'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00',
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	(int) 4 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2725',
			'article_category_id' => '109',
			'title' => 'Mid-term Monetary Review Creates Sell-off In Stocks',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By TC Correspondent</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In an apparent sign of continuing weakness, Nepal stock Exchange Limited (Nepse) index closed nearly 9.15 points lower on Sunday, the first trading day of the week. Declined in the barometer of country&rsquo;s capital market is attributed by fall in the majority sub-indices traded in the day. Along the Nepse, sensitive index which represents share trading of class &lsquo;A&rsquo; listed companies fell 2.22 points. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Out of total seven sub-index traded Sunday, six were in red. The Insurance sub-index was the biggest loser which fell 40.36 points followed by Hydropower sub-index (16.92) and Banking sub-index (11.99 points). Similarly, sub-indices of &lsquo;Others&rsquo;, Hotels and Development Banks fell respectively by 4.7 points, 3.58 points and 3.41 points. In the mean time, Finance sub-index was only the gainer of the day which increased 6.89 points. Sunday around 732 thousand units of shares of 125 companies were traded through 2347 transactions, which worth Rs. 300 million as daily turnover. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Weekly Indices" src="/userfiles/images/weekly.jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 354px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Weekly Review</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepse index fell 20.05 points last week. The benchmark index which was closed on Sunday due to public holiday started its weekly trading on Monday at 825.70 points and settled down at 805.65 points on the last day (Thursday). After witnessing three straight weeks of gains, Nepse, retreated back last week as investors went to secure their gains through profit-booking strategy.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Analysts say that the investment in the domestic market lost steam after the central bank in its mid-term review of monetary policy of FY 2013/14 hinted to the tightening of margin lending against share certificates. In recent months, margin lending has become one of the attractive investment tools in the country&rsquo;s financial sector as the swelling liquidity is leaving the banks without much investment options in real sectors.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, analysts also opine that settlement of political issues regarding the formation of new government has also affected the domestic stock market. Investors were highly encouraged to book their profits that they earned from the stocks that they purchased during post election months. This indicates that the positive impact of new political development by second CA election is fading.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepse registered as highest as 811.04 points on the opening day (Monday) and observed lowest level at 800.05 points on Tuesday of the last week. During the last week, 3.69 million units of shares worth Rs 1.19 billion were traded in the stock market through 9,514 transactions. The weekly turnover declined 19.32 per cent while, number of transactions shed 12.98 per cent compared to the previous week. Meanwhile, unit of shares traded rose 3 per cent. Nepal Bank Limited climbed to the top spot in terms of weekly turnover. Similarly, Nabil Balance Fund-1 grabbed the top position in terms of number of share units being transacted for the week. In terms of market capitalization, Nepal Telecom maintained its top spot as earlier weeks. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Most of the trading sub-indices saw declining trend last week. Hotels sub-index was the biggest weekly gainer with 37.37 points followed by Hydropower (21.04 points), Insurance (9.85 points) and Finance (0.13 points).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&lsquo;Others&rsquo; was seen as the biggest weekly loser as the sub-index declined 16.44 points. Sub-indices of development banks and commercial banks, meanwhile, lost 7.37 points and 6.68 points respectively. Sub-indices of Trading, Manufacturing and processing, meanwhile, remained unchanged for the week. Reflecting the declining trend in major sub-indices, Sensitive Index representing the share trading of blue chip stocks belonging to class &lsquo;A&rsquo; listed companies also fell 1.63 points. &nbsp;</div>',
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			'created' => '2014-03-09',
			'modified' => '2014-04-09',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'In an apparent sign of continuing weakness, Nepal stock Exchange Limited (Nepse) index closed nearly 9.15 points lower on Sunday, the first trading day of the week. Declined in the barometer of country’s capital market is attributed by fall in the majority sub-indices traded in the day. Along the Nepse, sensitive index which represents share trading of class ‘A’ listed companies fell 2.22 points.',
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	(int) 5 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2766',
			'article_category_id' => '52',
			'title' => 'Housing The Business',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The housing and the real estate business (HREB) has a double-sword positive effect on the economy. It is a global perspective to this business, perhaps barring Nepal. It is a capital intensive business like any other profit making venture and, at the same time, helps to solve a pressing problem of shelter to the populace. But despite the potential, Nepali HREB languishes in absurdities and hangs on to uncertainties. It has been more than one and a half decades since HREB began in an organised fashion led by private sector investment. But the bottlenecks of policy confusions, information asymmetries and public (mis)perceptions remain the same as they used to be a decade ago.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	According to a rough estimate, Nepali HREB is now worth more than Rs 150 billion, which is a third of the current year&#39;s national budget. There is an estimated annual demand of some forty five thousand units of family apartments, mainly in the urban centres of the country. Half of the demand is only in the Kathmandu valley. But, the total annual cumulative supply of apartment-type living is limited only to sixteen thousand units nation-wide. The demand and supply mis-match is one half of the story and the price and financing mismatch is the other.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	What&#39;s wrong with Nepali HREB as an investment and growth industry? Perhaps everything! The government doesn&#39;t have a comprehensive policy on it. In addition, the very perspective of the government about HREB is largely bigotry. Some regulations regarding ownership have been issued but implementation has not been as effective as expected. Given the fact that the private sector is doing a national service by providing housing facilities to the people which otherwise is the government&rsquo;s responsibility, it should have acknowledged and treated accordingly. As long as the government considers itself as the vehicle to an egalitarian society, it is indeed the government&rsquo;s responsibility to address problems like this.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	One emulative recent example could be the British government&rsquo;s initiative of Help-to-Buy (HTB) scheme, introduced by Chancellor George Osborne&rsquo;s last fiscal year budget, targeting the first time home owners. The &pound;25 billion scheme that began in January 2014 plans equity finance of 20 percent of the cost of buying or constructing a new house. The government plans to implement the HTB scheme in a three year time horizon. The objectives are well defined. First, to help revive the ailing HREB and also simultaneously support lower end populace to own a house of their own.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But in our case, the government is treating the investors and developers as criminals and crooks, let alone contemplating providing an equity financing. It was true that there was a degree of over-exposure of the finical sector to HREB. But that was a compulsion at a point of time due to utter lack of other sectors for the BFIs to invest. Shouldn&#39;t the government share the blame for failing to create an atmosphere for a diversified business and thus the BFIs&#39; investment? Instead, the government apparatus is at complete loss of direction to address the problems of the sector. On top of that a rung of top public service officials were determined to ruin the entire HREB.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Without naming names, there are projects in limbo which would have been completed well if the institutions like the central bank wouldn&#39;t have been vindictive to some chosen promoters of the schemes. It is true that some developers had had multiple business stakes and resorted to some duplicity. But the right approach for the government and central bank strategy should have been to save the projects and investment and penalize and admonish only the wrong-doers. To say the least, the government has not been sensitive to the potential ramifications of its apathy and antipathy to HREB.</div>',
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			'created' => '2014-03-24',
			'modified' => '2014-04-09',
			'keywords' => 'new business age  from the editor news & articles, from the editor news & articles from new business age nepal, from the editor headlines from nepal,  current and latest from the editor news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali from the editor economic news and events,  ongoing  from the edi',
			'description' => 'The housing and the real estate business (HREB) has a double-sword positive effect on the economy. It is a global perspective to this business, perhaps barring Nepal. It is a capital intensive business like any other profit making venture and, at the same time, helps to solve a pressing problem of shelter to the populace. But despite the potential, Nepali HREB languishes in absurdities and hangs on to uncertainties. It has been more than one and a half decades since HREB began in an organised fashion led by private sector investment. But the bottlenecks of policy confusions, information asymmetries and public (mis)perceptions remain the same as they used to be a decade ago.',
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	(int) 6 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2767',
			'article_category_id' => '46',
			'title' => '“Hospitality Is The Right Industry”',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;">Anil Malik is the general manager of Radisson Hotel Kathmandu since August 2013. He has wide experience in the hospitality sector and this is his third tenure with the Carlson Group. Earlier he has worked with the Grand Hyatt, Centara Hotels and Resorts and the O Hotel. He spoke to the New Business Age about his experience in Nepal and the tourism possibilities of the country.&nbsp;</span><strong style="font-size: 16px;">Excerpts:&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Tell us about your career and corporate journey?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Right from my childhood I have seen my mother hosting guests at home. I did Bachelor of Science with geology as major. However after graduation I got interested in hospitality. I appeared in the all India entrance examination, I was qualified and with great hard work I jumped into the hospitality industry.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Why hotels and hospitality? What points of attraction and challenges mark work in hotel sector?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	I personally feel that hospitality is the only sector where you meet so many unique people, learn new culture and learn new food habits. That&rsquo;s why I personally feel that hospitality is the right industry for a person like me who loves food and meet new people.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Carlson Group is the only group, which is expanding, in large capacity. In India we in 2014 we are expecting to have 50 new properties. We are expanding in China, and Hong Kong. In Nepal there are possibilities of expansion and my company is seriously looking to it. Because the country has lots of potential and I have also visited some of the places such as Chitawan and Pokhara, which hold high possibilities. A feasibility report for these possibilities is underway and which I look forward to present at the Carlson office. Carlson has got various brands under its umbrella. We have got budget segments therefore possibilities can be worked out according to the demand. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>What major practices have you introduced in Radisson in the last quarter?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	When I joined I found training opportunities lacking here. There are many hotel management colleges in the country but the biggest challenge is that most of the graduate go aboard to work thereby creating scarcity of skilled manpower. Since my initial days here I have always tried to engage with the staff and to make them more management friendly. There are a number of union issues in Nepal and here also there were some issues in the past. I have been trying to resolve this issue in a professional way by engaging with the employees and interacting with them through open communication channels. As part of this strategy, we started organizing Friday town hall meeting where the general manager interacts about the budget and other management issues with the staff. This is one of the initiations that I took. Apart from that we have started participating in various corporate social responsibility programmes and as a part of it we have made some donation to the Red Cross Nepal and on February 15 we organized Radathon in association with the Nepal Tourism Board.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>What contribution have you made specifically in making the hotel more hospitable?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Last year we added around hundred rooms to existing 160 rooms capacity of hotel Radisson. The additional hundred rooms are very modern compared to other hotels. And now my task is to see that the corporate people target these hundred rooms. To achieve this objective we are building close ties with the corporate sector. Besides this we are going to open the doors of our new Indian cuisine restaurant to our guest and adding to that a Japanese restaurant opening in the pipeline.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>What are the major challenges of hotel industry in Nepal? How do you think they can be addressed?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Recently Trip Advisor rated Nepal as the hottest destination. The only challenge I personally feel here is that the tour operators who are getting this groups in the country they are somehow trying to undersell Nepal as a major tourist destination. The occupancy must have grown but not the revenue and let&rsquo;s not forget that tourism plays a very important role in the development of the country&rsquo;s economy. Therefore we should try not to undersell Nepal. Costly airfare is another problem. It costs around Rs 50,000 to fly back and forth to Delhi. Such a high fare, I think, is bringing down the number of Indian tourist visiting Nepal. At the same time the rooms are expensive as we have 18 hours power cuts and we cannot compromise with our services for our guests. That is revenue is less and expenses are more.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Tourism potentials are very high in Nepal but the income is still around $ 5 billion and 11 per cent of the nation&rsquo;s GDP. Where is &nbsp;the disconnect? What can be done in this context by the private sector and the government?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	In Nepal there are many areas, which can be explored. Tourist visit Nepal mostly to see Kathmandu. The government of Nepal along with the Nepal Tourism Board should brand it as &lsquo;Explore Nepal&rsquo; and they should come out with new destinations that are still to be explored. I personally feel that the government should identify new values and new areas to attract much more tourist.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>What is the situation of skilled manpower in the hospitality industry?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	There are eight five-star hotels since a very long time. Though the government has itself not taken any measures to expand it, very soon three hotels are coming to Nepal. Along with that the government has also signed agreements with around ten other five-star properties. Opening of these hotels will open new job opportunities. What I have found is staff appointment in Nepal is very low. Job openings are available only if a person retires from the position or moves abroad. So how do you expect to have new talent when there are no new hotels and no new vacancies?</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>What are your suggestions to the major hotel and tourism management colleges? What inputs should they make to develop talent here?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	They have to be more professional, the corporate culture has to be taught and exposure has to be given to them. And the same time they should have a tie up with some groups of hotel where some concrete steps can be taken. At the moment my hotel has around 80 trainees but what about the other students as there are only eight five-star hotels. &nbsp;Definitely the remaining students will move abroad.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>What is your personal management philosophy with regards to hotel management and its efficient leadership?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Speaking on a personal note there has to be a leadership quality and attitude has to be very positive. Along with it one should have an urge to teach the juniors, should believe in teamwork as it&rsquo;s not possible to achieve the objectives without team work. At the same time one should try to impart maximum knowledge to juniors to make the team competent. The country should also have a corporate culture, which I hope will definitely grow.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>',
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			'created' => '2014-03-24',
			'modified' => '2014-03-25',
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			'description' => 'Anil Malik is the general manager of Radisson Hotel Kathmandu since August 2013. He has wide experience in the hospitality sector and this is his third tenure with the Carlson Group. Earlier he has worked with the Grand Hyatt, Centara Hotels and Resorts and the O Hotel. He spoke to the New Business Age about his experience in Nepal and the tourism possibilities of the country. Excerpts:',
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	(int) 7 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2765',
			'article_category_id' => '47',
			'title' => 'A Visionary Developer',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Sujan Tiwari</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Om Rajbhandary, Executive Chairman of Brihat Group and Chairman of Comfort Housing is a long-familiar name in Nepali real estate sector. Many may find it hard to believe that one of the most prominent developers and the pioneer of community housing in Nepal actually started his career as Medical Representative. Rajbhandary, a promoter of planned urbanization has conquered a lot in the real estate sector, and has a lot more up his sleeve.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Rajbhandary, a real estate expert, developer and builder and pioneer of community living in Nepal doesn&rsquo;t like to be known only as a businessman. &ldquo;I am not just working for my business, I am working for the betterment of entire real estate sector of Nepal,&rdquo; says Rajbhandary. Rajbhandary, over the years, has made enormous contribution for the professional management of the sector. Brihat Group has been publishing a newsletter for the last six years to educate and aware the people about the sector and about its market. Rajbhandary was the first person to work as a Real Estate Faculty Member of Ace Institute of Management and in Apex College. He has taught Real Estate, an optional subject to MBA and BBA students in these colleges.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Rajbhandary has been promoting real estate, infrastructure and urbanization through presentations in various national and international programmes. He is also the Visiting Speaker of Thai Real Estate School of Business, and is regarded as a key speaker in Asia-Pacific region. He was also the first to introduce Real Estate Marketing Agent Course in Nepal in 2009 to generate certified real estate marketing agents. At present, Brihat Group has produced more than a hundred such agents. &nbsp;He has played a major role in many fairs and expos, and has been the coordinator of various real estate exhibitions. Rajbhandary has also addressed the issue of the sector in the government, and is always coordinating with government authorities and international agencies like IFC and IMF for improving the sector.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>The Genesis</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Surprisingly, Rajbhandary started his career as a Medical Representative for a company called Winthrop in the year 1984. Soon, he was promoted to District Sales Manager. He left the job in 1992, when he was further promoted and had to go to India. &ldquo;I always wanted to work in my own country and become an entrepreneur. So I left the job after nine years,&rdquo; said Rajbhandary. His experience in Winthrob taught him corporate culture, and he also learnt a lot about administration. Back in his head , he had plans of doing his own business. In the same year, he, with five other partners, started CE Constructions. The company then started dealing with construction business, successfully carrying out government and private construction projects.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The first project of CE Constructions was the installation of transmission line in Lumbini. Other major projects accomplished by the company in the following decade include Gokarna Golf Resort, Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management (NATHM), Sagarmatha Chaudhary Eye Hospital in Lahan, Siddhartha Children and Women Hospital in Butwal, Buddha Maya Garden Hotel at Lumbini and extended portion of B and B Hospital among others.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;After a decade of its inception, CE Constructions was a popular name in Nepali market. Around the same time, Rajbhandary came up with the concept of community housing, which was a relatively new concept in Nepal back then. In the year 2001, he started the construction of Comfort Housing with the concept of community living. &ldquo;It was started with the concept of providing customers with stand-alone housing units with property ownership, infrastructure and amenities,&rdquo; explained Rajbhandary. But like any new idea, his idea of community living wasn&rsquo;t readily accepted in the market. It took some time for the market to get used to the new concept.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There were 76 houses in his first Comfort Housing Community Living project at Sitapaila, and it took him two years to sell all the houses. Within the two years&rsquo; time, the concept gradually picked up, and his second such project at Budhanilkantha was completely booked in two days, and sold within six months. &ldquo;This proved that the market has slowly accepted the concept of community living. We were encouraged by this, and constructed even more such housings,&rdquo; says Rajbhandary. &nbsp;The popularity and credibility of the housing grew so much that the next Comfort Housing project at Ichhangu had to be sold with lottery system. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Going Beyond</strong></span></div>
<div>
	According to Rajbhandary, he is committed to enhance the quality of life of Nepalis. &ldquo;For this, we had to go beyond Kathmandu. So we searched for good locations, and constructed our fourth Comfort Housing in Dharan,&rdquo; says he. At the same time, Rajbhandary again started something new, the idea of Vertical Community Living or apartments. Then he constructed The Comfort Housing (TCH) Tower-2 at Lazimpat which was ready by year 2006. It also was a huge success as all the apartments were sold out in a single day. In 2007, TCH Tower-3 was ready. &ldquo;There were 41 apartments, and for that we received 350 applications. That too was sold with lottery system,&rdquo; says he. For the sale of his next two ventures TCH Community Living at Thaiba and TCH Tower-4 at Sitapaila, potential buyers were informed three months in prior. &nbsp;The demand was so high that these two properties also had to be sold on lottery basis.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As Comfort Housing only concentrated on community living houses and apartments, Rajbhandary thought of constructing other housing structures like senior housing, rental housing, environment friendly housing and low cost housing among others. &ldquo;To move on further with this, I started Brihat Investments Pvt Ltd in the year 2008,&rdquo; says he. According to him, Brihat Investments was started to promote real estate investment, entrepreneurship and marketing. Under the company, he constructed first environment-friendly community living with the theme of eco-urbanization at Ramkot. These houses have eco-friendly features like UV protected windows, reduced use of wood, rain water conservation, solar street lights and proper disposal of household wastes among others. There are 76 units in the community, and 30 units are handed over and 18 units are already occupied. Brihat Group now has four companies under it, Brihat Investments Pvt Ltd, Brihat Developers and Builders Pvt Ltd, Swayambhu Hotels and Apartments Pvt Ltd and Pioneer Developers and Builders Pvt Ltd.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Early Life</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Rajbhandary was born in 2019 BS in Yangal of Kathmandu to Late Bishnu Bahadur Rajbhandary and Narayan Devi Rajbhandary. Growing up, he was very close with his grandfather Bhairab Bahadur Rajbhandary. He is the youngest among two sisters and a brother. He did his schooling from Laboratory School till grade 8, and did his SLC from Viswa Niketan School. He did his Intermediate and Bachelor degree in science from Amrit Science Campus.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Present and Future</strong></span></div>
<div>
	After the recession in housing sector about four years back, there have been some issues in lending and project financing. According to Rajbhandary, Nepal still has deficit of housing, but owing to the increased price of land, huge housing projects are not a possibility for now. &ldquo;To cope with this problem, we have come up with the idea of cluster housing. There are only houses in cluster housing without other infrastructures and community facilities,&rdquo; explains Rajbhandary. He is launching three such projects in Kathmandu within 2014.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In the future, Rajbhandary wants to develop the core city area of Kathmandu as a safe shelter to reduce the risk of earthquakes. He also wants to transform the area with better management in terms of transportation, sanitation and ventilation. Rajbhandary is also in favour of conserving our cultural heritages. &nbsp;He also wants to develop new towns to adjust with the growing population, and has dreams of bringing a public limited company for housing sector. &ldquo;I want planned urbanization to foster, not only in Kathmandu but all over Nepal,&rdquo; says the ambitious builder.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Personal Side</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Rajbhandary married Purnima Rajbhandary in the year 2050 BS. &ldquo;My wife has an enormous contribution towards my success. We are very compatible with each other, and enjoy a very friendly and happy relation,&rdquo; says he. &nbsp;She is an MBA graduate, also the CEO of Brihat Investments. The couple is blessed with a son Brihat, and under his name, the entire group is established. He is doing his engineering in Canada, and Rajbhandary wants his son to support his business with newer technologies, and take it to newer heights. &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He says he is a very helpful person with a light heart, and is popular among his friends, family and acquaintances. He considers leadership and eloquence among his strengths, and advocates independence and freedom of decision making. &ldquo;I believe in god, and respect my ancestors. I pay respect to the both every morning before I have my breakfast,&rdquo; says the faithful man. Besides his work, he is busy socializing. He loves travelling, listening to music and loves gadgets. Rajbhandary doesn&rsquo;t want to splurge on cars, and drives a Kia Sportage and Ford Classic.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Afterword</strong></span></div>
<div>
	A strong believer of entrepreneurship, Rajbhandary is contented with the fact that he has contributed to the nation through his constructions and employment. &ldquo;As our country is in political transition, the society has expectations form business leaders like us. We should be responsible towards the society,&rdquo; says he. According to him, knowledge is not a private property, and all should transform knowledge for the better good of society and country. &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Involvements</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Founding Chairman and Promoter, CE Constructions&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Director, Ace School</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Board Member, Industrial Promotion Board, Department of Industries&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Board Member, Kathmandu Valley Water Supply Management Board</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Executive Committee Member, FNCCI</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Coordinator, Urban Development Forum, FNCCI</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Third Vice President, Nepal Land and Housing Developers&rsquo; Association&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>National Team Member, Habitat for Humanity International&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Member, Canada Nepal Business Executive Committee&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Lifetime Special Member, Confederation of Asia-Pacific Chambers of Commerce of Industry (CACCI)</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Executive Committee Member, SAARC Chambers of Commerce and Industry (SCCI)</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Administrative Director/General Secretary, Hospice Nepal</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Senior Vice President/Fund Raising Committee Coordinator, Nepal Ambulance Service</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Chairperson-Vocational Service Project, Rotary Club of Kasthamandap</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-24',
			'modified' => '2014-03-25',
			'keywords' => 'new business age personality news & articles, personality news & articles from new business age nepal, personality headlines from nepal,  current and latest personality news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali personality economic news and events,  ongoing  personality news of nepal',
			'description' => 'Om Rajbhandary, Executive Chairman of Brihat Group and Chairman of Comfort Housing is a long-familiar name in Nepali real estate sector. Many may find it hard to believe that one of the most prominent developers and the pioneer of community housing in Nepal actually started his career as Medical Representative. Rajbhandary, a promoter of planned urbanization has conquered a lot in the real estate sector, and has a lot more up his sleeve.',
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	(int) 8 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2764',
			'article_category_id' => '42',
			'title' => 'Stocks Gear Up To 6 Years High',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<strong>--By Bikram Chitrakar</strong></div>
<div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Secondary market of Nepal spurted to new high after six years helped by partial settlement of political uncertainty. The Nepse, benchmark index of country&#39;s capital market, surged 37.20 points or 4.52 % to rest at 822.67 on February 20 as the highest of the review period while the lowest was 769.51 on February 03, 2014. On November 09, 2008 stock market index of Nepal had hovered around 810.81, and that has been surpassed by this review period&rsquo;s closing. The prime factor for this gear up has been pointed to the latest political developments which includes coming of the Constituent Assembly into function and the formation of Sushil Koirala-led Nepali Congress-CPN-UML coalition government. This tipped off the market with optimism and pushed the index to a new high after nearly six years.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		The growth in benchmark index has been primarily contributed by insurance and hydropower sectors. Insurance sector has been the new hot cake of investors since the middle of previous fiscal year. Likewise investors have preferred most of the hydropower companies. During the review period, the sub-index of insurance sector has gone up by 652.17 points and hydropower sub-index jumped 344.22 points.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Market capitalization for this period has been fueled up by 5% as compared to the preceding month. Flexible margin lending (loan against share certificates as security) by different financial institutions, excess liquidity in the banking system, narrow down of market interest rates and lack of better investment alternative have underpinned the recent growth in the capital market. &nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) has revised its list of category &ldquo;A&rdquo; stocks. The new list has 130 companies compared to 120 in the last year. As per the bylaws, companies with minimum of Rs 20 million paid-up capital with at least 1000 equity holders can be categorized in this group. Besides, the company should also post profit for three straight years and its book value must be above paid-up value.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		The momentum of this &quot;A Class&quot; category stocks has been reflected by the sensitive index. With the inclusion of new 10 companies in this category, the ratio of &#39;A&#39; graded companies with total listed companies now stands at 57%. Thus, the movements of the sensitive index and Nepse index show similar pattern. This indicates the need for introducing more categories and classification. &nbsp; &nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Performance by Sector</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Following the positive trend of previous weeks, most of the sub-indices under Nepse registered growth during this review period too in addition to banking and &lsquo;others&rsquo; sub-indices. Insurance sub-index turned to be the highest gainer of the review period with a growth of 652.17 points followed by hydropower sub-index, which increased by 344.22 points. Hotel sub-index also added 245.11 points to rest at 1402.23. Development bank sub-index went up the hill to 54.52 points while trading sub-index registered a growth of 15.04 points. However, banking sub-index faced the losing session with downfall of 14.40 points to rest at 765.85 while &#39;Others&#39; sub-index settled at 793.02 down by 3.52 points during the review period. &nbsp;Meanwhile, Sensitive index that reflects the movement of &ldquo;A Category&rdquo; stocks of Nepal Stock Exchange ascended 4.09 points or 2.29% to settle at 178.64 points while float index went up 2.55 points to 55.19. &nbsp;During the review period, total of Rs. 5.98 billion turnover was realized from 16.67 units of share traded through 53,942 transactions.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		During the period, 44.51 percent of the total turnover was captured by commercial banks. Insurance sector grabbed the second position with 20.79 percent while 18.23 percent was occupied by hydropower sector. Rest of the portions of total turnover were covered by remaining sectors.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Technically, the Simple Moving Average (SMA) of Nepse index is aggressive when SMA of these 30 days and the past 200 days are compared. Despite the positive expectations, chances of correction at this level seem prominent. However, Nepse index may further rise to test some psychological levels and perhaps next resistance. As per the pivot analysis, the next resistance of Nepse range is at 840.39 and 858.11, while the support levels stand at 787.23 and 751.79 at lowest.</div>
	<div style="text-align: right;">
		<em>(Chitrakar is a Stock Analyst with Jamb Technologies Pvt Ltd.)</em></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<img alt="Stock Taking" src="/userfiles/images/st(3).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 193px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
</div>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
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			'description' => 'The Nepse, benchmark index of country's capital market, surged 37.20 points or 4.52 % to rest at 822.67 on February 20 as the highest of the review period.',
			'sortorder' => '2609',
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	(int) 9 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2763',
			'article_category_id' => '37',
			'title' => 'Investment Issues  In Nepali Insurers',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<div>
		<strong>--By Ujjwal Chand &amp; Suraj Bansal</strong></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Currently, there are 25 insurance companies in Nepal -16 of them provide non-life insurance services and &nbsp;eight &nbsp;provide life insurance services while one provides both of these services. Insurance companies use their funds consisting of capital, reserves, premiums and loans to finance claim payments and other expenses. The remaining fund is invested as per the Investment Directives from the regulatory body, i.e. Insurance Board (Beema Samiti). As of FY 2011-12, these companies had investments to the tune of Rs. 60 billion out of which Rs. 52 billion was from life insurance companies and the rest was from non-life insurance companies.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		The insurance companies can put their investment funds in the sectors specified &nbsp;in the investment guidelines which specify that Life insurance companies must invest a minimum of 75% and non-life insurance companies minimum of 65% of their investment funds in combination of government securities, fixed deposits of commercial banks and development banks, and mutual fund/Citizen Investment Trust Schemes. They can put a maximum of 5% of their total investment fund in ordinary shares of public limited companies. Other areas for investment are secured debentures of Banks and Financial Institutions (BFI)s and Fixed Deposits (FDs) in finance companies. Non-life insurance companies can additionally invest in shares of real estate development or public limited housing company.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Importance of Returns from Investment&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		The operations of life and non-life insurance companies are different. Non-life insurance companies generate profit through both returns from investment and from regular insurance business. Life insurance companies, however, are suffering loss in the regular insurance business. Therefore, it is only due to the returns from investment that they are able to report positive bottom lines. Ganesh Dahal, deputy manager of Sagarmatha Insurance puts that &ldquo;the contribution of investment returns to the company&rsquo;s bottom line is at 40%&rdquo;and in similar vein Suraj Rajbahak, CA of Shikhar Insurance, shared that &ldquo;about 30% of the company&rsquo;s returns are from investment returns&rdquo;. Life insurance companies are far heavily reliant on the investment returns. Dip Bahadur BC, chief financial officer at Prime Life Insurance says, &ldquo;Investment returns not only sustain the company&rsquo;s expenses but also contribute to the bottom line&rdquo;. Bigyan Shrestha, finance chief at National Life Insurance, seconds this and states that &ldquo;the investment returns have been sufficient to sustain normal operations&rdquo; for the company.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<img alt="Returns from Investment" src="/userfiles/images/ep1%20(Copy)(6).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 227px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Investment returns of insurance companies&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Of the twenty-five insurance companies, only twenty had published their annual report for FY 2011-12 by September 2013. An analysis of the same shows that 15 of the 20 companies posted returns from 8.5% to 10.5% from investments. This was primarily due to the high interest rates on the fixed deposits of the BFIs.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		But, the returns from their investment in ordinary share was relatively weak during this period &nbsp;- ranging from 0% to 5.42%. However, during the same period, Nepse increased by 14.7%. This shows that the insurance companies underperformed Nepse in terms of returns from ordinary shares investments.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Issues with current ordinary shares investment&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		There are few internal issues of the insurance companies themselves behind poor &nbsp;returns from ordinary shares investment. &nbsp;Additionally, there are some issues with the current ordinary shares investment practices that could damage these returns in the long run of the insurance companies. These internal issues are:</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Passive investment &ndash; Over-reliance on dividends&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Of the 20 insurance companies analyzed, four hadn&rsquo;t invested in ordinary shares at all in FY 2011-12. In the remaining sixteen insurance companies, dividends contributed about 99.97% of the overall return from this avenue in 2011-12. This means only 0.03% of the returns came from capital gains. Thus passive investing, thereby over reliance on dividends for income from ordinary shares investments remained as the most important reason for poor performance in ordinary shares investments by insurance companies.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Lack of experts, research-based decision making</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Further, the insurance companies did not follow research based decision making approach while selecting ordinary shares for investment. This is despite the fact that the insurance companies accept the high importance of investment decisions to the bottom-line. Moreover, investment team in these companies is made of up of generalists, i.e. overseeing all aspects of finance in the company, rather than specialists with specific field expertise.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Lack of Diversification</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Investment gurus advocating diversification of fund always caution that &ldquo;putting all your eggs in one basket is very dangerous&rdquo;. These insurance companies lack proper diversification in ordinary shares investments, which could damage the returns from this avenue in the long term. The ordinary shares investments were heavily concentrated in stocks of major BFIs, constituting 96% of total ordinary shares investments. In terms of diversification at company level, they fare even worse. Although they had invested in 67 securities, they heavily concentrated on six companies, constituting 67% of the total ordinary shares investments.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Issues with overall current investments&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		High interest rate exposure is found to be triggering volatility on the overall investment returns. This exposure was also due to the conservative guidelines that made it mandatory for the insurance companies to park their fund in interest-rate volatile investment avenues like fixed deposits. The conservative investment guidelines are curtailing the diversification of investments, and thereby introducing concentration risk on the investments.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>High interest risk exposure</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Due to regulatory constraints, large portion of the investment fund is parked in BFIs as fixed deposit. This brings about high interest rate risk in the investments returns of the insurance companies. Sushil Kumar Luniya, manager at Gurans Life Insurance, sees &ldquo;the decrease in interest rates of fixed deposits hampering insurance company returns for the current fiscal year&rdquo;. Manoj Shrestha, head of finance department at NLG Insurance, too regards &ldquo;the volatile bank interest rates as major factor deciding the investment returns&rdquo;. &nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Due to high interest rates prevalent during the sample period (average of 8.125% for commercial banks in FY 2011-12 as per the central bank&rsquo;s Monetary Policy document), most of the insurance companies had fair returns on the investments. Imagine the effect of decrease in the rates to 5.2%, as predicted by NRB Monetary Policy for 2013-14, on the investment returns !&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Now lets simulate this Simulating such scenario by decreasing the FY 2011-12 returns from fixed deposits of BFIs by the same proportion as the decrease in interest rate, i.e. from 8.125% to 5.2%. In FY 2011-12, it was found that only one insurance company was making loss. If the interest rates during this period were only 5.2, four insurance companies would have been at loss.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Lack of diversification options</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		The conservative investment guidelines put by the regulatory board give little room for diversification to insurance companies. Majority of the fund is to be parked in government bonds, and fixed deposit of commercial and development banks. Even in ordinary shares investments, insurance companies are finding hard to diversify from a stock market with over 76% concentration in BFIs. Thus there is huge concentration risk. &nbsp;If one bank or finance institution goes bust, the whole insurance industry would suffocate. One such event in Gurkha Development Bank has already occurred. Few insurance companies are still provisioning the losses from this bank&rsquo;s tragedy.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		But, investment guideline isn&rsquo;t the only sore finger. There is also lack of innovativeness among insurance companies in terms of diversifying their investments. As Dr. Fatta Bahadur KC, chairman of Insurance Board, claims, &ldquo;The investment guidelines clearly indicate flexibility of alternative investment avenues for the insurance companies&rdquo;. Upon request by insurance companies, the Board is ready to look into alternative investment proposals. But as this includes some hassles and would put the insurance company management under scrutiny if the innovation backfires, the insurance companies are reluctant to tread on this way.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Asset-liability mismatch</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Asset-Liability mismatch is a major issue with life insurance companies. Safer investment assets with longer maturity are hard to find in Nepali market, where bonds and debentures have minimal presence. Debentures of commercial banks bring concentration risk with them for the insurance companies, which already have major portion of their investment fund in the banks as fixed deposits and their ordinary shares. Dr. KC, sees &ldquo;Asset-Liability mismatch for life insurance companies as they issue policy for long term whereas they can invest for short term only&rdquo;. Dip Bahadur BC, CFO of Prime Life, also considers &ldquo;asset-liability maturity mismatch as a prevalent issue in all life insurance companies&rdquo;.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 18px;"><strong>The Way Ahead</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Resolving Internal Issues</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Internal issues - lack of research based decision making, diversification and active investing - can be resolved through robust internal research systems. To boost their ordinary shares investment performance through research backed investments, the insurance companies could build their own internal system and processes but at a huge cost. It would also mean taking two diverse businesses in parallel, i.e. insurance business and investment business. Outsourcing of ordinary shares investment management by availing the customized portfolio management service given by several financial intermediaries like Kriti Capital, Nabil Invest and Beed Management, seems more beneficial. Such outsourcing &nbsp;will not only enable insurance companies to focus on their core business, but also get better returns from their investments via expert handling of their funds at a relatively lower cost.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<img alt="Isues with Investment" src="/userfiles/images/ep2%20(Copy)(2).jpg" style="margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; width: 550px; height: 400px;" /></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Resolving external issues</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		There are limitations faced by insurance companies while investing their fund as per current investment guidelines. Fixed deposits have inbuilt interest rate risks. The life insurance companies face an additional issue of asset-liability maturity mismatch, with investments maturing in about 1-1.5 years and liabilities remaining active for about 10-13 years. There is need for long term investment alternative.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Further, diversification of fund is hard in a secondary market with heavy concentration of BFI stocks. With the investment fund increasing rapidly (CAGR of 21.35% from 2004-05 to 2011-12), there is a need to look for additional investment avenue to resolve these issues. This is not just voiced by the insurance company professionals but also by the insurance regulatory board.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Dr. KC feels that &ldquo;although the investment guidelines give flexibility to insurance companies to come up with alternative investment proposals, the time has come to review the overall investment guidelines&rdquo;.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		A suitable avenue to be added in the investment guidelines could be private placements in infrastructure companies. This will not just help the insurance companies to resolve the issues of diversification and the infrastructure companies in getting easier financing, but also help the overall economy of the nation. Dr. KC says that the Board is &ldquo;positive on investment made by insurance companies in hydropower and other infrastructure companies, and these avenues could be opened for investments&rdquo;. Most of the insurance companies also state that they are willing to invest in hydropower and other infrastructure companies, if allowed by investment board.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Insurance Board should allow investments by the insurance companies via private placements, as the secondary market doesn&rsquo;t have appropriate diversification opportunities. Further, the insurance companies would be able to invest at a bargain in the infrastructure companies due to their sheer investment fund size. Also, if SEBON comes up with more liberal rules on the issuance of shares at premium, the infrastructure companies could benefit hugely from private placements. Even if the insurance companies decide on being risk averse and just invest in debentures, they could do so in infrastructure debentures. As there isn&rsquo;t presence of these instruments in secondary market, private placement would be ideal way for diversification of &nbsp;by insurance companies. On the other hand, the infrastructure companies would have lower issue costs and lesser regulatory hassles than going public for raising finance. Also, in case of debentures, these companies would be avoiding interest rate exposure. Similarly, the promoters of infrastructure companies would be able to delay issuing the shares to public, thereby being in position with better financial statements before going public. This would help get better response on public issuance of shares at premium.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Thus the insurance companies should initiate this by coming up with effective proposal and lobbying with the Insurance Board for liberal investment guidelines.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		But, investment in private placements of the infrastructure companies (if allowed by the Board) requires expert knowledge on these companies and regular monitoring. Also, the entry and exit strategies must be taken into account as these investments are relatively less liquid as compared to secondary market investments. There will be need of diversification as well as policy and strategy development for the insurance companies vying to invest via private placements. So, to benefit from this additional investment avenue, insurance companies will have to develop in-house expertise or outsource private placements management services for financial intermediaries.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<em>(The article is based on a joint research conducted by Ujjwal Chand and Suraj Bansal as part of their academic requirement at KUSOM. The researchers can be contacted at: chandujjwal@gmail.com)</em></div>
</div>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
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			'description' => 'Insurance companies use their funds consisting of capital, reserves, premiums and loans to fi nance claim payments and other expenses.',
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	(int) 10 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2762',
			'article_category_id' => '31',
			'title' => '“Young Mind Is Always  Very Inquisitive Mind”',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;">The first Round Table was formed in Norwich, England in 1927. It was a club where the young business men of the town gathered on a regular basis. Louis Marchesi, founder of the Round Table International used to mention three things: there are things we must do, there are things we can do and there are things we should do. He was of the view that chance can be achieved with young minds. The same organization has been working in the various parts of the world now with the aim of increasing youth&rsquo;s involvement in businesses. Siromani Dhungana of the New Business Age spoke to its President Moffat Nyirenda during his recent visit to Nepal on issues surrounding youth entrepreneurship among others. Excerpt:&nbsp;</span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>RTI emphasizes on youth involvement in business. Why?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The young generation is the future of the society both in the corporate as well as in the civil society. So, it&rsquo;s very important to emphasis on them. Young mind is always very inquisitive so it can be easily tapped and prompted for entrepreneurship.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>How important is &lsquo;inquisitive mind&rsquo; in business?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	First of all, the world has been very dynamic and the issue of globalization has emerged as a crucial issue. The world has become really competitive. If you do not have inquisitive mind, you will easily die in the corporate world. You should always check the challenges and find out possible solutions to overcome those challenges. Also, you have to expand your business contacts. And only inquisitive mind can identify what&rsquo;s going on around the world.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>It is said that businessmen always seek favour from political parties. Can business organization run without political inclination?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Yes. If you have political inclination sometimes you have to compromise your business interest. Your professionalism, your business opportunity can face adverse situation due to direct political affiliation. So, it is extremely important to maintain neutrality in business.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>The phrase adopt, adapt and improve is a key facet of the RTI. How do you relate this phrase in business organization?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Yes, adopt, adapt and improve have always been our motto since our establishment in 1927 when young entrepreneur members felt the need for a club where they could come together with similar members and share their business experiences. In business &lsquo;adopt, adapt and improve&rsquo; is very relevant. First, we have to adopt the situation then we have to adapt it and we have to improve our way of doing according to necessity. The world is very dynamic, we need to adopt and also be ready to improve. This phrase is equally important in society too.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>How to inspire young generation in business sector?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	There are few aspects. First, young generation should realize that they need to do something. World is dynamic and this means that they will have to face the new challenges now and then. This realization leads them to involve in entrepreneurship. Further, they should realize that they have to contribute in the society. And, entrepreneurship is the best way to do so. Further, all concerned stakeholders should always encourage youth generation to be involved in entrepreneurship.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>What is more important: investment (capital) or idea to set up new venture?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	It depends on the how the country is structured. Idea and innovation is a must to start new venture for entering into the business world. At the same time, we cannot set up new business without capital. So the government, in many countries, provides special facilities and loans to innovative minds to let them start new venture. There should a balanced approach between capital and idea.</div>',
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			'keywords' => 'new business age business visitors news & articles, business visitors news & articles from new business age nepal, business visitors headlines from nepal,  current and latest business visitors news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali business visitors economic news and events, ongoing busin',
			'description' => 'The first Round Table was formed in Norwich, England in 1927. It was a club where the young business men of the town gathered on a regular basis. Louis Marchesi, founder of the Round Table International used to mention three things: there are things we must do, there are things we can do and there are things we should do.',
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			'id' => '2726',
			'article_category_id' => '137',
			'title' => 'Nepal Vying For 4.5% GDP Growth In 2014: ADB',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By TC Correspondent</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepal&rsquo;s gross domestic product (GDP) growth will rise to 4.5 per cent this fiscal year, a new Asian Development Bank (ADB) report has projected. &nbsp;&ldquo;The positive political outlook, expected increase in agriculture production following a favorable monsoon, modest improvement in capital expenditure following the timely full FY 2014 budget, and a strong services sector performance supported by remittance income are expected to boost gross domestic product (GDP) growth (at basic prices) to 4.5 per cent in FY 2014, up from 3.6 per cent in FY 2013,&rdquo; the Manila-based regional development bank in its latest macroeconomic update for Nepal informed.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The bank, however, mentioned that the forecast is lower than the government&rsquo;s projection of 5.5 per cent GDP growth due to less than expected increase in capital spending and a slightly lower services sector. &nbsp;&ldquo;Despite the timely full budget, expenditure performance was not satisfactory in the first half of FY 2014. Of the total planned expenditure of Rs 517.2 billion, only 30.3 per cent was spent largely due to the lower than expected capital spending. The slow pace of spending so far indicates that the capital budget will likely continue to be under spent as in the previous years,&rdquo; the report noted. &ldquo;In addition to the improvements in agriculture production, both domestic and foreign investment commitments increased remarkably in the first half of FY 2014.&rdquo;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The bank said that there is an urgent need to ramp up both the quantum and quality of capital spending as it not only &lsquo;crowds in&rsquo; private investments, but also helps create the foundations for the lackluster growth to take off on an employment-centric, high, inclusive and sustainable growth path.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	According to the report, Nepal may not meet its yearly revenue target this year due to the depreciation of the Nepali rupee against the US dollar which is slowing down import demand in the country. &ldquo;Even though the Rs 163.4 billion revenue mobilized in the first half of FY 2014 is 21.5 per cent is higher than the revenue mobilized in the corresponding period in FY 2013, it still is lower than the half-year target set for this fiscal year,&rdquo; it said.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, the bank forecasted the inflation rate to stand at 10 per cent in FY 2014, higher than the government&rsquo;s target of 8.5 per cent. &ldquo;Despite the expected improvement in agriculture harvest, the wage pressures, the persistently high price level in India, the rise in administered fuel prices, lower interest rates, the persistently weak Nepali rupee and the supply-side constraints, average annual consumer price index (CPI) inflation in FY 2014 is forecast at 10 per cent,&rdquo; ADB mentioned. The bank informed that inflation averaged 9.1 per cent in the first half of FY 2014, down from 10.7 per cent in the corresponding period in FY 2013. The decline in prices is mainly driven by the sharp slowdown in non-food and services prices. However, the persistence of the high inflation level is supported by rising food and beverage prices, which averaged 11.5 per cent in the first half of FY 2014 against 9.8 per cent during the same period in FY 2013, the report notes.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-09',
			'modified' => '2014-03-24',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'Nepal’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth will rise to 4.5 per cent this fiscal year, a new Asian Development Bank (ADB) report has projected.  “The positive political outlook, expected increase in agriculture production following a favorable monsoon, modest improvement in capital expenditure following the timely full FY 2014 budget, and a strong services sector performance supported by remittance income are expected to boost gross domestic product (GDP) growth (at basic prices) to 4.5 per cent in FY 2014, up from 3.6 per cent in FY 2013,” the Manila-based regional development bank in its latest macroeconomic update for Nepal informed.',
			'sortorder' => '2606',
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	(int) 12 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2761',
			'article_category_id' => '39',
			'title' => 'Chachan Group: Trader To Manufacturer',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Gaurav Aryal and Om Prakash Khanal</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<table align="right" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;" width="25">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>
				<img alt="Satish Chachan, Director, Chachan Group" src="/userfiles/images/cf1%20(Copy)(5).jpg" style="border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; width: 200px; height: 239px;" /></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
				<div align="center">
					<div>
						<strong>Satish Chachan</strong></div>
					<div>
						Director, Chachan Group</div>
				</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<div>
	Chachan Group evolved into a manufacturing and trading house when it changed its course into manufacturing from the family owned trading business. This move not only made the group grow leaps and bounds but also established itself as a leading industrial and trading house. The group in its initial days traded various commodities such as leather and leather products, cement, vegetable ghee, food grains, lentils, oil seeds, spices, consumer goods, fertilizer, pulses, edible oils and animal feeds. Today, the group not only trades these commodities but also produces them.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The group&rsquo;s expansion was not merely driven by the market force. There were visions and entrepreneurial skills of earlier generation of businessmen, Mahabir Prasad Chachan and Shree Maliram Chachan, who steered the business towards what it is today. When the group passed onto the new generation of businessmen, Babu Lal Chachan and Parmeshwar Lal Chachan who are Chairman and Vice-Chairman respectively, the group had reached to a position from where it would never have to look back.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Growing Larger</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Satish Chachan, Director of Chachan Group says that the group is continuously following the tradition established by its founders towards further growth of the company. He proudly says, &ldquo;Compared to the group&rsquo;s initial days, the company has achieved a remarkable success in cement manufacturing besides continuing its decades old cement selling business.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Within the last decade, the group has established three cement grinding plants each having a production capacity of 350 metric tonnes (MT) of cement per day in Birgunj. Similarly, the group has begun the construction of fourth cement grinding plant in Nepalgunj with the same capacity as that of a single unit in Birgunj.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Chachan says that the group had established a poly-plastic bag industry two years back in Birgunj. This factory has enabled the group&rsquo;s cement plants to use its own cement packing bags. &ldquo;This polyplastic bag industry has also earned a big business faith in the major sectors of the country. This clearly indicates the satisfactory present and past situation of the company and its growing capability to contribute a large amount of revenue to the nation.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Gaining Strength</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The group has shown remarkable progress in goods manufacturing that it has decided to specialise on. At present, it is producing cement, vegetable oil, leather goods, poly-plastic goods and various food products through its food processing units. Likewise, the group is also involved in trading through its three companies who have direct presence in over 19 different cities across the country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Chachan Group is today considered one of the leading business houses of Nepal based in Birgunj for producing variety of commodities with a wide reach across the country. Chachan claims that the products range that the company trades in and its wide network are suggestive of their market and the robust financial strength of the group.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He shares that the annual turnover of the group exceeds Rs 4 billion. He also adds that the staggering 70 per cent of the total turnover is generated by the cement wing of the group. While sharing the strength of the group, Chachan boasts that his business has been employing 1500 people directly along with a huge number of indirect employments in transportation and handling of the raw materials and finished products. He also adds that 300 employees are working in the cement wing alone. The group&rsquo;s beneficiaries such as construction companies, commercial enterprises, transporters, traders, farmers and consumers are spread over major parts of Tarai and hilly regions of the country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Changing the Course</strong></span></div>
<div>
	For decades, the group had been trading various commodities. Chachan says, &ldquo;This trade grew bigger and flourished gradually, which ultimately evolved into the establishment and identification of the Chachan Group. This can be regarded as the first and fundamental turning point of the company.&rdquo; Gradually the trading business expanded; meanwhile, various new manufacturing units were established.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Around one and a half decade ago, the group decided to establish cement manufacturing units realising the growing demand of construction materials and cement in particular. This demand was identified when the state owned cement plants such as Hetauda Cement, Udaypur Cement and other private cement producers were unable to meet the major percentage of cement demands. This inspired the group to establish Narayani Cement Udyog Pvt Ltd in Birgunj. This company today has production capacity of 1050 tonnes per day.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Roadmap Ahead</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Chachan believes that the group has kept its promise of offering best quality products and services at a reasonable cost and claims that it would open up new avenues for the group to expand its manufacturing and trading businesses in the days ahead. &ldquo;Our past experience gives us confidence that we have further opportunities and scope for expansion. We want to establish our own clinker producing units so that we can stand as one of the leading cement and clinker manufacturer of Nepal,&rdquo; envisions Chachan.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He reveals that the group has a clinker producing plant in the pipeline. He elaborated that this new plant will have a production capacity of 700 to 750 tonnes per day. Likewise, once the Nepalgunj based cement plant comes into operation, the group is planning to add another cement grinding plant there with production capacity and design similar to the existing one. Similarly, Chachan reveals that the group is planning to acquire a limestone quarry in a hilly area of Makawanpur district, few kilometres away from Hetauda. &ldquo;Besides this, we have been thinking to buy some additional land to establish the clinker producing plant. Though we are already in touch with some of the renowned Indian companies for establishing the clinker plant, we think this will materialise only after three to five years from now,&rdquo; he added. Similarly, Chachan is ready to expand other plants depending on the market demand and financial status.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Market Positioning</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Products of Chachan Group has a wide market coverage including major cities and towns such as Birgunj, Hetauda, Kalaiya, Narayanghat, Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Banepa, Batar, Pokhara, &nbsp;Bhairahawa, Krishna Nagar, Dang, Nepalgunj, Dhangadhi, Nijgarh, Gaur, Lahan, Janakpur, Jhapa, Morang, Ilam and other places in hilly and Tarai region. According to the group, major market for cement is in all the belts extending from Birgunj to Jhapa and in Hetauda, Narayangarh and major cities and towns of Bagmati zone.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	According to Satish Chachan, Director of the group, product placement is done through various dealers and transporters. Group&rsquo;s contact or branch offices and dealers are channels for distribution. Major product range includes daily commodities, construction materials, leather goods, fertilizers among others.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	All the factories of the group are being operated in full capacity to meet the market demand. &nbsp;Products are sold under different brand names such as Trishakti and Bajrashakti in the cement segment while other commodities also have their own niche brand value recognised in their market targets.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>CSR Commitments</strong></span></div>
<div>
	As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the group has given prime importance to environmental protection and freeing its locality from pollutants. The group is also strengthening and accelerating its sustainable environmental efforts through the reduction of environmental impacts and the conservation of the biodiversity. &ldquo;We have been aiming to provide satisfaction and gratification to as many stakeholders as possible. To this aspect, we believe and act ethically and relentlessly to seek improvement in the quality, safety, information security and reliability of our products and services,&rdquo; explains Chachan.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Satish Chachan, Director of the group says, &ldquo;We respect our customer and their culture and the community they belong to while we deal with them in the course of our business activities. We also engage in dialogues with various stakeholders in society and incorporate their feedback to enhance our CSR activities so that we can contribute our best to improve our surroundings, quality and the effectiveness of our activities.&rdquo;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, the company has dedicated itself in creating a safe and comfortable work environment for all its employees so that they can realise their full potential and have a fulfilling career, as a responsible corporate culture.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td bgcolor="#E5E4E2">
				<div>
					<div>
						<div>
							<div>
								<div>
									<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Sister Companies of Chachan Group</strong></span></div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Narayani Cement</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Jaya Bageshwari Cement</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Narayani Oil Refinery Udyog</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Narayani Leather Manufacturing Industries</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Narayani Modern Pulses Industries</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Shree Adhunik Dal Udyog</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Shree Agro Processing Unit</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Adarsh Oil Industry</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Adarsh Tel Udyog</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Adarsh Polyplastic Pvt Ltd</div>
								<div>
									&nbsp;</div>
								<div>
									<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Independent Trading Concerns under the Group</strong></span></div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Chachan Implex</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Devki International</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Manoj International Traders</div>
								<div>
									&nbsp;</div>
								<div>
									&nbsp;</div>
								<div>
									<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>SWOT Analysis</strong></span></div>
								<div>
									&nbsp;</div>
								<div>
									<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Strengths</strong></span></div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Customers</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Staff</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Good quality products and services</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Reasonable price</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Harmonic relationship with employees, customers and local surroundings</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Disciplined working attitude</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Timely revenue payments to the government</div>
								<div>
									&nbsp;</div>
								<div>
									<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Weaknesses</strong></span></div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Inability to give hundred percent employment to the local residents</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Cannot fulfilall the donation demands from local parties and their leaders</div>
								<div>
									&nbsp;</div>
								<div>
									<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Opportunities</strong></span></div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Prospects for growth of construction material businesses</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Growing domestic market and purchasing capacity of people</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Rapidly emerging technological innovations</div>
								<div>
									&nbsp;</div>
								<div>
									<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Threats</strong></span></div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Lack of smooth business environment</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Frequent bandhs and strikes</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Lack of environment to work peacefully and uninterruptedly where the group is based</div>
							</div>
						</div>
					</div>
				</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-12',
			'modified' => '2014-03-24',
			'keywords' => 'new business age corporate focus news & articles, corporate focus news & articles from new business age nepal, corporate focus headlines from nepal,  current and latest corporate focus news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali corporate focus economic news and events,  ongoing  corporate foc',
			'description' => 'Chachan Group has evolved into a industrial house though it began its commercial journey as a trader.',
			'sortorder' => '2605',
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	(int) 13 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2734',
			'article_category_id' => '91',
			'title' => 'World Bank Stresses On Bankable PDA',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By TC Correspondent&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The World Bank Group has suggested that the Nepali government should focus on infrastructure sector, including hydropower, to achieve economic prosperity.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Wrapping up a six-day visit to Nepal on Saturday, board members underlined the need of developing hydropower and better connectivity. They emphasized the need to sign a bankable PDA.&rdquo;Nepal urgently needs to improve connectivity and power sectors,&rdquo; Jorg Frieden, executive director of the World Bank Group said.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;We need private sector to take lead in hydropower. And, we&rsquo;re working on to have a bankable PDA signed. Once that is done then we can bring full weight of the IFC,&rdquo; said Kyle F Kelhofer, IFC country manager for Nepal,&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Bangladesh and Bhutan.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He further said that IFC may be interested in equity investment on Upper Karnali Hydro Project. &nbsp;&ldquo;Any reasonable proposal that is technically and economically sound would be considered positively,&rdquo; Frieden added.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	They also suggested improving road connectivity to ensure road safety. On possible World Bank assistance to Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track, World Bank Country Director for Nepal Johannes Zutt said the bank is in discussion with the Nepali government on the issue.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The board members said that they see Nepal as a country that needs more resources and the bank will try its best to facilitate better resource mobilisation. However, the members cautioned that mobilisation of the resources would make sense only if it is combined with high quality policy and projects.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;The attention on political transition we know is certainly the priority, but it is not enough,&rdquo; said Frieden adding &ldquo;Economic growth is crucial to support transition. You cannot get stability if the economic performance does not improve. Thus attention on economy is necessary to facilitate the transition.&rdquo; He further added that the government should focus on creating jobs.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The team also emphasized spending in the public sector for the high economic growth. The emphasis comes a week after this fiscal year&rsquo;s mid-term budget review pointed that the capital expenditure stood at 30 percent, while only 19 percent of the allocated budget was spent on national pride projects. With World Bank country office in Nepal currently working on new country assistance strategy, the board members assured that they would recommend to the country teams&mdash;World Bank and IFC&mdash;to listen to the new government, new political leaders and society at large to understand what can be achieved and what really is expected.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-10',
			'modified' => '2014-03-24',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'The World Bank Group has suggested that the Nepali government should focus on infrastructure sector, including hydropower, to achieve economic prosperity.',
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			'id' => '2736',
			'article_category_id' => '138',
			'title' => 'UMN's 60 Years In Nepal Celebrated',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	United Mission to Nepal (UMN), a missionary INGO has celebrated its sixty-years in Nepal. A programme was held on March 5, Wednesday at the UMN headquarter in Thapathali. The occassion was marked by staff members releasing one hundred balloons, commemorating the contributions of UMN to the country in health, education, industrial development, community development and capacity building.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Congratulating UMN on these achievements, the Minister for Energy, Radha Kumari Gyawali said, &quot;The nation hopes for UMN&#39;s continuous service and contribution in the coming days; the work must go on.&quot; Recognising some current difficulties regarding UMN&#39;s headquarters property, Gyawali promised to work with all parties to achieve a fair and just resolution.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	A commemorative stone was unveiled by UMN&#39;s Executive Director Dr Mark Galpin and Madan Prasad Rimal, director of the Social Welfare Council. Rimal praised the organisation&#39;s work and commitment to the poor in Nepal. &quot;UMN came to work in Nepal in 1954. The Government of Nepal invited them to come and start work here. I can say confidently that all the work that UMN has done in these 60 years has been according to the priority and the need of the Government of Nepal,&quot; he said &quot;They have always been transparent in matters of resources and finance.&quot; More than 300 UMN staff and former staff, representatives of other INGOs, government, and the christian community observed the programme.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-10',
			'modified' => '2014-03-24',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'United Mission to Nepal (UMN), a missionary INGO has celebrated its sixty-years in Nepal. A programme was held on March 5, Wednesday at the UMN headquarter in Thapathali. The occassion was marked by staff members releasing one hundred balloons, commemorating the contributions of UMN to the country in health, education, industrial development, community development and capacity building.',
			'sortorder' => '2603',
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			'id' => '2770',
			'article_category_id' => '173',
			'title' => 'Emerging Trend: Diversification  Of Handicraft Products',
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			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepali handicrafts are produced following traditional methods, passed on from generations to generations. A set of ancestral heritage passed on from ancestors to forefathers to grandfather to father and to son. It continues and this continuity provides it the essence to remain distinct while reflecting and preserving diverse cultural values, indigenous aspects and traditions of Nepali lifestyle. Along with helping in the conservation of national heritage and culture, handicraft development creates employment opportunities and thereby contributes in alleviating poverty. Export of handicraft products has been growing since the last three decades. Arts and crafts is one of the major exporting industry of Nepal, earning foreign exchange and providing employment to thousands of Nepalis craftsmen, artisans, promoters and businessmen and generating revenue for the government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Due to the increased competition in the international market, product diversification has emerged as an essentiality for business growth. Along with other business sectors, it is vital for the handicraft industry to adapt and correspond to industry and consumer trends and to take advantage of them. One way of doing this is to diversify products. Growing or relatively new businesses choose to expand their product range and diversify into new areas as a way of appealing to new customers and offering more to existing customers. This necessity has been felt, understood and well adapted by Nepali handicraft industries.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Handicrafts in Nepal are mainly classified in two types: textile and non- textile products. Textile products mainly include: Pashmina, woollen, felt, silk, cotton, dhaka, hemp, and allo products. The non-textile products include silver jewellery, metal craft, handmade paper products, wood crafts, glass products, bone and horn products, crystal products, ceramics products, leather goods, incense, plastic items, paubha (thanka), beads items, stone craft, and bamboo products.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;The handicraft producers are coming up with more diversification in their product be it pashmina products or handmade paper products, one can get a range of diversification in these products,&rdquo; former president of Federation of Handicraft Association of Nepal (FHAN), Bikash Ratna Dhakwa said. &nbsp;&ldquo;The handicraft sector is responding to the product diversifying trend by expanding their product range without affecting their core business in a negative way,&rdquo; added Dhakwa.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Product diversification plays vital role in creating new markets by attracting its possible buyers,&rdquo; said Dhakwa while elaborating on the importance of the concept. He opines that handicraft producer must take time to think about the needs of the target market and try to identify new opportunities that will enable the business to stay ahead of competitors.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Product diversification is evident in the addition of new variety of handmade paper products in the local market. While accepting the benefits of the trend, Kiran Kumar Dangol, president of Handmade Paper Association of Nepal (HANDPASS) said, &ldquo;we are following the trend and this has resulted in the addition of a number of new product ranges to our existing ranges.&rdquo;He informed that the popular Nepali Lokta paper products are now being diversified further. &ldquo;We are moving ahead on diversifying Nepali Lokta paper products. Along with books and stationary products, we have moved on to produce fusion of handmade paper and cotton to develop wrapper products,&rdquo; said Dangol adding that they also have introduced new technology for using multicolour print in the handmade paper.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Dangol stressed on product diversification and encouraged its growing trend in the Nepali market where handicraft products hold a great importance. According to him, the market is flooded with a number of traditional handicraft products and now it&rsquo;s time that the handicraft producers offer new designs and new products that will once again bring boom in the national and international market of Nepali handicrafts.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He pointed to the need of producing products with competitive prices through creative incorporation of new technologies as one of the major reason for diversifying product ranges. &ldquo;Our traditional products are expensive. Production of new products through the use of new technologies assist in producing cost efficient products. Through renewed and upgraded marketing strategies we can market these products,&rdquo; Dangol said while providing the introduction of handmade paper jewelleries in handicraft products range as an instance to his statement.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Product diversification has also positively impacted the industry stakeholders. Dhakwa says that the manufacturers and producers have been encouraged to hire skilled manpower from the local market to bring diversity in their product ranges. &ldquo;Now we are getting more skilled technical manpower in this field,&rdquo; he said. The field is becoming more open to innovative designers who can add their creativity to traditional handicraft products. As such the products become more competitive in the national and international market.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Federation of Handicrafts Association of Nepal (FHAN) says that their members are becoming more quality conscious, upgrading their products and making product prices more competitive. In the recent years, corporate houses have started using handmade papers and even Pashmina products are being purchased at the local level compared to previous years.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/t3%20(Copy).jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 466px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Our new diversified product range now includes accessories for laptops and mobile,&rdquo; Dhakwa said and added that international buyers are also adding up new designs through their customized demands. Handicraft exporters claim that diversified products are playing an important role to increase export volume of handicraft products in the international market. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Handicraft has become a major source of foreign currency and is one of the major industries that have good international market. Government has been promoting this sector by recognising it as producer of competitive products for the international market. Along with existing players, new traders and producers are joining this industry and some of them are taking it online for making their products directly accessible to the international customers and market.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	During the first six months of the current fiscal year handicraft products (paintings, sculptures and statuary) worth Rs 292.10 million were exported to the international market, which is an 34 per cent increment compared to the same period last year, the Trade and Export Promotion Centre noted. Though the woollen carpet export increased by 40.3 per cent totalling up to Rs 3.63 billion trade, export of woollen and pashmina shawls during the same period increased only by ten percent with a total export of Rs 1.20 billion.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-25',
			'modified' => '2014-05-07',
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			'description' => 'The handicraft producers are coming up with more diversifi cation in their product be it pashmina products or handmade paper products, one can get a range of diversifi cation in these products.',
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	(int) 1 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2723',
			'article_category_id' => '40',
			'title' => 'Nepali Women As Entrepreneurs',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Siromani Dhungana</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepali women entrepreneurs have not broken the glass ceiling, says Pramila Rijal, president of SAARC Chamber Women Entrepreneurs Council (SCWEC). &ldquo;But they have already made the first cracks.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Rijal&rsquo;s idea rightly summarizes the present conditions of women in business in Nepal. Alka Rajouria Rijal, executive director at Federation of Women Entrepreneurs&rsquo; Association of Nepal is also of the same opinion. Women entrepreneurs have come far but they still have a long way to go, she opines.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	According to her, there are many issues that still need to be improved: access to finance, gender-responsive policies, family barriers and deconstructing stereotypes about women entrepreneurs.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs6(1).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 300px; height: 410px;" />Business: It was Men&#39;s Domain&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Hajuri Bista, one of the forerunners in the arena of women entrepreneurship says, &ldquo;I had never seen men and women work together. It was really challenging to get out of the dogma that women should take care of household chores and not venture into the business world.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In 1990, the country adopted a &nbsp;democratic political system but women entrepreneurs still finding not an easy path at that time, she recalls. Late Yangzi Sherpa, Ambica Shrestha, Rita Thapa, Maggie Shah, Renchin Yonjan, Shyam Badan Shrestha, Shanti Chadha, Nilam Pande, Mohini Lama, Brinda Rana and some other faces were managed to shine in this period as entreprenuers. They were the trailblazers at that time, Bista recalls.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&quot;Even after democracy, I have seen many times aspiring women entrepreneurs breaking into tears in meetings due to unexpected hurdles and apathy from their family and the society,&quot; she said reflecting on her experience. &ldquo;Why should be women engaged in business?&quot; &nbsp;was a common mindset at that time, she adds.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Fortunately, times have changed now. There are host ofefforts underway to boost women&rsquo;s participation in business and women are in the condition to get guidance &nbsp;in all phasesof entreprise development &nbsp;-- from training on leadership, to new forms of financing.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Entrepreneurship has been traditionally seen a male preserve and idea of women taking up entrepreneurial activities considered as a distant dream, she says. But the mindset has been changing, she adds. &ldquo;It takes time to change all the established social norms but we have achieved tremendous success in the field of women entrepreneurship.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs1(1).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; width: 300px; height: 204px;" />Has a Long Way to Go</strong></span></div>
<div>
	There are umpteen problems even now. Women face problem from their initial commencement of enterprise, says Barsha Shrestha, deputy chief executive officer at Clean Energy Development Bank.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The society still does not believe in their capacity and it is an uphill task for women to face such conflicts and cope with such challenges, she adds. Obtaining the support of bankers, managing the working capital, difficulty in getting credit are the problems to solve which male family member&#39;s support is still needed, she informs.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Now women are empowered enough and can lead big corporations too, says Ambica Shrestha, women entrepreneur and president of The Dwarika&rsquo;s Hotel. &ldquo;All they need is chance of working as freely as their male counterparts.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs2(1).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 300px; height: 188px;" />Absence of Entrepreneurial Aptitude</strong></span></div>
<div>
	If you have innovative idea to venture into business that is what we call entrepreneurship, says Renchin Yonjan. But male businessmen in Nepal lack entrepreneurial aptitude, she claims. Most of the women who are aspiring in entrepreneurs are involved either in their family business or in service sector that still does not have talents (male or female) with the basic ingredients of entrepreneurship. &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Parents want their daughter to be involved in jobs rather than entrepreneurship, shares Barsha Shrestha. The reason is clear. They do not want their daughters to take risk and put their money at risk.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Besides, even majority of women in the country lack entrepreneurial aptitude. Women have no entrepreneurial bent of mind, informs Pramila Rijal. &ldquo;But this problem does not prevail only among women but also among men too.&rdquo; &ldquo;Yes, women are more inclined towards household chores and existing social structure does not allow them to think broadly,&rdquo; she adds.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs3(1).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; width: 300px; height: 187px;" />Expand Access to Finance&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Women in the country have been facing many problems to get going with their business ideas. Finance shortage is one of them. Women entrepreneurs always suffer from inadequate financial recourses and working capital, says Rita Bhandary, president of Federation of Woman Entrepreneurs Associations of Nepal (FWEAN). They are not able to afford external finance due to absence of tangible assets as security. Women have very less property and bank balance in their name. Male members of the family do not want to invest their capital in the business run by women due to lack of confidence in the women&#39;s ability to run a venture successfully.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Most of the women entrepreneurs fail due to lack of proper financing facilities, because finance is life blood of every business activities, according to Shrestha. Marketing and financial problems are such obstacles where even training doesn&#39;t significantly help the women. Some problems are structural in nature and beyond the control of entrepreneurs. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Bankers often deny women credit on the ground of lack of collateral security, Shrestha says. Therefore, their access to risk capital is limited. Women cannot start big business ventures unless equal access of finance is ensured, Shrestha claims.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>A Wave of Progress in SME</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are possibly one of the best and most cost-effective avenues for furthering economic development. Slowly but gradually, women have been expanding their foothold in this SME field. Currently, women own about 14,300 small and medium enterprises in Nepal, accounting for 2 percent of GDP (registered formal sector) and employing over 200,000 workers. A study commissioned by IFC, private sector lending arm of the World Bank Group, suggests that meeting their current credit requirements of US$ 106 million can increase their contribution to the economy, according to SAARC Chamber Women Entrepreneurs Council (SCWEC).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Throughout the country, women have been setting up small and medium enterprises after acquiring the skills, resources, and support necessary to grow and sustain their businesses, says Alka Rajouria Rijal.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is very positive aspect of women in entrepreneurship that they are creating jobs at a time when the country is reeling under massive unemployment problem.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, women&rsquo;s involvement in entrepreneurship will not only contribute to create jobs but also to change the stereotyped role of women which is largely limited to household chores. All should motivate women entrepreneurs to give them the moral support for their business ideas.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs4(1).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 300px; height: 166px;" />Networking: Key to Success&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The equation is very simple: you have to expand your business once you start it, you have to develop a network to expand business and you have to have a free-society to develop a network, says Barsha Shrestha who believes that Nepali women are struggling to this end.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Women should have a very strong network at three levels: in the sector concerned, with all entrepreneurs and national and international level, according to women entrepreneur Renchin Yonjan.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Women have tremendous potential for networking as they are polite and soft compared to their male counterparts, she opines. In business, exposure gives knowledge. Exposure is key that will help women to materialize their dreams. Women entrepreneurs should get out from social restrictions, expand their contacts and start business ventures. Women entrepreneurs should not hesitate to create their brand.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Full-time entrepreneurs should have the broadest networks. Long-held belief is, however, that women have weaker networks and rely excessively on family and friends to build their business. This logic is directly linked with the perception that women cannot handle business independently and they are reliant on family and friends for networking, says Yonjan. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Dream Big&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The number of women-owned business has been growing over the past decade or so. However, evidences show that most of these businesses don&#39;t scale up. Further, women entrepreneurs are still considered suitable only in small and medium enterprises.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Over the last few years, it is found that women entrepreneurs often seem to be pigeonholed into the &lsquo;lifestyle business&rsquo; category or education sector in Nepal. This is obviously good but not enough, says Ambica Shrestha. Women entrepreneurs are still missing out on the chance of a bigger slice of the pie.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Women-owned businesses are still a drop in the ocean of commerce, according to Pramila Rijal. She suggests women entrepreneurs to dream high. &ldquo;It is time that women entrepreneurs start dreaming of setting up big corporations and running big businesses.&rdquo; We have to dream and we have to work to full our dreams, opines Rita Bhandary.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs5(1).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; width: 300px; height: 168px;" />Changing Scenario</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Picture a woman and you might imagine a women busy in domestic chores and childcare. Further, if someone speaks about a female entrepreneur and you might imagine a woman at the helm of a small business, perhaps in a cosmetic outlet or childcare centre.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For decades the symbol of women entrepreneurship has been, to many, the pickle, fashion or childcare. They were considered shadow of their male counterparts. Time has come now to break the stereotypes and women should take the baton.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On the one hand, the mindset of society has been changing, Yonjan opines. &ldquo;But challenges have also increased and women have to compete in the highly competitive world.&rdquo; Access to Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and better exposure to the rest of the world have provided unique opportunities to the women entrepreneurs to expand their footholds,&rdquo; she claims.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Our aim is not to steal the profit pie, which male entrepreneurs have been enjoying but to seek new chances of generating new and innovative sectors where women can see their future, says Yonjan. However, these sectors should not be limited to the small and medium industries.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;I am definitely seeing more women enter the entrepreneurship sector,&rdquo; Shrestha says. Is entrepreneurship a man&rsquo;s world? No not at all, she firmly believes. We need to break all the stereotypes prevailing regarding women in business.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Conclusion</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Women across the country have started several business ventures at their own initiatives. It is time to taking bigger steps towards providing flexible workplaces for women to get in the entrepreneurship. &quot;We know that where women are venturing now had been a male bastion. But that should not deter them. Women are equal partners in business,&rdquo; says Yonjan. All section of the society should encourage their effort of entering into the entrepreneurship because people&rsquo;s dream of peace and prosperity is directly related to the economic growth. Women&rsquo;s involvement in entrepreneurship should be encouraged because it will not only create more opportunities but also ensure inclusive growth. It will be imperative in achieving highest sustainable economic growth and employment and in raising living standard.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs1b.jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 611px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
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					<div style="text-align: center;">
						<span style="font-size:18px;"><strong>World&rsquo;s Top 10 Influential Female Entrepreneurs&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Wu Yajun" src="/userfiles/images/1%20(Copy)(5).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 117px;" />Wu Yajun</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Wu Yajun holds the title of229th richest person in the world. The journalist-turned Chinese businesswoman is the Chairwoman of Longfor Properties, an investment holding company, which manages several businesses including real estate and property investment, development and management across China. Born to an ordinary family in 1965, she and her former husband founded Chongqing Zhongjianke Real Estate Co Ltd in 1995, which was later renamed as Longfor Properties. &nbsp;Her net worth as of 2013 is estimated at USD 4.4 billion. Wu is also serving as the member of China&#39;s National People&#39;s Congress. She is among the top 50 in Forbes&#39; Power-Women list.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Zhang Yin" src="/userfiles/images/2%20(Copy)(5).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 119px;" />Zhang Yin</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Zhang Yin is the founder and director of China&#39;s biggest paper maker- Nine Dragons Paper Holdings Limited. The company buys scraps from US and other parts of the world and turns them into cardboard boxes to export Chinese goods. At the age of 49 in 2006, she became the first woman to top the list of richest Chinese businesspersons, according to the Huron Report. Zhang Yin&#39;s net worth is estimated at USD 3.9 billion as of 2012.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Rosalia Mera" src="/userfiles/images/3%20(Copy)(5).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 119px;" />Rosalia Mera</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Rosalia Mera is the co-founder of Inditex, a worldwide fashion retailer, which owns famous brands such as Zara, Massimo Dutti, Pull and Bear and Bershka among others. At the age of 11 Mera dropped out of school and began to work as a sales person in a clothing store. With her former husband, she co-founded the Zara clothing chain in 1975, which later became the world&#39;s largest fashion retailer. Mera died on 15th August 2013 after suffering a stroke at the age of 69. At the time of her death she was the richest woman in Spain and the world&#39;s richest self-made woman. Before her death, Rosalia&#39;s net worth was estimated at USD 6.1 billion.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Oprah Winfrey" src="/userfiles/images/4%20(Copy)(4).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 117px;" />Oprah Winfrey</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Oprah Winfrey has been ranked as the richest African-American of the 20th century who is currently North America&#39;s only black billionaire. The 60- year old celebrity entrepreneur and philanthropist is best known for her talk show &quot;The Oprah Winfrey Show&quot;, which was considered as the highest-rated program of its kind in history from 1986 to its ending in 2011. She was also the world&#39;s only black billionaire in between 2004-2006. Winfrey is the founder of Harpo Productions, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) television channel and Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls. Oprah received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013, the highest civilian award of the United States. Her net worth is estimated at USD 2.9 billion as of 2013.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Arianna Huffington" src="/userfiles/images/5%20(Copy)(3).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 117px;" />Arianna Huffington</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Arianna Huffington is the creator of the Pulitzer-prize winning news website and blog &quot;The Huffington Post.&quot; She started the website in 2005. In 2009, she ranked 12 in Forbes&#39; list of the Most Influential Women in Media. The 63-year old Greek-American author and syndicated columnist has an estimated net worth of USD 35 million. In 2011, after the sale of The Huffington Post to AOL for USD 315 million, she became the President and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group. &nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw" src="/userfiles/images/6%20(Copy)(2).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 119px;" />Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is the chairman and managing director of Biocon Limited, a biotech company based in Bangalore. Partnering with an Irish firm to make industrial enzymes, she founded the company in 1978 when she was just 25 with a seed capital of Rs 10,000. She is regarded as India&rsquo;s first biotech entrepreneur. The 60-year old businesswoman is also the Chairman of Indian Institute of Management (IIM-Banglore). She is in the Forbes&#39; list of the world&#39;s 100 most powerful women and the Financial Times&rsquo; top 50 women in business list. As of 2010, her net worth is estimated at USD 900 million.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Yelena Baturina" src="/userfiles/images/7%20(Copy)(2).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 115px;" />Yelena Baturina</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Regarded as the richest Russian woman and the Russia&#39;s only woman with net worth more than USD one billion, Yelena Baturina is the founder of construction and infrastructure investment company Inteco. She founded the company in 1991 as a plastic manufacturer but later changed its business. Baturina witnessed her net worth fell dramatically during the height of the financial crisis of 2008/09. The 50-year old entrepreneur also owns a hotel chain and is the founder of BE OPEN, a cultural and philanthropic foundation.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Giuliana Benetton" src="/userfiles/images/8%20(Copy)(2).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 116px;" />Giuliana Benetton</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Giuliana Benetton is the founder of Benetton Group, a worldwide fashion brand, which operates a network of more than 6,500 stores and outlets across 120 countries. The Italian company, which is fully owned by the Benetton family, owns famous clothing line-up brands such as United Colors of Benetton, Undercolors of Benetton, Playlife and Sisley. Giuliana started the family business in 1965 by knitting sweaters. At the age of 76, Giuliana is currently serving asdirector of Benetton Group and Edizione S.R.L, a financial holding company of the Benetton family. Her net worth is estimated at USD 2 billion as of 2013.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Mary Perkins" src="/userfiles/images/9%20(Copy).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 119px;" />Mary Perkins</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Mary Perkins is the richest self-made British businesswoman. Alongside with her husband Douglas Perkins, she co-founded Specsavers in 1984, a leading global retail chain of optics (eyeglasses and contact lenses), hearing equipment and optician services. Born in 1944, Mary was the daughter of an optician who studied optometry at Cardiff University where she met Douglas.</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						Specsavers Optical Group Ltd which is fully owned and by Perkins family operates 1,650 stores across the globe. Mary became the first female optician in the UK to receive the title of &quot;Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire&quot; (DBE) in 2007. She was also included in the list of BBC Radio 4&#39;s 100 most powerful women in the UK. As of 2011, her net worth is estimated at USD 1.15 billion.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Yoshiko Shinohara" src="/userfiles/images/10%20(Copy)(1).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 119px;" />Yoshiko Shinohara</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Yoshiko Shinihora is considered as the most influential Japanese female entrepreneur. At the age of 77, she is currently the chairman and CEO of Tempstaff Co. Ltd, a human resource management and consulting firm that specializes in contingent hiring, job placement along with childcare services. The company operates and provides services to its 59,000 clients across the world including Japan,United States, China, Singapore, India, Indonesia and South Korea. Shinohara started the company as a temporary job recruitment agency with a seed capital of USD 9,000 in 1973 in her apartment after divorcing at the age of 38. At first, she struggled to find clients as she had to lobby against Japan government&#39;s stiff opposition to temporary job placements. Her business flourished in the 1990s as economic downturn coupled with rising deflation forced Japanese companies to abandon long-term job guarantees to their employees. Tempstaff now has 5,000 staffs and earns USD 2.9 billion annually.&nbsp;</div>
				</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-07',
			'modified' => '2014-05-07',
			'keywords' => 'new business age cover story news & articles, cover story news & articles from new business age nepal, cover story headlines from nepal,  current and latest cover story news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali cover story economic news and events,  ongoing  cover story news of nepal',
			'description' => 'Women entrepreneurship is gaining importance in Nepal as well. In this issue, NewBiz focuses on the problems, issues, challenges faced by Nepali women entrepreneurs, and ways to overcome them.',
			'sortorder' => '2616',
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	(int) 2 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2760',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Retreat Of The Meek Fellow',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Finally, the new coalition government has taken a shape. But it took complete three months since the second elections to the Constituent Assembly (CA-II), on 19th of November, 2013. Prime Minister Sushil Koirala who first allegedly agreed two weeks ago to entrust Home Ministry portfolio to its potentially unavoidable coalition partner, the CPN-UML, had flickered and temporarily back-tracked on this commitment; once he got sworn in to the post. It invited a nasty public exchange of diatribes between the leaders of the ruling Nepali Congress and major partner, the UML. But, if he wanted to save his government, Koirala had no other viable alternative to succumbing to UML demands of Home Ministry to be led by none other than the &#39;big muscled&#39; &nbsp;UML Vice-chairman Bamdev Gautam. Koirala&#39;s space of political maneuvering was further tapered by complete non-cooperation from his own party colleague Sher Bahadur Deuba which compounded the task of giving a complete shape to the government. The perception of insecurity in Koirala was not unfounded. He indeed was apprised of the potential danger by those who have knowledge of informal level of intimacy between Deuba and UML Parliamentary Party leader K P Oli. Unlike Koirala, who hardly suffered any mention-worthy length of jail term during the panchyat days, Deuba and Oli for years spent in the same prison cell. And, now they share same wavelength of banter and modus operandi of &#39;practical politics&#39; of money, muscle, maneuvering and machinations.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As the bare arithmetic in the House has it, Nepali Congress doesn&rsquo;t have any other option than placating the UML unless it had chosen to appease both UCPN (Maoists) and Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal (RPP-N) to sum up to the magic number of three hundred and one to save the government. But, the latter option to materialize involved a lot of ground-work and maneuvering, yet disposing the possible coalition always to walk on the razor-edge. Nonetheless, given the track record of the UML, the Maoists and the RPP-N would perhaps have been relatively easier bed-fellows for Congress. Yet, it is mere a conjecture.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This unpleasant episode of Home Ministry row at the very initial days of the Koirala-led coalition has three clear indications. First, Koirala as the prime minster has very little flexibility than resorting to the politics of give-and-take. Second, he takes hard stances at wrong turnings, the only consequence of which is to back-track rather humiliatingly, virtually in no time. Third, no party is reading the crucial arithmetic of the House before resorting to high-pitched verbal bashing in a political reality that is mandated for nothing but a coalition rule.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Why is the Home Ministry such a big controversy in every stage of government formation? Not only in the cross-party power sharing as is now, there are instances even when a single party majority rule, the portfolio is contested to the extreme among the aspirants. There may be some political arguments forwarded by its minister-aspirants to bag the post, but the craving is rather a political anti-thesis. This time around, Gautam could convince his party that the party would perform better if he became the home minister. The Congress aspirants who stopped Koirala from conceding the ministry to UML have had similar claims. Essentially, these were just the premonitions to destabilize and debase democracy by advocating straight rigging in the elections, misusing the state machinery. But the current political values of Nepal seem to have, unfortunately, accepted is as part of the game. If we evaluated history, any such impact of altering election results or adding the political clout of the party awarded with this portfolio, however, are mere perceptive fallacies. The reality is something different.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Home Ministry is a marrying point of politics with crime. Apart from possible corruption avenues, the minister will have unhindered access to unearmarked security expenses under titles like &#39;for intelligence operation&#39; and &#39;FADA&#39; (financial assistance, donation and awards). Being the joint head of the civil administration with extensive quasi-judicial rights at the district level represented by the chief district officers (CDOs) and of two police organizations ensure the incumbent a stream of incomes in enormous sizes. Such lucre comes from every source you can think of, or may be even beyond that, including the contrabands, counterfeits, smuggling, extortion and human trafficking. Therefore, it is not any surprise why every ex-home minister has a noted underworld operator under his protection and some parties have even given them seats in the party central committees. That is that.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In his entire political career, Koirala&#39;s main working strategy has been the procrastination of the crucial decisions. This old habit of his doesn&#39;t seem to have died, even though he is the prime minister now. At his personal level, indecision comes in two forms; he doesn&#39;t read any file to be decided upon, it depends on some of his &#39;trusted&#39; lieutenants to do the job and brief him. And, he doesn&#39;t &#39;trust&#39; those briefings too and begins to investigate whether there could be any vested interest involved of the person who briefed thus. And, the safest he finds is not to decide anything. This is not a desirable quality in any chief executive, that too of Nepal in these pressing hours when many important agenda await decisions, rather sooner.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The phrase &#39;within one year&#39; becomes a wont in tongue of all major politicians in the coalition. The initial promise was to write and promulgate the new constitution within a year from the date of the CA elections-II. It is now the fourth month running since and parties are signing so called agreements to deliver a constitution again, within a year. The understanding between the two major coalition partners, Congress and UML, to shuffle the prime ministership after a year makes us apprehensive. Implicitly, they are saying shamelessly, that the constitution will not be written within a year from now on. The intentions are not honest.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For now, Koirala&#39;s quest for corruption-free governance is a task impossible in view of the coalition made shaky by severe intra-party wranglings and factionalisms in both of the major ruling parties. Gautam at the helm of Home Ministry is sure to let loose all possible &#39;channels&#39; of illegal trade in gold, currencies and goods. He proudly repeats &#39;one year in the ministry is enough to finance the personal politics for a decade and even larger benefit to the party in the longer-term.&#39; It is not difficult to foresee that Koirala would helplessly witness the drama of the ministers who behave more smartly than himself, albeit merely in their vested interests. Technically, he cannot afford to break the coalition. In practice, he cannot assert designs due to his meekness. And, politically he is a redundant deadwood who doesn&#39;t enthuse with vision and mission of his own, and keeps on bungling processes as he did in forming the current government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He has severe diplomatic drawbacks. He is not &#39;wholly&#39; trusted by the southern neighbour. There was a point in history when he was alleged of having connections with the people with dubious backgrounds like late Jamin Shah and the likes who were suspected of mobilizing funds from suspicious sources. The West is apprehensive for the same reason as India is and China knows &#39;very little&#39; about him as their official press points out. Therefore, his identity crisis couples with his crisis of confidence to run the government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is not difficult to see that even the second CA election has not taught any lesson to our leaders. Therefore, the priority is still being given to power-sharing games than to writing of the constitution. As pointed out by UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal that constitution is &#39;unlikely&#39; to be written even by this CA appears to be self-fulfilling. The priorities of the coalition partners are different from constitution writing. The Oli-Gautam duo in UML wants to exploit every possible benefit of being in the government to win the party presidency for Oli in its national convention slated for coming May. There is even a widespread concern that the local elections now considered for April might be pushed further away due to the convention to elect new executive.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are enormous challenges and externalities. Leaders like Dahal and Kamal Thapa of RPP-N would be happier to see that this coalition failed, just because they wanted to prove that no one is better in terms of delivery. Being in the government is perhaps the sweetest part of the cake. When the process of finalizing the provisions of the new constitution actually begins, demands and impediments from outside of CA are likely to rule the roost. Madhesis, janjatis and pro-identity federalist have plans of forwarding their agenda through protests on streets to incorporate them in the constitution; ignoring the fact that they were largely rejected by the voters. The moves of Maoist-Baidya group could even be more irksome.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The only good sign is that the two largest parties in the CA have been able to form a coalition. A couple of other fringe parties have come to their support. Ideologically, the coalition is perhaps the closest-- best explained by their unconditional stance on ballot-based democracy. Above all, the coalition commands more than two-thirds of majority in CA and the Legislature Parliament.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But the prime minister must develop a habit of deciding things than only being a meek onlooker. And, the work on constitution writing must now begin without any further delay.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-11',
			'modified' => '2014-04-11',
			'keywords' => 'new business age  nepal politics news & articles, nepal politics news & articles from new business age nepal, nepal politics headlines from nepal,  current and latest nepal politics news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali nepal politics economic news and events,  ongoing  nepal politics ne',
			'description' => 'Prime Minister Sushil Koirala who first allegedly agreed two weeks ago to entrust Home Ministry portfolio to its potentially unavoidable coalition partner, the CPN-UML, had flickered.',
			'sortorder' => '2615',
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	(int) 3 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2724',
			'article_category_id' => '91',
			'title' => 'A Donor-Dependent Private Sector',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Siromani Dhungana and Hom Nath Gaire&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Aid orientation has been evident among Nepal&rsquo;s private sector organizations as they are hell bent on bagging projects from donor agencies to carry out activities for their own welfare and day to day activities. Sometimes, their race for getting projects appears to be &lsquo;unhealthy&rsquo;.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Here are some examples:&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>USAID Nepal Economic, Agriculture and Trade (NEAT) activity provided grant to the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) to conduct Public Private Dialogue (PPD) on draft of Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Act (FITTA) last year. The draft was prepared by the Institute of Policy Research and Development (IPRAD). CNI&rsquo;s rival, the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), started to criticize the activities under that project. The dispute became visible when the FNCCI formally organized a programme to challenge some provisions of the draft such as allowing Nepali investors to invest abroad, and accused that the draft was totally in favour of some businessmen affiliated to CNI. Due to the controversy, the Ministry of Industry could not table the draft at the Cabinet meeting. Government officials say that the reason behind the conflict between FNCCI and CNI was nothing more than the grant from USAID NEAT, which phased out last year.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>European Union had tentatively agreed, according to a FNCCI source, to provide a grant of five-million euro to FNCCI for the promotion of products listed in the Nepal Trade Integration Strategy in the European market. Later, the project was bagged by CNI in the name of &ldquo;Go International&rdquo;. In informal discussions, FNCCI officials still blame CNI for using all kinds of tricks to get the project. In this case, even employees at EU were dragged into controversy. Now, the project is being handled by CNI instead of FNCCI.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Similar is the case of the SAARC Trade Promotion Network (SAARC TPN), a regional trade facilitation project supported by German International Cooperation (GIZ). There was a big hue and cry on which organization should represent Nepal&rsquo;s private sector in this project as the project seeks participation from all SAARC countries. Both FNCCI and CNI were at loggerheads over the participation. Later, the GIZ decided to include all umbrella organization creating different sub committees to settle the dispute. The third organization, Federation of Nepal Cottage and Small Industries (FNCSI), also became a part of the project due to dispute between two big organizations, FNCCI and CNI.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Businessmen affiliated with Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) started a new initiative, National Business Initiatives (NBI) with grants from International Alert and GIZ. Many consider it as NCC&rsquo;s attempt to get projects from donor agencies.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Foreign Aid: A Meeting Agenda</strong></span></div>
<div>
	According to some members of CNI and FNCCI, members of both umbrella organizations get engaged in heated debates over foreign aid during their board meetings.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Some members directly accuse the leadership of inefficiency if the rival organization gets a donor-funded project, a member of FNCCI told The Corporate on the condition of anonymity.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a shame that our businessmen openly ask for projects during talks with representatives of the donor agencies,&rdquo; a CNI member said, &ldquo;They should be rather talking about bilateral trade or expanding Nepali business abroad or even inviting foreign investors.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Making Umbrella Organizations a Begging Bowl&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Why is our private sector making the umbrella organizations a begging bowl? It is tough question. It is no surprise as our private sector has &lsquo;feudal mindset&rsquo; and they are hell bent on amassing profit, ethically or unethically, says Deependra Bahadur Kshetry, former vice-chairman at National Planning Commission.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is shameful that they are also dependent on the government to carry out their activities. But they scold the government whenever they get the chance just to cover their own weaknesses, he claimed.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepal&rsquo;s private sector lacks innovative approach, he opined. &ldquo;They utilize their creativity just to make profit from the policy lapses. For instance, they amassed billions from the multi-billion VAT scam. Problems such as under and over-invoicing, income splitting and transfer pricing are rampant,&rdquo; said Kshetry.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Instead of making the umbrella organizations a begging bowl, the private sector should utilize their income source to become self-reliant, he said.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Major umbrella organizations &ndash; FNCCI, CNI and NCC &ndash; are member-based organizations and they should run from their members&rsquo; contributions, a businessman suggested. Besides, FNCCI, CNI and NCC earned millions by issuing Certificate of Origin. But the problem is they are never transparent, according to him.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Dependency to what Extent?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	It may sound ridiculous but it is a fact that Nepal&rsquo;s private sector seeks help from the government not only for promotional activities but also to get opportunities for foreign trips and organizing events such as seminars, summits and conferences. For example, some umbrella organizations wrote to the government demanding that the government bear their travel costs to participate in the Ministerial Meet of WTO held in Bali, Indonesia. But the government refused the proposal.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Representatives of the umbrella organisations promote their businesses abroad but ask the government to provide air-fare and other essential cost, an official said. This suggests that Nepal&rsquo;s private sector is completely dependent and inefficient, Kshetry claimed. &ldquo;Many evidences show that, apart from some genuine firms, we can categorize our private sector just as household businesses.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td bgcolor="#E5E4E2">
				<div>
					<div>
						<div style="text-align: center;">
							<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>They Get Aid From</strong></span></div>
						<div style="text-align: center;">
							&nbsp;</div>
						<div>
							<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>FNCCI:</strong></span> FNCCI has been actively cooperating with various foreign / international organizations such as UNDP, USAID, DFID, UNIDO, UNCTAD/GATT/ITC, THE WORLD BANK, ILO, PPPUE, SEQUA-GTZ Private Sector Promotion Project, UNFPA, Asia-Invest, JICA, IOE, NIKKEIREN, APO, JETRO, SAARC Secretariat, ICIMOD, AOTS etc in carrying out various activities for the promotion of business and industry. (Source: FNCCI)</div>
						<div>
							&nbsp;</div>
						<div>
							<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>CNI:</strong></span> USAID, European Union, GIZ, DFID, IFC, Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship etc.</div>
						<div>
							&nbsp;</div>
						<div>
							<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Nepal Chamber of Commerce:</strong></span> Nepal Chamber of Commerce is representing Nepal as a national focal point for Regional Investment Information and Promotion Services (RIIPS) of UN\ESCAP. The Chamber has been conducting seminar and training, related to business and economy, with the help of International organizations, such as International Trade Centre &ndash; ITC (UNCTAD &ndash; WTO) and the Asian Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology (APCTT). (Source: NCC)</div>
					</div>
				</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-09',
			'modified' => '2014-04-10',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'The umbrella organisations of the Nepali private sector are vying with each other to lure foreign grants. This is damaging their public image.',
			'sortorder' => '2614',
			'image' => null,
			'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00',
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	(int) 4 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2725',
			'article_category_id' => '109',
			'title' => 'Mid-term Monetary Review Creates Sell-off In Stocks',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By TC Correspondent</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In an apparent sign of continuing weakness, Nepal stock Exchange Limited (Nepse) index closed nearly 9.15 points lower on Sunday, the first trading day of the week. Declined in the barometer of country&rsquo;s capital market is attributed by fall in the majority sub-indices traded in the day. Along the Nepse, sensitive index which represents share trading of class &lsquo;A&rsquo; listed companies fell 2.22 points. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Out of total seven sub-index traded Sunday, six were in red. The Insurance sub-index was the biggest loser which fell 40.36 points followed by Hydropower sub-index (16.92) and Banking sub-index (11.99 points). Similarly, sub-indices of &lsquo;Others&rsquo;, Hotels and Development Banks fell respectively by 4.7 points, 3.58 points and 3.41 points. In the mean time, Finance sub-index was only the gainer of the day which increased 6.89 points. Sunday around 732 thousand units of shares of 125 companies were traded through 2347 transactions, which worth Rs. 300 million as daily turnover. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Weekly Indices" src="/userfiles/images/weekly.jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 354px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Weekly Review</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepse index fell 20.05 points last week. The benchmark index which was closed on Sunday due to public holiday started its weekly trading on Monday at 825.70 points and settled down at 805.65 points on the last day (Thursday). After witnessing three straight weeks of gains, Nepse, retreated back last week as investors went to secure their gains through profit-booking strategy.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Analysts say that the investment in the domestic market lost steam after the central bank in its mid-term review of monetary policy of FY 2013/14 hinted to the tightening of margin lending against share certificates. In recent months, margin lending has become one of the attractive investment tools in the country&rsquo;s financial sector as the swelling liquidity is leaving the banks without much investment options in real sectors.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, analysts also opine that settlement of political issues regarding the formation of new government has also affected the domestic stock market. Investors were highly encouraged to book their profits that they earned from the stocks that they purchased during post election months. This indicates that the positive impact of new political development by second CA election is fading.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepse registered as highest as 811.04 points on the opening day (Monday) and observed lowest level at 800.05 points on Tuesday of the last week. During the last week, 3.69 million units of shares worth Rs 1.19 billion were traded in the stock market through 9,514 transactions. The weekly turnover declined 19.32 per cent while, number of transactions shed 12.98 per cent compared to the previous week. Meanwhile, unit of shares traded rose 3 per cent. Nepal Bank Limited climbed to the top spot in terms of weekly turnover. Similarly, Nabil Balance Fund-1 grabbed the top position in terms of number of share units being transacted for the week. In terms of market capitalization, Nepal Telecom maintained its top spot as earlier weeks. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Most of the trading sub-indices saw declining trend last week. Hotels sub-index was the biggest weekly gainer with 37.37 points followed by Hydropower (21.04 points), Insurance (9.85 points) and Finance (0.13 points).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&lsquo;Others&rsquo; was seen as the biggest weekly loser as the sub-index declined 16.44 points. Sub-indices of development banks and commercial banks, meanwhile, lost 7.37 points and 6.68 points respectively. Sub-indices of Trading, Manufacturing and processing, meanwhile, remained unchanged for the week. Reflecting the declining trend in major sub-indices, Sensitive Index representing the share trading of blue chip stocks belonging to class &lsquo;A&rsquo; listed companies also fell 1.63 points. &nbsp;</div>',
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			'created' => '2014-03-09',
			'modified' => '2014-04-09',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'In an apparent sign of continuing weakness, Nepal stock Exchange Limited (Nepse) index closed nearly 9.15 points lower on Sunday, the first trading day of the week. Declined in the barometer of country’s capital market is attributed by fall in the majority sub-indices traded in the day. Along the Nepse, sensitive index which represents share trading of class ‘A’ listed companies fell 2.22 points.',
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	(int) 5 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2766',
			'article_category_id' => '52',
			'title' => 'Housing The Business',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The housing and the real estate business (HREB) has a double-sword positive effect on the economy. It is a global perspective to this business, perhaps barring Nepal. It is a capital intensive business like any other profit making venture and, at the same time, helps to solve a pressing problem of shelter to the populace. But despite the potential, Nepali HREB languishes in absurdities and hangs on to uncertainties. It has been more than one and a half decades since HREB began in an organised fashion led by private sector investment. But the bottlenecks of policy confusions, information asymmetries and public (mis)perceptions remain the same as they used to be a decade ago.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	According to a rough estimate, Nepali HREB is now worth more than Rs 150 billion, which is a third of the current year&#39;s national budget. There is an estimated annual demand of some forty five thousand units of family apartments, mainly in the urban centres of the country. Half of the demand is only in the Kathmandu valley. But, the total annual cumulative supply of apartment-type living is limited only to sixteen thousand units nation-wide. The demand and supply mis-match is one half of the story and the price and financing mismatch is the other.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	What&#39;s wrong with Nepali HREB as an investment and growth industry? Perhaps everything! The government doesn&#39;t have a comprehensive policy on it. In addition, the very perspective of the government about HREB is largely bigotry. Some regulations regarding ownership have been issued but implementation has not been as effective as expected. Given the fact that the private sector is doing a national service by providing housing facilities to the people which otherwise is the government&rsquo;s responsibility, it should have acknowledged and treated accordingly. As long as the government considers itself as the vehicle to an egalitarian society, it is indeed the government&rsquo;s responsibility to address problems like this.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	One emulative recent example could be the British government&rsquo;s initiative of Help-to-Buy (HTB) scheme, introduced by Chancellor George Osborne&rsquo;s last fiscal year budget, targeting the first time home owners. The &pound;25 billion scheme that began in January 2014 plans equity finance of 20 percent of the cost of buying or constructing a new house. The government plans to implement the HTB scheme in a three year time horizon. The objectives are well defined. First, to help revive the ailing HREB and also simultaneously support lower end populace to own a house of their own.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But in our case, the government is treating the investors and developers as criminals and crooks, let alone contemplating providing an equity financing. It was true that there was a degree of over-exposure of the finical sector to HREB. But that was a compulsion at a point of time due to utter lack of other sectors for the BFIs to invest. Shouldn&#39;t the government share the blame for failing to create an atmosphere for a diversified business and thus the BFIs&#39; investment? Instead, the government apparatus is at complete loss of direction to address the problems of the sector. On top of that a rung of top public service officials were determined to ruin the entire HREB.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Without naming names, there are projects in limbo which would have been completed well if the institutions like the central bank wouldn&#39;t have been vindictive to some chosen promoters of the schemes. It is true that some developers had had multiple business stakes and resorted to some duplicity. But the right approach for the government and central bank strategy should have been to save the projects and investment and penalize and admonish only the wrong-doers. To say the least, the government has not been sensitive to the potential ramifications of its apathy and antipathy to HREB.</div>',
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			'created' => '2014-03-24',
			'modified' => '2014-04-09',
			'keywords' => 'new business age  from the editor news & articles, from the editor news & articles from new business age nepal, from the editor headlines from nepal,  current and latest from the editor news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali from the editor economic news and events,  ongoing  from the edi',
			'description' => 'The housing and the real estate business (HREB) has a double-sword positive effect on the economy. It is a global perspective to this business, perhaps barring Nepal. It is a capital intensive business like any other profit making venture and, at the same time, helps to solve a pressing problem of shelter to the populace. But despite the potential, Nepali HREB languishes in absurdities and hangs on to uncertainties. It has been more than one and a half decades since HREB began in an organised fashion led by private sector investment. But the bottlenecks of policy confusions, information asymmetries and public (mis)perceptions remain the same as they used to be a decade ago.',
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	(int) 6 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2767',
			'article_category_id' => '46',
			'title' => '“Hospitality Is The Right Industry”',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;">Anil Malik is the general manager of Radisson Hotel Kathmandu since August 2013. He has wide experience in the hospitality sector and this is his third tenure with the Carlson Group. Earlier he has worked with the Grand Hyatt, Centara Hotels and Resorts and the O Hotel. He spoke to the New Business Age about his experience in Nepal and the tourism possibilities of the country.&nbsp;</span><strong style="font-size: 16px;">Excerpts:&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Tell us about your career and corporate journey?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Right from my childhood I have seen my mother hosting guests at home. I did Bachelor of Science with geology as major. However after graduation I got interested in hospitality. I appeared in the all India entrance examination, I was qualified and with great hard work I jumped into the hospitality industry.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Why hotels and hospitality? What points of attraction and challenges mark work in hotel sector?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	I personally feel that hospitality is the only sector where you meet so many unique people, learn new culture and learn new food habits. That&rsquo;s why I personally feel that hospitality is the right industry for a person like me who loves food and meet new people.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Carlson Group is the only group, which is expanding, in large capacity. In India we in 2014 we are expecting to have 50 new properties. We are expanding in China, and Hong Kong. In Nepal there are possibilities of expansion and my company is seriously looking to it. Because the country has lots of potential and I have also visited some of the places such as Chitawan and Pokhara, which hold high possibilities. A feasibility report for these possibilities is underway and which I look forward to present at the Carlson office. Carlson has got various brands under its umbrella. We have got budget segments therefore possibilities can be worked out according to the demand. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>What major practices have you introduced in Radisson in the last quarter?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	When I joined I found training opportunities lacking here. There are many hotel management colleges in the country but the biggest challenge is that most of the graduate go aboard to work thereby creating scarcity of skilled manpower. Since my initial days here I have always tried to engage with the staff and to make them more management friendly. There are a number of union issues in Nepal and here also there were some issues in the past. I have been trying to resolve this issue in a professional way by engaging with the employees and interacting with them through open communication channels. As part of this strategy, we started organizing Friday town hall meeting where the general manager interacts about the budget and other management issues with the staff. This is one of the initiations that I took. Apart from that we have started participating in various corporate social responsibility programmes and as a part of it we have made some donation to the Red Cross Nepal and on February 15 we organized Radathon in association with the Nepal Tourism Board.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>What contribution have you made specifically in making the hotel more hospitable?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Last year we added around hundred rooms to existing 160 rooms capacity of hotel Radisson. The additional hundred rooms are very modern compared to other hotels. And now my task is to see that the corporate people target these hundred rooms. To achieve this objective we are building close ties with the corporate sector. Besides this we are going to open the doors of our new Indian cuisine restaurant to our guest and adding to that a Japanese restaurant opening in the pipeline.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>What are the major challenges of hotel industry in Nepal? How do you think they can be addressed?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Recently Trip Advisor rated Nepal as the hottest destination. The only challenge I personally feel here is that the tour operators who are getting this groups in the country they are somehow trying to undersell Nepal as a major tourist destination. The occupancy must have grown but not the revenue and let&rsquo;s not forget that tourism plays a very important role in the development of the country&rsquo;s economy. Therefore we should try not to undersell Nepal. Costly airfare is another problem. It costs around Rs 50,000 to fly back and forth to Delhi. Such a high fare, I think, is bringing down the number of Indian tourist visiting Nepal. At the same time the rooms are expensive as we have 18 hours power cuts and we cannot compromise with our services for our guests. That is revenue is less and expenses are more.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Tourism potentials are very high in Nepal but the income is still around $ 5 billion and 11 per cent of the nation&rsquo;s GDP. Where is &nbsp;the disconnect? What can be done in this context by the private sector and the government?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	In Nepal there are many areas, which can be explored. Tourist visit Nepal mostly to see Kathmandu. The government of Nepal along with the Nepal Tourism Board should brand it as &lsquo;Explore Nepal&rsquo; and they should come out with new destinations that are still to be explored. I personally feel that the government should identify new values and new areas to attract much more tourist.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>What is the situation of skilled manpower in the hospitality industry?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	There are eight five-star hotels since a very long time. Though the government has itself not taken any measures to expand it, very soon three hotels are coming to Nepal. Along with that the government has also signed agreements with around ten other five-star properties. Opening of these hotels will open new job opportunities. What I have found is staff appointment in Nepal is very low. Job openings are available only if a person retires from the position or moves abroad. So how do you expect to have new talent when there are no new hotels and no new vacancies?</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>What are your suggestions to the major hotel and tourism management colleges? What inputs should they make to develop talent here?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	They have to be more professional, the corporate culture has to be taught and exposure has to be given to them. And the same time they should have a tie up with some groups of hotel where some concrete steps can be taken. At the moment my hotel has around 80 trainees but what about the other students as there are only eight five-star hotels. &nbsp;Definitely the remaining students will move abroad.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>What is your personal management philosophy with regards to hotel management and its efficient leadership?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Speaking on a personal note there has to be a leadership quality and attitude has to be very positive. Along with it one should have an urge to teach the juniors, should believe in teamwork as it&rsquo;s not possible to achieve the objectives without team work. At the same time one should try to impart maximum knowledge to juniors to make the team competent. The country should also have a corporate culture, which I hope will definitely grow.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>',
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			'created' => '2014-03-24',
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			'description' => 'Anil Malik is the general manager of Radisson Hotel Kathmandu since August 2013. He has wide experience in the hospitality sector and this is his third tenure with the Carlson Group. Earlier he has worked with the Grand Hyatt, Centara Hotels and Resorts and the O Hotel. He spoke to the New Business Age about his experience in Nepal and the tourism possibilities of the country. Excerpts:',
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	(int) 7 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2765',
			'article_category_id' => '47',
			'title' => 'A Visionary Developer',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Sujan Tiwari</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Om Rajbhandary, Executive Chairman of Brihat Group and Chairman of Comfort Housing is a long-familiar name in Nepali real estate sector. Many may find it hard to believe that one of the most prominent developers and the pioneer of community housing in Nepal actually started his career as Medical Representative. Rajbhandary, a promoter of planned urbanization has conquered a lot in the real estate sector, and has a lot more up his sleeve.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Rajbhandary, a real estate expert, developer and builder and pioneer of community living in Nepal doesn&rsquo;t like to be known only as a businessman. &ldquo;I am not just working for my business, I am working for the betterment of entire real estate sector of Nepal,&rdquo; says Rajbhandary. Rajbhandary, over the years, has made enormous contribution for the professional management of the sector. Brihat Group has been publishing a newsletter for the last six years to educate and aware the people about the sector and about its market. Rajbhandary was the first person to work as a Real Estate Faculty Member of Ace Institute of Management and in Apex College. He has taught Real Estate, an optional subject to MBA and BBA students in these colleges.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Rajbhandary has been promoting real estate, infrastructure and urbanization through presentations in various national and international programmes. He is also the Visiting Speaker of Thai Real Estate School of Business, and is regarded as a key speaker in Asia-Pacific region. He was also the first to introduce Real Estate Marketing Agent Course in Nepal in 2009 to generate certified real estate marketing agents. At present, Brihat Group has produced more than a hundred such agents. &nbsp;He has played a major role in many fairs and expos, and has been the coordinator of various real estate exhibitions. Rajbhandary has also addressed the issue of the sector in the government, and is always coordinating with government authorities and international agencies like IFC and IMF for improving the sector.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>The Genesis</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Surprisingly, Rajbhandary started his career as a Medical Representative for a company called Winthrop in the year 1984. Soon, he was promoted to District Sales Manager. He left the job in 1992, when he was further promoted and had to go to India. &ldquo;I always wanted to work in my own country and become an entrepreneur. So I left the job after nine years,&rdquo; said Rajbhandary. His experience in Winthrob taught him corporate culture, and he also learnt a lot about administration. Back in his head , he had plans of doing his own business. In the same year, he, with five other partners, started CE Constructions. The company then started dealing with construction business, successfully carrying out government and private construction projects.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The first project of CE Constructions was the installation of transmission line in Lumbini. Other major projects accomplished by the company in the following decade include Gokarna Golf Resort, Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management (NATHM), Sagarmatha Chaudhary Eye Hospital in Lahan, Siddhartha Children and Women Hospital in Butwal, Buddha Maya Garden Hotel at Lumbini and extended portion of B and B Hospital among others.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;After a decade of its inception, CE Constructions was a popular name in Nepali market. Around the same time, Rajbhandary came up with the concept of community housing, which was a relatively new concept in Nepal back then. In the year 2001, he started the construction of Comfort Housing with the concept of community living. &ldquo;It was started with the concept of providing customers with stand-alone housing units with property ownership, infrastructure and amenities,&rdquo; explained Rajbhandary. But like any new idea, his idea of community living wasn&rsquo;t readily accepted in the market. It took some time for the market to get used to the new concept.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There were 76 houses in his first Comfort Housing Community Living project at Sitapaila, and it took him two years to sell all the houses. Within the two years&rsquo; time, the concept gradually picked up, and his second such project at Budhanilkantha was completely booked in two days, and sold within six months. &ldquo;This proved that the market has slowly accepted the concept of community living. We were encouraged by this, and constructed even more such housings,&rdquo; says Rajbhandary. &nbsp;The popularity and credibility of the housing grew so much that the next Comfort Housing project at Ichhangu had to be sold with lottery system. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Going Beyond</strong></span></div>
<div>
	According to Rajbhandary, he is committed to enhance the quality of life of Nepalis. &ldquo;For this, we had to go beyond Kathmandu. So we searched for good locations, and constructed our fourth Comfort Housing in Dharan,&rdquo; says he. At the same time, Rajbhandary again started something new, the idea of Vertical Community Living or apartments. Then he constructed The Comfort Housing (TCH) Tower-2 at Lazimpat which was ready by year 2006. It also was a huge success as all the apartments were sold out in a single day. In 2007, TCH Tower-3 was ready. &ldquo;There were 41 apartments, and for that we received 350 applications. That too was sold with lottery system,&rdquo; says he. For the sale of his next two ventures TCH Community Living at Thaiba and TCH Tower-4 at Sitapaila, potential buyers were informed three months in prior. &nbsp;The demand was so high that these two properties also had to be sold on lottery basis.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As Comfort Housing only concentrated on community living houses and apartments, Rajbhandary thought of constructing other housing structures like senior housing, rental housing, environment friendly housing and low cost housing among others. &ldquo;To move on further with this, I started Brihat Investments Pvt Ltd in the year 2008,&rdquo; says he. According to him, Brihat Investments was started to promote real estate investment, entrepreneurship and marketing. Under the company, he constructed first environment-friendly community living with the theme of eco-urbanization at Ramkot. These houses have eco-friendly features like UV protected windows, reduced use of wood, rain water conservation, solar street lights and proper disposal of household wastes among others. There are 76 units in the community, and 30 units are handed over and 18 units are already occupied. Brihat Group now has four companies under it, Brihat Investments Pvt Ltd, Brihat Developers and Builders Pvt Ltd, Swayambhu Hotels and Apartments Pvt Ltd and Pioneer Developers and Builders Pvt Ltd.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Early Life</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Rajbhandary was born in 2019 BS in Yangal of Kathmandu to Late Bishnu Bahadur Rajbhandary and Narayan Devi Rajbhandary. Growing up, he was very close with his grandfather Bhairab Bahadur Rajbhandary. He is the youngest among two sisters and a brother. He did his schooling from Laboratory School till grade 8, and did his SLC from Viswa Niketan School. He did his Intermediate and Bachelor degree in science from Amrit Science Campus.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Present and Future</strong></span></div>
<div>
	After the recession in housing sector about four years back, there have been some issues in lending and project financing. According to Rajbhandary, Nepal still has deficit of housing, but owing to the increased price of land, huge housing projects are not a possibility for now. &ldquo;To cope with this problem, we have come up with the idea of cluster housing. There are only houses in cluster housing without other infrastructures and community facilities,&rdquo; explains Rajbhandary. He is launching three such projects in Kathmandu within 2014.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In the future, Rajbhandary wants to develop the core city area of Kathmandu as a safe shelter to reduce the risk of earthquakes. He also wants to transform the area with better management in terms of transportation, sanitation and ventilation. Rajbhandary is also in favour of conserving our cultural heritages. &nbsp;He also wants to develop new towns to adjust with the growing population, and has dreams of bringing a public limited company for housing sector. &ldquo;I want planned urbanization to foster, not only in Kathmandu but all over Nepal,&rdquo; says the ambitious builder.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Personal Side</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Rajbhandary married Purnima Rajbhandary in the year 2050 BS. &ldquo;My wife has an enormous contribution towards my success. We are very compatible with each other, and enjoy a very friendly and happy relation,&rdquo; says he. &nbsp;She is an MBA graduate, also the CEO of Brihat Investments. The couple is blessed with a son Brihat, and under his name, the entire group is established. He is doing his engineering in Canada, and Rajbhandary wants his son to support his business with newer technologies, and take it to newer heights. &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He says he is a very helpful person with a light heart, and is popular among his friends, family and acquaintances. He considers leadership and eloquence among his strengths, and advocates independence and freedom of decision making. &ldquo;I believe in god, and respect my ancestors. I pay respect to the both every morning before I have my breakfast,&rdquo; says the faithful man. Besides his work, he is busy socializing. He loves travelling, listening to music and loves gadgets. Rajbhandary doesn&rsquo;t want to splurge on cars, and drives a Kia Sportage and Ford Classic.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Afterword</strong></span></div>
<div>
	A strong believer of entrepreneurship, Rajbhandary is contented with the fact that he has contributed to the nation through his constructions and employment. &ldquo;As our country is in political transition, the society has expectations form business leaders like us. We should be responsible towards the society,&rdquo; says he. According to him, knowledge is not a private property, and all should transform knowledge for the better good of society and country. &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Involvements</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Founding Chairman and Promoter, CE Constructions&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Director, Ace School</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Board Member, Industrial Promotion Board, Department of Industries&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Board Member, Kathmandu Valley Water Supply Management Board</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Executive Committee Member, FNCCI</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Coordinator, Urban Development Forum, FNCCI</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Third Vice President, Nepal Land and Housing Developers&rsquo; Association&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>National Team Member, Habitat for Humanity International&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Member, Canada Nepal Business Executive Committee&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Lifetime Special Member, Confederation of Asia-Pacific Chambers of Commerce of Industry (CACCI)</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Executive Committee Member, SAARC Chambers of Commerce and Industry (SCCI)</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Administrative Director/General Secretary, Hospice Nepal</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Senior Vice President/Fund Raising Committee Coordinator, Nepal Ambulance Service</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Chairperson-Vocational Service Project, Rotary Club of Kasthamandap</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-24',
			'modified' => '2014-03-25',
			'keywords' => 'new business age personality news & articles, personality news & articles from new business age nepal, personality headlines from nepal,  current and latest personality news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali personality economic news and events,  ongoing  personality news of nepal',
			'description' => 'Om Rajbhandary, Executive Chairman of Brihat Group and Chairman of Comfort Housing is a long-familiar name in Nepali real estate sector. Many may find it hard to believe that one of the most prominent developers and the pioneer of community housing in Nepal actually started his career as Medical Representative. Rajbhandary, a promoter of planned urbanization has conquered a lot in the real estate sector, and has a lot more up his sleeve.',
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	(int) 8 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2764',
			'article_category_id' => '42',
			'title' => 'Stocks Gear Up To 6 Years High',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<strong>--By Bikram Chitrakar</strong></div>
<div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Secondary market of Nepal spurted to new high after six years helped by partial settlement of political uncertainty. The Nepse, benchmark index of country&#39;s capital market, surged 37.20 points or 4.52 % to rest at 822.67 on February 20 as the highest of the review period while the lowest was 769.51 on February 03, 2014. On November 09, 2008 stock market index of Nepal had hovered around 810.81, and that has been surpassed by this review period&rsquo;s closing. The prime factor for this gear up has been pointed to the latest political developments which includes coming of the Constituent Assembly into function and the formation of Sushil Koirala-led Nepali Congress-CPN-UML coalition government. This tipped off the market with optimism and pushed the index to a new high after nearly six years.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		The growth in benchmark index has been primarily contributed by insurance and hydropower sectors. Insurance sector has been the new hot cake of investors since the middle of previous fiscal year. Likewise investors have preferred most of the hydropower companies. During the review period, the sub-index of insurance sector has gone up by 652.17 points and hydropower sub-index jumped 344.22 points.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Market capitalization for this period has been fueled up by 5% as compared to the preceding month. Flexible margin lending (loan against share certificates as security) by different financial institutions, excess liquidity in the banking system, narrow down of market interest rates and lack of better investment alternative have underpinned the recent growth in the capital market. &nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) has revised its list of category &ldquo;A&rdquo; stocks. The new list has 130 companies compared to 120 in the last year. As per the bylaws, companies with minimum of Rs 20 million paid-up capital with at least 1000 equity holders can be categorized in this group. Besides, the company should also post profit for three straight years and its book value must be above paid-up value.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		The momentum of this &quot;A Class&quot; category stocks has been reflected by the sensitive index. With the inclusion of new 10 companies in this category, the ratio of &#39;A&#39; graded companies with total listed companies now stands at 57%. Thus, the movements of the sensitive index and Nepse index show similar pattern. This indicates the need for introducing more categories and classification. &nbsp; &nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Performance by Sector</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Following the positive trend of previous weeks, most of the sub-indices under Nepse registered growth during this review period too in addition to banking and &lsquo;others&rsquo; sub-indices. Insurance sub-index turned to be the highest gainer of the review period with a growth of 652.17 points followed by hydropower sub-index, which increased by 344.22 points. Hotel sub-index also added 245.11 points to rest at 1402.23. Development bank sub-index went up the hill to 54.52 points while trading sub-index registered a growth of 15.04 points. However, banking sub-index faced the losing session with downfall of 14.40 points to rest at 765.85 while &#39;Others&#39; sub-index settled at 793.02 down by 3.52 points during the review period. &nbsp;Meanwhile, Sensitive index that reflects the movement of &ldquo;A Category&rdquo; stocks of Nepal Stock Exchange ascended 4.09 points or 2.29% to settle at 178.64 points while float index went up 2.55 points to 55.19. &nbsp;During the review period, total of Rs. 5.98 billion turnover was realized from 16.67 units of share traded through 53,942 transactions.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		During the period, 44.51 percent of the total turnover was captured by commercial banks. Insurance sector grabbed the second position with 20.79 percent while 18.23 percent was occupied by hydropower sector. Rest of the portions of total turnover were covered by remaining sectors.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Technically, the Simple Moving Average (SMA) of Nepse index is aggressive when SMA of these 30 days and the past 200 days are compared. Despite the positive expectations, chances of correction at this level seem prominent. However, Nepse index may further rise to test some psychological levels and perhaps next resistance. As per the pivot analysis, the next resistance of Nepse range is at 840.39 and 858.11, while the support levels stand at 787.23 and 751.79 at lowest.</div>
	<div style="text-align: right;">
		<em>(Chitrakar is a Stock Analyst with Jamb Technologies Pvt Ltd.)</em></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<img alt="Stock Taking" src="/userfiles/images/st(3).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 193px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
</div>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
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			'description' => 'The Nepse, benchmark index of country's capital market, surged 37.20 points or 4.52 % to rest at 822.67 on February 20 as the highest of the review period.',
			'sortorder' => '2609',
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	(int) 9 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2763',
			'article_category_id' => '37',
			'title' => 'Investment Issues  In Nepali Insurers',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<div>
		<strong>--By Ujjwal Chand &amp; Suraj Bansal</strong></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Currently, there are 25 insurance companies in Nepal -16 of them provide non-life insurance services and &nbsp;eight &nbsp;provide life insurance services while one provides both of these services. Insurance companies use their funds consisting of capital, reserves, premiums and loans to finance claim payments and other expenses. The remaining fund is invested as per the Investment Directives from the regulatory body, i.e. Insurance Board (Beema Samiti). As of FY 2011-12, these companies had investments to the tune of Rs. 60 billion out of which Rs. 52 billion was from life insurance companies and the rest was from non-life insurance companies.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		The insurance companies can put their investment funds in the sectors specified &nbsp;in the investment guidelines which specify that Life insurance companies must invest a minimum of 75% and non-life insurance companies minimum of 65% of their investment funds in combination of government securities, fixed deposits of commercial banks and development banks, and mutual fund/Citizen Investment Trust Schemes. They can put a maximum of 5% of their total investment fund in ordinary shares of public limited companies. Other areas for investment are secured debentures of Banks and Financial Institutions (BFI)s and Fixed Deposits (FDs) in finance companies. Non-life insurance companies can additionally invest in shares of real estate development or public limited housing company.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Importance of Returns from Investment&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		The operations of life and non-life insurance companies are different. Non-life insurance companies generate profit through both returns from investment and from regular insurance business. Life insurance companies, however, are suffering loss in the regular insurance business. Therefore, it is only due to the returns from investment that they are able to report positive bottom lines. Ganesh Dahal, deputy manager of Sagarmatha Insurance puts that &ldquo;the contribution of investment returns to the company&rsquo;s bottom line is at 40%&rdquo;and in similar vein Suraj Rajbahak, CA of Shikhar Insurance, shared that &ldquo;about 30% of the company&rsquo;s returns are from investment returns&rdquo;. Life insurance companies are far heavily reliant on the investment returns. Dip Bahadur BC, chief financial officer at Prime Life Insurance says, &ldquo;Investment returns not only sustain the company&rsquo;s expenses but also contribute to the bottom line&rdquo;. Bigyan Shrestha, finance chief at National Life Insurance, seconds this and states that &ldquo;the investment returns have been sufficient to sustain normal operations&rdquo; for the company.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<img alt="Returns from Investment" src="/userfiles/images/ep1%20(Copy)(6).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 227px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Investment returns of insurance companies&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Of the twenty-five insurance companies, only twenty had published their annual report for FY 2011-12 by September 2013. An analysis of the same shows that 15 of the 20 companies posted returns from 8.5% to 10.5% from investments. This was primarily due to the high interest rates on the fixed deposits of the BFIs.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		But, the returns from their investment in ordinary share was relatively weak during this period &nbsp;- ranging from 0% to 5.42%. However, during the same period, Nepse increased by 14.7%. This shows that the insurance companies underperformed Nepse in terms of returns from ordinary shares investments.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Issues with current ordinary shares investment&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		There are few internal issues of the insurance companies themselves behind poor &nbsp;returns from ordinary shares investment. &nbsp;Additionally, there are some issues with the current ordinary shares investment practices that could damage these returns in the long run of the insurance companies. These internal issues are:</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Passive investment &ndash; Over-reliance on dividends&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Of the 20 insurance companies analyzed, four hadn&rsquo;t invested in ordinary shares at all in FY 2011-12. In the remaining sixteen insurance companies, dividends contributed about 99.97% of the overall return from this avenue in 2011-12. This means only 0.03% of the returns came from capital gains. Thus passive investing, thereby over reliance on dividends for income from ordinary shares investments remained as the most important reason for poor performance in ordinary shares investments by insurance companies.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Lack of experts, research-based decision making</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Further, the insurance companies did not follow research based decision making approach while selecting ordinary shares for investment. This is despite the fact that the insurance companies accept the high importance of investment decisions to the bottom-line. Moreover, investment team in these companies is made of up of generalists, i.e. overseeing all aspects of finance in the company, rather than specialists with specific field expertise.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Lack of Diversification</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Investment gurus advocating diversification of fund always caution that &ldquo;putting all your eggs in one basket is very dangerous&rdquo;. These insurance companies lack proper diversification in ordinary shares investments, which could damage the returns from this avenue in the long term. The ordinary shares investments were heavily concentrated in stocks of major BFIs, constituting 96% of total ordinary shares investments. In terms of diversification at company level, they fare even worse. Although they had invested in 67 securities, they heavily concentrated on six companies, constituting 67% of the total ordinary shares investments.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Issues with overall current investments&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		High interest rate exposure is found to be triggering volatility on the overall investment returns. This exposure was also due to the conservative guidelines that made it mandatory for the insurance companies to park their fund in interest-rate volatile investment avenues like fixed deposits. The conservative investment guidelines are curtailing the diversification of investments, and thereby introducing concentration risk on the investments.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>High interest risk exposure</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Due to regulatory constraints, large portion of the investment fund is parked in BFIs as fixed deposit. This brings about high interest rate risk in the investments returns of the insurance companies. Sushil Kumar Luniya, manager at Gurans Life Insurance, sees &ldquo;the decrease in interest rates of fixed deposits hampering insurance company returns for the current fiscal year&rdquo;. Manoj Shrestha, head of finance department at NLG Insurance, too regards &ldquo;the volatile bank interest rates as major factor deciding the investment returns&rdquo;. &nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Due to high interest rates prevalent during the sample period (average of 8.125% for commercial banks in FY 2011-12 as per the central bank&rsquo;s Monetary Policy document), most of the insurance companies had fair returns on the investments. Imagine the effect of decrease in the rates to 5.2%, as predicted by NRB Monetary Policy for 2013-14, on the investment returns !&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Now lets simulate this Simulating such scenario by decreasing the FY 2011-12 returns from fixed deposits of BFIs by the same proportion as the decrease in interest rate, i.e. from 8.125% to 5.2%. In FY 2011-12, it was found that only one insurance company was making loss. If the interest rates during this period were only 5.2, four insurance companies would have been at loss.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Lack of diversification options</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		The conservative investment guidelines put by the regulatory board give little room for diversification to insurance companies. Majority of the fund is to be parked in government bonds, and fixed deposit of commercial and development banks. Even in ordinary shares investments, insurance companies are finding hard to diversify from a stock market with over 76% concentration in BFIs. Thus there is huge concentration risk. &nbsp;If one bank or finance institution goes bust, the whole insurance industry would suffocate. One such event in Gurkha Development Bank has already occurred. Few insurance companies are still provisioning the losses from this bank&rsquo;s tragedy.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		But, investment guideline isn&rsquo;t the only sore finger. There is also lack of innovativeness among insurance companies in terms of diversifying their investments. As Dr. Fatta Bahadur KC, chairman of Insurance Board, claims, &ldquo;The investment guidelines clearly indicate flexibility of alternative investment avenues for the insurance companies&rdquo;. Upon request by insurance companies, the Board is ready to look into alternative investment proposals. But as this includes some hassles and would put the insurance company management under scrutiny if the innovation backfires, the insurance companies are reluctant to tread on this way.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Asset-liability mismatch</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Asset-Liability mismatch is a major issue with life insurance companies. Safer investment assets with longer maturity are hard to find in Nepali market, where bonds and debentures have minimal presence. Debentures of commercial banks bring concentration risk with them for the insurance companies, which already have major portion of their investment fund in the banks as fixed deposits and their ordinary shares. Dr. KC, sees &ldquo;Asset-Liability mismatch for life insurance companies as they issue policy for long term whereas they can invest for short term only&rdquo;. Dip Bahadur BC, CFO of Prime Life, also considers &ldquo;asset-liability maturity mismatch as a prevalent issue in all life insurance companies&rdquo;.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 18px;"><strong>The Way Ahead</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Resolving Internal Issues</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Internal issues - lack of research based decision making, diversification and active investing - can be resolved through robust internal research systems. To boost their ordinary shares investment performance through research backed investments, the insurance companies could build their own internal system and processes but at a huge cost. It would also mean taking two diverse businesses in parallel, i.e. insurance business and investment business. Outsourcing of ordinary shares investment management by availing the customized portfolio management service given by several financial intermediaries like Kriti Capital, Nabil Invest and Beed Management, seems more beneficial. Such outsourcing &nbsp;will not only enable insurance companies to focus on their core business, but also get better returns from their investments via expert handling of their funds at a relatively lower cost.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<img alt="Isues with Investment" src="/userfiles/images/ep2%20(Copy)(2).jpg" style="margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; width: 550px; height: 400px;" /></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Resolving external issues</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		There are limitations faced by insurance companies while investing their fund as per current investment guidelines. Fixed deposits have inbuilt interest rate risks. The life insurance companies face an additional issue of asset-liability maturity mismatch, with investments maturing in about 1-1.5 years and liabilities remaining active for about 10-13 years. There is need for long term investment alternative.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Further, diversification of fund is hard in a secondary market with heavy concentration of BFI stocks. With the investment fund increasing rapidly (CAGR of 21.35% from 2004-05 to 2011-12), there is a need to look for additional investment avenue to resolve these issues. This is not just voiced by the insurance company professionals but also by the insurance regulatory board.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Dr. KC feels that &ldquo;although the investment guidelines give flexibility to insurance companies to come up with alternative investment proposals, the time has come to review the overall investment guidelines&rdquo;.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		A suitable avenue to be added in the investment guidelines could be private placements in infrastructure companies. This will not just help the insurance companies to resolve the issues of diversification and the infrastructure companies in getting easier financing, but also help the overall economy of the nation. Dr. KC says that the Board is &ldquo;positive on investment made by insurance companies in hydropower and other infrastructure companies, and these avenues could be opened for investments&rdquo;. Most of the insurance companies also state that they are willing to invest in hydropower and other infrastructure companies, if allowed by investment board.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Insurance Board should allow investments by the insurance companies via private placements, as the secondary market doesn&rsquo;t have appropriate diversification opportunities. Further, the insurance companies would be able to invest at a bargain in the infrastructure companies due to their sheer investment fund size. Also, if SEBON comes up with more liberal rules on the issuance of shares at premium, the infrastructure companies could benefit hugely from private placements. Even if the insurance companies decide on being risk averse and just invest in debentures, they could do so in infrastructure debentures. As there isn&rsquo;t presence of these instruments in secondary market, private placement would be ideal way for diversification of &nbsp;by insurance companies. On the other hand, the infrastructure companies would have lower issue costs and lesser regulatory hassles than going public for raising finance. Also, in case of debentures, these companies would be avoiding interest rate exposure. Similarly, the promoters of infrastructure companies would be able to delay issuing the shares to public, thereby being in position with better financial statements before going public. This would help get better response on public issuance of shares at premium.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Thus the insurance companies should initiate this by coming up with effective proposal and lobbying with the Insurance Board for liberal investment guidelines.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		But, investment in private placements of the infrastructure companies (if allowed by the Board) requires expert knowledge on these companies and regular monitoring. Also, the entry and exit strategies must be taken into account as these investments are relatively less liquid as compared to secondary market investments. There will be need of diversification as well as policy and strategy development for the insurance companies vying to invest via private placements. So, to benefit from this additional investment avenue, insurance companies will have to develop in-house expertise or outsource private placements management services for financial intermediaries.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<em>(The article is based on a joint research conducted by Ujjwal Chand and Suraj Bansal as part of their academic requirement at KUSOM. The researchers can be contacted at: chandujjwal@gmail.com)</em></div>
</div>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
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			'description' => 'Insurance companies use their funds consisting of capital, reserves, premiums and loans to fi nance claim payments and other expenses.',
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	(int) 10 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2762',
			'article_category_id' => '31',
			'title' => '“Young Mind Is Always  Very Inquisitive Mind”',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;">The first Round Table was formed in Norwich, England in 1927. It was a club where the young business men of the town gathered on a regular basis. Louis Marchesi, founder of the Round Table International used to mention three things: there are things we must do, there are things we can do and there are things we should do. He was of the view that chance can be achieved with young minds. The same organization has been working in the various parts of the world now with the aim of increasing youth&rsquo;s involvement in businesses. Siromani Dhungana of the New Business Age spoke to its President Moffat Nyirenda during his recent visit to Nepal on issues surrounding youth entrepreneurship among others. Excerpt:&nbsp;</span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>RTI emphasizes on youth involvement in business. Why?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The young generation is the future of the society both in the corporate as well as in the civil society. So, it&rsquo;s very important to emphasis on them. Young mind is always very inquisitive so it can be easily tapped and prompted for entrepreneurship.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>How important is &lsquo;inquisitive mind&rsquo; in business?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	First of all, the world has been very dynamic and the issue of globalization has emerged as a crucial issue. The world has become really competitive. If you do not have inquisitive mind, you will easily die in the corporate world. You should always check the challenges and find out possible solutions to overcome those challenges. Also, you have to expand your business contacts. And only inquisitive mind can identify what&rsquo;s going on around the world.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>It is said that businessmen always seek favour from political parties. Can business organization run without political inclination?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Yes. If you have political inclination sometimes you have to compromise your business interest. Your professionalism, your business opportunity can face adverse situation due to direct political affiliation. So, it is extremely important to maintain neutrality in business.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>The phrase adopt, adapt and improve is a key facet of the RTI. How do you relate this phrase in business organization?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Yes, adopt, adapt and improve have always been our motto since our establishment in 1927 when young entrepreneur members felt the need for a club where they could come together with similar members and share their business experiences. In business &lsquo;adopt, adapt and improve&rsquo; is very relevant. First, we have to adopt the situation then we have to adapt it and we have to improve our way of doing according to necessity. The world is very dynamic, we need to adopt and also be ready to improve. This phrase is equally important in society too.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>How to inspire young generation in business sector?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	There are few aspects. First, young generation should realize that they need to do something. World is dynamic and this means that they will have to face the new challenges now and then. This realization leads them to involve in entrepreneurship. Further, they should realize that they have to contribute in the society. And, entrepreneurship is the best way to do so. Further, all concerned stakeholders should always encourage youth generation to be involved in entrepreneurship.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>What is more important: investment (capital) or idea to set up new venture?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	It depends on the how the country is structured. Idea and innovation is a must to start new venture for entering into the business world. At the same time, we cannot set up new business without capital. So the government, in many countries, provides special facilities and loans to innovative minds to let them start new venture. There should a balanced approach between capital and idea.</div>',
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			'keywords' => 'new business age business visitors news & articles, business visitors news & articles from new business age nepal, business visitors headlines from nepal,  current and latest business visitors news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali business visitors economic news and events, ongoing busin',
			'description' => 'The first Round Table was formed in Norwich, England in 1927. It was a club where the young business men of the town gathered on a regular basis. Louis Marchesi, founder of the Round Table International used to mention three things: there are things we must do, there are things we can do and there are things we should do.',
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			'id' => '2726',
			'article_category_id' => '137',
			'title' => 'Nepal Vying For 4.5% GDP Growth In 2014: ADB',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By TC Correspondent</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepal&rsquo;s gross domestic product (GDP) growth will rise to 4.5 per cent this fiscal year, a new Asian Development Bank (ADB) report has projected. &nbsp;&ldquo;The positive political outlook, expected increase in agriculture production following a favorable monsoon, modest improvement in capital expenditure following the timely full FY 2014 budget, and a strong services sector performance supported by remittance income are expected to boost gross domestic product (GDP) growth (at basic prices) to 4.5 per cent in FY 2014, up from 3.6 per cent in FY 2013,&rdquo; the Manila-based regional development bank in its latest macroeconomic update for Nepal informed.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The bank, however, mentioned that the forecast is lower than the government&rsquo;s projection of 5.5 per cent GDP growth due to less than expected increase in capital spending and a slightly lower services sector. &nbsp;&ldquo;Despite the timely full budget, expenditure performance was not satisfactory in the first half of FY 2014. Of the total planned expenditure of Rs 517.2 billion, only 30.3 per cent was spent largely due to the lower than expected capital spending. The slow pace of spending so far indicates that the capital budget will likely continue to be under spent as in the previous years,&rdquo; the report noted. &ldquo;In addition to the improvements in agriculture production, both domestic and foreign investment commitments increased remarkably in the first half of FY 2014.&rdquo;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The bank said that there is an urgent need to ramp up both the quantum and quality of capital spending as it not only &lsquo;crowds in&rsquo; private investments, but also helps create the foundations for the lackluster growth to take off on an employment-centric, high, inclusive and sustainable growth path.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	According to the report, Nepal may not meet its yearly revenue target this year due to the depreciation of the Nepali rupee against the US dollar which is slowing down import demand in the country. &ldquo;Even though the Rs 163.4 billion revenue mobilized in the first half of FY 2014 is 21.5 per cent is higher than the revenue mobilized in the corresponding period in FY 2013, it still is lower than the half-year target set for this fiscal year,&rdquo; it said.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, the bank forecasted the inflation rate to stand at 10 per cent in FY 2014, higher than the government&rsquo;s target of 8.5 per cent. &ldquo;Despite the expected improvement in agriculture harvest, the wage pressures, the persistently high price level in India, the rise in administered fuel prices, lower interest rates, the persistently weak Nepali rupee and the supply-side constraints, average annual consumer price index (CPI) inflation in FY 2014 is forecast at 10 per cent,&rdquo; ADB mentioned. The bank informed that inflation averaged 9.1 per cent in the first half of FY 2014, down from 10.7 per cent in the corresponding period in FY 2013. The decline in prices is mainly driven by the sharp slowdown in non-food and services prices. However, the persistence of the high inflation level is supported by rising food and beverage prices, which averaged 11.5 per cent in the first half of FY 2014 against 9.8 per cent during the same period in FY 2013, the report notes.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-09',
			'modified' => '2014-03-24',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'Nepal’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth will rise to 4.5 per cent this fiscal year, a new Asian Development Bank (ADB) report has projected.  “The positive political outlook, expected increase in agriculture production following a favorable monsoon, modest improvement in capital expenditure following the timely full FY 2014 budget, and a strong services sector performance supported by remittance income are expected to boost gross domestic product (GDP) growth (at basic prices) to 4.5 per cent in FY 2014, up from 3.6 per cent in FY 2013,” the Manila-based regional development bank in its latest macroeconomic update for Nepal informed.',
			'sortorder' => '2606',
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	(int) 12 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2761',
			'article_category_id' => '39',
			'title' => 'Chachan Group: Trader To Manufacturer',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Gaurav Aryal and Om Prakash Khanal</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<table align="right" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;" width="25">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>
				<img alt="Satish Chachan, Director, Chachan Group" src="/userfiles/images/cf1%20(Copy)(5).jpg" style="border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; width: 200px; height: 239px;" /></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
				<div align="center">
					<div>
						<strong>Satish Chachan</strong></div>
					<div>
						Director, Chachan Group</div>
				</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<div>
	Chachan Group evolved into a manufacturing and trading house when it changed its course into manufacturing from the family owned trading business. This move not only made the group grow leaps and bounds but also established itself as a leading industrial and trading house. The group in its initial days traded various commodities such as leather and leather products, cement, vegetable ghee, food grains, lentils, oil seeds, spices, consumer goods, fertilizer, pulses, edible oils and animal feeds. Today, the group not only trades these commodities but also produces them.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The group&rsquo;s expansion was not merely driven by the market force. There were visions and entrepreneurial skills of earlier generation of businessmen, Mahabir Prasad Chachan and Shree Maliram Chachan, who steered the business towards what it is today. When the group passed onto the new generation of businessmen, Babu Lal Chachan and Parmeshwar Lal Chachan who are Chairman and Vice-Chairman respectively, the group had reached to a position from where it would never have to look back.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Growing Larger</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Satish Chachan, Director of Chachan Group says that the group is continuously following the tradition established by its founders towards further growth of the company. He proudly says, &ldquo;Compared to the group&rsquo;s initial days, the company has achieved a remarkable success in cement manufacturing besides continuing its decades old cement selling business.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Within the last decade, the group has established three cement grinding plants each having a production capacity of 350 metric tonnes (MT) of cement per day in Birgunj. Similarly, the group has begun the construction of fourth cement grinding plant in Nepalgunj with the same capacity as that of a single unit in Birgunj.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Chachan says that the group had established a poly-plastic bag industry two years back in Birgunj. This factory has enabled the group&rsquo;s cement plants to use its own cement packing bags. &ldquo;This polyplastic bag industry has also earned a big business faith in the major sectors of the country. This clearly indicates the satisfactory present and past situation of the company and its growing capability to contribute a large amount of revenue to the nation.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Gaining Strength</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The group has shown remarkable progress in goods manufacturing that it has decided to specialise on. At present, it is producing cement, vegetable oil, leather goods, poly-plastic goods and various food products through its food processing units. Likewise, the group is also involved in trading through its three companies who have direct presence in over 19 different cities across the country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Chachan Group is today considered one of the leading business houses of Nepal based in Birgunj for producing variety of commodities with a wide reach across the country. Chachan claims that the products range that the company trades in and its wide network are suggestive of their market and the robust financial strength of the group.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He shares that the annual turnover of the group exceeds Rs 4 billion. He also adds that the staggering 70 per cent of the total turnover is generated by the cement wing of the group. While sharing the strength of the group, Chachan boasts that his business has been employing 1500 people directly along with a huge number of indirect employments in transportation and handling of the raw materials and finished products. He also adds that 300 employees are working in the cement wing alone. The group&rsquo;s beneficiaries such as construction companies, commercial enterprises, transporters, traders, farmers and consumers are spread over major parts of Tarai and hilly regions of the country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Changing the Course</strong></span></div>
<div>
	For decades, the group had been trading various commodities. Chachan says, &ldquo;This trade grew bigger and flourished gradually, which ultimately evolved into the establishment and identification of the Chachan Group. This can be regarded as the first and fundamental turning point of the company.&rdquo; Gradually the trading business expanded; meanwhile, various new manufacturing units were established.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Around one and a half decade ago, the group decided to establish cement manufacturing units realising the growing demand of construction materials and cement in particular. This demand was identified when the state owned cement plants such as Hetauda Cement, Udaypur Cement and other private cement producers were unable to meet the major percentage of cement demands. This inspired the group to establish Narayani Cement Udyog Pvt Ltd in Birgunj. This company today has production capacity of 1050 tonnes per day.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Roadmap Ahead</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Chachan believes that the group has kept its promise of offering best quality products and services at a reasonable cost and claims that it would open up new avenues for the group to expand its manufacturing and trading businesses in the days ahead. &ldquo;Our past experience gives us confidence that we have further opportunities and scope for expansion. We want to establish our own clinker producing units so that we can stand as one of the leading cement and clinker manufacturer of Nepal,&rdquo; envisions Chachan.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He reveals that the group has a clinker producing plant in the pipeline. He elaborated that this new plant will have a production capacity of 700 to 750 tonnes per day. Likewise, once the Nepalgunj based cement plant comes into operation, the group is planning to add another cement grinding plant there with production capacity and design similar to the existing one. Similarly, Chachan reveals that the group is planning to acquire a limestone quarry in a hilly area of Makawanpur district, few kilometres away from Hetauda. &ldquo;Besides this, we have been thinking to buy some additional land to establish the clinker producing plant. Though we are already in touch with some of the renowned Indian companies for establishing the clinker plant, we think this will materialise only after three to five years from now,&rdquo; he added. Similarly, Chachan is ready to expand other plants depending on the market demand and financial status.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Market Positioning</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Products of Chachan Group has a wide market coverage including major cities and towns such as Birgunj, Hetauda, Kalaiya, Narayanghat, Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Banepa, Batar, Pokhara, &nbsp;Bhairahawa, Krishna Nagar, Dang, Nepalgunj, Dhangadhi, Nijgarh, Gaur, Lahan, Janakpur, Jhapa, Morang, Ilam and other places in hilly and Tarai region. According to the group, major market for cement is in all the belts extending from Birgunj to Jhapa and in Hetauda, Narayangarh and major cities and towns of Bagmati zone.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	According to Satish Chachan, Director of the group, product placement is done through various dealers and transporters. Group&rsquo;s contact or branch offices and dealers are channels for distribution. Major product range includes daily commodities, construction materials, leather goods, fertilizers among others.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	All the factories of the group are being operated in full capacity to meet the market demand. &nbsp;Products are sold under different brand names such as Trishakti and Bajrashakti in the cement segment while other commodities also have their own niche brand value recognised in their market targets.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>CSR Commitments</strong></span></div>
<div>
	As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the group has given prime importance to environmental protection and freeing its locality from pollutants. The group is also strengthening and accelerating its sustainable environmental efforts through the reduction of environmental impacts and the conservation of the biodiversity. &ldquo;We have been aiming to provide satisfaction and gratification to as many stakeholders as possible. To this aspect, we believe and act ethically and relentlessly to seek improvement in the quality, safety, information security and reliability of our products and services,&rdquo; explains Chachan.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Satish Chachan, Director of the group says, &ldquo;We respect our customer and their culture and the community they belong to while we deal with them in the course of our business activities. We also engage in dialogues with various stakeholders in society and incorporate their feedback to enhance our CSR activities so that we can contribute our best to improve our surroundings, quality and the effectiveness of our activities.&rdquo;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, the company has dedicated itself in creating a safe and comfortable work environment for all its employees so that they can realise their full potential and have a fulfilling career, as a responsible corporate culture.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td bgcolor="#E5E4E2">
				<div>
					<div>
						<div>
							<div>
								<div>
									<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Sister Companies of Chachan Group</strong></span></div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Narayani Cement</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Jaya Bageshwari Cement</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Narayani Oil Refinery Udyog</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Narayani Leather Manufacturing Industries</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Narayani Modern Pulses Industries</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Shree Adhunik Dal Udyog</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Shree Agro Processing Unit</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Adarsh Oil Industry</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Adarsh Tel Udyog</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Adarsh Polyplastic Pvt Ltd</div>
								<div>
									&nbsp;</div>
								<div>
									<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Independent Trading Concerns under the Group</strong></span></div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Chachan Implex</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Devki International</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Manoj International Traders</div>
								<div>
									&nbsp;</div>
								<div>
									&nbsp;</div>
								<div>
									<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>SWOT Analysis</strong></span></div>
								<div>
									&nbsp;</div>
								<div>
									<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Strengths</strong></span></div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Customers</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Staff</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Good quality products and services</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Reasonable price</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Harmonic relationship with employees, customers and local surroundings</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Disciplined working attitude</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Timely revenue payments to the government</div>
								<div>
									&nbsp;</div>
								<div>
									<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Weaknesses</strong></span></div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Inability to give hundred percent employment to the local residents</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Cannot fulfilall the donation demands from local parties and their leaders</div>
								<div>
									&nbsp;</div>
								<div>
									<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Opportunities</strong></span></div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Prospects for growth of construction material businesses</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Growing domestic market and purchasing capacity of people</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Rapidly emerging technological innovations</div>
								<div>
									&nbsp;</div>
								<div>
									<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Threats</strong></span></div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Lack of smooth business environment</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Frequent bandhs and strikes</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Lack of environment to work peacefully and uninterruptedly where the group is based</div>
							</div>
						</div>
					</div>
				</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-12',
			'modified' => '2014-03-24',
			'keywords' => 'new business age corporate focus news & articles, corporate focus news & articles from new business age nepal, corporate focus headlines from nepal,  current and latest corporate focus news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali corporate focus economic news and events,  ongoing  corporate foc',
			'description' => 'Chachan Group has evolved into a industrial house though it began its commercial journey as a trader.',
			'sortorder' => '2605',
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	(int) 13 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2734',
			'article_category_id' => '91',
			'title' => 'World Bank Stresses On Bankable PDA',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By TC Correspondent&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The World Bank Group has suggested that the Nepali government should focus on infrastructure sector, including hydropower, to achieve economic prosperity.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Wrapping up a six-day visit to Nepal on Saturday, board members underlined the need of developing hydropower and better connectivity. They emphasized the need to sign a bankable PDA.&rdquo;Nepal urgently needs to improve connectivity and power sectors,&rdquo; Jorg Frieden, executive director of the World Bank Group said.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;We need private sector to take lead in hydropower. And, we&rsquo;re working on to have a bankable PDA signed. Once that is done then we can bring full weight of the IFC,&rdquo; said Kyle F Kelhofer, IFC country manager for Nepal,&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Bangladesh and Bhutan.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He further said that IFC may be interested in equity investment on Upper Karnali Hydro Project. &nbsp;&ldquo;Any reasonable proposal that is technically and economically sound would be considered positively,&rdquo; Frieden added.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	They also suggested improving road connectivity to ensure road safety. On possible World Bank assistance to Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track, World Bank Country Director for Nepal Johannes Zutt said the bank is in discussion with the Nepali government on the issue.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The board members said that they see Nepal as a country that needs more resources and the bank will try its best to facilitate better resource mobilisation. However, the members cautioned that mobilisation of the resources would make sense only if it is combined with high quality policy and projects.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;The attention on political transition we know is certainly the priority, but it is not enough,&rdquo; said Frieden adding &ldquo;Economic growth is crucial to support transition. You cannot get stability if the economic performance does not improve. Thus attention on economy is necessary to facilitate the transition.&rdquo; He further added that the government should focus on creating jobs.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The team also emphasized spending in the public sector for the high economic growth. The emphasis comes a week after this fiscal year&rsquo;s mid-term budget review pointed that the capital expenditure stood at 30 percent, while only 19 percent of the allocated budget was spent on national pride projects. With World Bank country office in Nepal currently working on new country assistance strategy, the board members assured that they would recommend to the country teams&mdash;World Bank and IFC&mdash;to listen to the new government, new political leaders and society at large to understand what can be achieved and what really is expected.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-10',
			'modified' => '2014-03-24',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'The World Bank Group has suggested that the Nepali government should focus on infrastructure sector, including hydropower, to achieve economic prosperity.',
			'sortorder' => '2604',
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			'id' => '2736',
			'article_category_id' => '138',
			'title' => 'UMN's 60 Years In Nepal Celebrated',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	United Mission to Nepal (UMN), a missionary INGO has celebrated its sixty-years in Nepal. A programme was held on March 5, Wednesday at the UMN headquarter in Thapathali. The occassion was marked by staff members releasing one hundred balloons, commemorating the contributions of UMN to the country in health, education, industrial development, community development and capacity building.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Congratulating UMN on these achievements, the Minister for Energy, Radha Kumari Gyawali said, &quot;The nation hopes for UMN&#39;s continuous service and contribution in the coming days; the work must go on.&quot; Recognising some current difficulties regarding UMN&#39;s headquarters property, Gyawali promised to work with all parties to achieve a fair and just resolution.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	A commemorative stone was unveiled by UMN&#39;s Executive Director Dr Mark Galpin and Madan Prasad Rimal, director of the Social Welfare Council. Rimal praised the organisation&#39;s work and commitment to the poor in Nepal. &quot;UMN came to work in Nepal in 1954. The Government of Nepal invited them to come and start work here. I can say confidently that all the work that UMN has done in these 60 years has been according to the priority and the need of the Government of Nepal,&quot; he said &quot;They have always been transparent in matters of resources and finance.&quot; More than 300 UMN staff and former staff, representatives of other INGOs, government, and the christian community observed the programme.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-10',
			'modified' => '2014-03-24',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'United Mission to Nepal (UMN), a missionary INGO has celebrated its sixty-years in Nepal. A programme was held on March 5, Wednesday at the UMN headquarter in Thapathali. The occassion was marked by staff members releasing one hundred balloons, commemorating the contributions of UMN to the country in health, education, industrial development, community development and capacity building.',
			'sortorder' => '2603',
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			'id' => '2770',
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			'title' => 'Emerging Trend: Diversification  Of Handicraft Products',
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			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepali handicrafts are produced following traditional methods, passed on from generations to generations. A set of ancestral heritage passed on from ancestors to forefathers to grandfather to father and to son. It continues and this continuity provides it the essence to remain distinct while reflecting and preserving diverse cultural values, indigenous aspects and traditions of Nepali lifestyle. Along with helping in the conservation of national heritage and culture, handicraft development creates employment opportunities and thereby contributes in alleviating poverty. Export of handicraft products has been growing since the last three decades. Arts and crafts is one of the major exporting industry of Nepal, earning foreign exchange and providing employment to thousands of Nepalis craftsmen, artisans, promoters and businessmen and generating revenue for the government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Due to the increased competition in the international market, product diversification has emerged as an essentiality for business growth. Along with other business sectors, it is vital for the handicraft industry to adapt and correspond to industry and consumer trends and to take advantage of them. One way of doing this is to diversify products. Growing or relatively new businesses choose to expand their product range and diversify into new areas as a way of appealing to new customers and offering more to existing customers. This necessity has been felt, understood and well adapted by Nepali handicraft industries.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Handicrafts in Nepal are mainly classified in two types: textile and non- textile products. Textile products mainly include: Pashmina, woollen, felt, silk, cotton, dhaka, hemp, and allo products. The non-textile products include silver jewellery, metal craft, handmade paper products, wood crafts, glass products, bone and horn products, crystal products, ceramics products, leather goods, incense, plastic items, paubha (thanka), beads items, stone craft, and bamboo products.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;The handicraft producers are coming up with more diversification in their product be it pashmina products or handmade paper products, one can get a range of diversification in these products,&rdquo; former president of Federation of Handicraft Association of Nepal (FHAN), Bikash Ratna Dhakwa said. &nbsp;&ldquo;The handicraft sector is responding to the product diversifying trend by expanding their product range without affecting their core business in a negative way,&rdquo; added Dhakwa.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Product diversification plays vital role in creating new markets by attracting its possible buyers,&rdquo; said Dhakwa while elaborating on the importance of the concept. He opines that handicraft producer must take time to think about the needs of the target market and try to identify new opportunities that will enable the business to stay ahead of competitors.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Product diversification is evident in the addition of new variety of handmade paper products in the local market. While accepting the benefits of the trend, Kiran Kumar Dangol, president of Handmade Paper Association of Nepal (HANDPASS) said, &ldquo;we are following the trend and this has resulted in the addition of a number of new product ranges to our existing ranges.&rdquo;He informed that the popular Nepali Lokta paper products are now being diversified further. &ldquo;We are moving ahead on diversifying Nepali Lokta paper products. Along with books and stationary products, we have moved on to produce fusion of handmade paper and cotton to develop wrapper products,&rdquo; said Dangol adding that they also have introduced new technology for using multicolour print in the handmade paper.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Dangol stressed on product diversification and encouraged its growing trend in the Nepali market where handicraft products hold a great importance. According to him, the market is flooded with a number of traditional handicraft products and now it&rsquo;s time that the handicraft producers offer new designs and new products that will once again bring boom in the national and international market of Nepali handicrafts.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He pointed to the need of producing products with competitive prices through creative incorporation of new technologies as one of the major reason for diversifying product ranges. &ldquo;Our traditional products are expensive. Production of new products through the use of new technologies assist in producing cost efficient products. Through renewed and upgraded marketing strategies we can market these products,&rdquo; Dangol said while providing the introduction of handmade paper jewelleries in handicraft products range as an instance to his statement.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Product diversification has also positively impacted the industry stakeholders. Dhakwa says that the manufacturers and producers have been encouraged to hire skilled manpower from the local market to bring diversity in their product ranges. &ldquo;Now we are getting more skilled technical manpower in this field,&rdquo; he said. The field is becoming more open to innovative designers who can add their creativity to traditional handicraft products. As such the products become more competitive in the national and international market.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Federation of Handicrafts Association of Nepal (FHAN) says that their members are becoming more quality conscious, upgrading their products and making product prices more competitive. In the recent years, corporate houses have started using handmade papers and even Pashmina products are being purchased at the local level compared to previous years.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/t3%20(Copy).jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 466px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Our new diversified product range now includes accessories for laptops and mobile,&rdquo; Dhakwa said and added that international buyers are also adding up new designs through their customized demands. Handicraft exporters claim that diversified products are playing an important role to increase export volume of handicraft products in the international market. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Handicraft has become a major source of foreign currency and is one of the major industries that have good international market. Government has been promoting this sector by recognising it as producer of competitive products for the international market. Along with existing players, new traders and producers are joining this industry and some of them are taking it online for making their products directly accessible to the international customers and market.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	During the first six months of the current fiscal year handicraft products (paintings, sculptures and statuary) worth Rs 292.10 million were exported to the international market, which is an 34 per cent increment compared to the same period last year, the Trade and Export Promotion Centre noted. Though the woollen carpet export increased by 40.3 per cent totalling up to Rs 3.63 billion trade, export of woollen and pashmina shawls during the same period increased only by ten percent with a total export of Rs 1.20 billion.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-25',
			'modified' => '2014-05-07',
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			'description' => 'The handicraft producers are coming up with more diversifi cation in their product be it pashmina products or handmade paper products, one can get a range of diversifi cation in these products.',
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	(int) 1 => array(
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			'id' => '2723',
			'article_category_id' => '40',
			'title' => 'Nepali Women As Entrepreneurs',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Siromani Dhungana</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepali women entrepreneurs have not broken the glass ceiling, says Pramila Rijal, president of SAARC Chamber Women Entrepreneurs Council (SCWEC). &ldquo;But they have already made the first cracks.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Rijal&rsquo;s idea rightly summarizes the present conditions of women in business in Nepal. Alka Rajouria Rijal, executive director at Federation of Women Entrepreneurs&rsquo; Association of Nepal is also of the same opinion. Women entrepreneurs have come far but they still have a long way to go, she opines.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	According to her, there are many issues that still need to be improved: access to finance, gender-responsive policies, family barriers and deconstructing stereotypes about women entrepreneurs.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs6(1).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 300px; height: 410px;" />Business: It was Men&#39;s Domain&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Hajuri Bista, one of the forerunners in the arena of women entrepreneurship says, &ldquo;I had never seen men and women work together. It was really challenging to get out of the dogma that women should take care of household chores and not venture into the business world.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In 1990, the country adopted a &nbsp;democratic political system but women entrepreneurs still finding not an easy path at that time, she recalls. Late Yangzi Sherpa, Ambica Shrestha, Rita Thapa, Maggie Shah, Renchin Yonjan, Shyam Badan Shrestha, Shanti Chadha, Nilam Pande, Mohini Lama, Brinda Rana and some other faces were managed to shine in this period as entreprenuers. They were the trailblazers at that time, Bista recalls.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&quot;Even after democracy, I have seen many times aspiring women entrepreneurs breaking into tears in meetings due to unexpected hurdles and apathy from their family and the society,&quot; she said reflecting on her experience. &ldquo;Why should be women engaged in business?&quot; &nbsp;was a common mindset at that time, she adds.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Fortunately, times have changed now. There are host ofefforts underway to boost women&rsquo;s participation in business and women are in the condition to get guidance &nbsp;in all phasesof entreprise development &nbsp;-- from training on leadership, to new forms of financing.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Entrepreneurship has been traditionally seen a male preserve and idea of women taking up entrepreneurial activities considered as a distant dream, she says. But the mindset has been changing, she adds. &ldquo;It takes time to change all the established social norms but we have achieved tremendous success in the field of women entrepreneurship.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs1(1).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; width: 300px; height: 204px;" />Has a Long Way to Go</strong></span></div>
<div>
	There are umpteen problems even now. Women face problem from their initial commencement of enterprise, says Barsha Shrestha, deputy chief executive officer at Clean Energy Development Bank.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The society still does not believe in their capacity and it is an uphill task for women to face such conflicts and cope with such challenges, she adds. Obtaining the support of bankers, managing the working capital, difficulty in getting credit are the problems to solve which male family member&#39;s support is still needed, she informs.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Now women are empowered enough and can lead big corporations too, says Ambica Shrestha, women entrepreneur and president of The Dwarika&rsquo;s Hotel. &ldquo;All they need is chance of working as freely as their male counterparts.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs2(1).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 300px; height: 188px;" />Absence of Entrepreneurial Aptitude</strong></span></div>
<div>
	If you have innovative idea to venture into business that is what we call entrepreneurship, says Renchin Yonjan. But male businessmen in Nepal lack entrepreneurial aptitude, she claims. Most of the women who are aspiring in entrepreneurs are involved either in their family business or in service sector that still does not have talents (male or female) with the basic ingredients of entrepreneurship. &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Parents want their daughter to be involved in jobs rather than entrepreneurship, shares Barsha Shrestha. The reason is clear. They do not want their daughters to take risk and put their money at risk.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Besides, even majority of women in the country lack entrepreneurial aptitude. Women have no entrepreneurial bent of mind, informs Pramila Rijal. &ldquo;But this problem does not prevail only among women but also among men too.&rdquo; &ldquo;Yes, women are more inclined towards household chores and existing social structure does not allow them to think broadly,&rdquo; she adds.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs3(1).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; width: 300px; height: 187px;" />Expand Access to Finance&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Women in the country have been facing many problems to get going with their business ideas. Finance shortage is one of them. Women entrepreneurs always suffer from inadequate financial recourses and working capital, says Rita Bhandary, president of Federation of Woman Entrepreneurs Associations of Nepal (FWEAN). They are not able to afford external finance due to absence of tangible assets as security. Women have very less property and bank balance in their name. Male members of the family do not want to invest their capital in the business run by women due to lack of confidence in the women&#39;s ability to run a venture successfully.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Most of the women entrepreneurs fail due to lack of proper financing facilities, because finance is life blood of every business activities, according to Shrestha. Marketing and financial problems are such obstacles where even training doesn&#39;t significantly help the women. Some problems are structural in nature and beyond the control of entrepreneurs. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Bankers often deny women credit on the ground of lack of collateral security, Shrestha says. Therefore, their access to risk capital is limited. Women cannot start big business ventures unless equal access of finance is ensured, Shrestha claims.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>A Wave of Progress in SME</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are possibly one of the best and most cost-effective avenues for furthering economic development. Slowly but gradually, women have been expanding their foothold in this SME field. Currently, women own about 14,300 small and medium enterprises in Nepal, accounting for 2 percent of GDP (registered formal sector) and employing over 200,000 workers. A study commissioned by IFC, private sector lending arm of the World Bank Group, suggests that meeting their current credit requirements of US$ 106 million can increase their contribution to the economy, according to SAARC Chamber Women Entrepreneurs Council (SCWEC).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Throughout the country, women have been setting up small and medium enterprises after acquiring the skills, resources, and support necessary to grow and sustain their businesses, says Alka Rajouria Rijal.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is very positive aspect of women in entrepreneurship that they are creating jobs at a time when the country is reeling under massive unemployment problem.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, women&rsquo;s involvement in entrepreneurship will not only contribute to create jobs but also to change the stereotyped role of women which is largely limited to household chores. All should motivate women entrepreneurs to give them the moral support for their business ideas.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs4(1).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 300px; height: 166px;" />Networking: Key to Success&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The equation is very simple: you have to expand your business once you start it, you have to develop a network to expand business and you have to have a free-society to develop a network, says Barsha Shrestha who believes that Nepali women are struggling to this end.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Women should have a very strong network at three levels: in the sector concerned, with all entrepreneurs and national and international level, according to women entrepreneur Renchin Yonjan.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Women have tremendous potential for networking as they are polite and soft compared to their male counterparts, she opines. In business, exposure gives knowledge. Exposure is key that will help women to materialize their dreams. Women entrepreneurs should get out from social restrictions, expand their contacts and start business ventures. Women entrepreneurs should not hesitate to create their brand.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Full-time entrepreneurs should have the broadest networks. Long-held belief is, however, that women have weaker networks and rely excessively on family and friends to build their business. This logic is directly linked with the perception that women cannot handle business independently and they are reliant on family and friends for networking, says Yonjan. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Dream Big&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The number of women-owned business has been growing over the past decade or so. However, evidences show that most of these businesses don&#39;t scale up. Further, women entrepreneurs are still considered suitable only in small and medium enterprises.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Over the last few years, it is found that women entrepreneurs often seem to be pigeonholed into the &lsquo;lifestyle business&rsquo; category or education sector in Nepal. This is obviously good but not enough, says Ambica Shrestha. Women entrepreneurs are still missing out on the chance of a bigger slice of the pie.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Women-owned businesses are still a drop in the ocean of commerce, according to Pramila Rijal. She suggests women entrepreneurs to dream high. &ldquo;It is time that women entrepreneurs start dreaming of setting up big corporations and running big businesses.&rdquo; We have to dream and we have to work to full our dreams, opines Rita Bhandary.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs5(1).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; width: 300px; height: 168px;" />Changing Scenario</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Picture a woman and you might imagine a women busy in domestic chores and childcare. Further, if someone speaks about a female entrepreneur and you might imagine a woman at the helm of a small business, perhaps in a cosmetic outlet or childcare centre.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For decades the symbol of women entrepreneurship has been, to many, the pickle, fashion or childcare. They were considered shadow of their male counterparts. Time has come now to break the stereotypes and women should take the baton.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On the one hand, the mindset of society has been changing, Yonjan opines. &ldquo;But challenges have also increased and women have to compete in the highly competitive world.&rdquo; Access to Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and better exposure to the rest of the world have provided unique opportunities to the women entrepreneurs to expand their footholds,&rdquo; she claims.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Our aim is not to steal the profit pie, which male entrepreneurs have been enjoying but to seek new chances of generating new and innovative sectors where women can see their future, says Yonjan. However, these sectors should not be limited to the small and medium industries.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;I am definitely seeing more women enter the entrepreneurship sector,&rdquo; Shrestha says. Is entrepreneurship a man&rsquo;s world? No not at all, she firmly believes. We need to break all the stereotypes prevailing regarding women in business.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Conclusion</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Women across the country have started several business ventures at their own initiatives. It is time to taking bigger steps towards providing flexible workplaces for women to get in the entrepreneurship. &quot;We know that where women are venturing now had been a male bastion. But that should not deter them. Women are equal partners in business,&rdquo; says Yonjan. All section of the society should encourage their effort of entering into the entrepreneurship because people&rsquo;s dream of peace and prosperity is directly related to the economic growth. Women&rsquo;s involvement in entrepreneurship should be encouraged because it will not only create more opportunities but also ensure inclusive growth. It will be imperative in achieving highest sustainable economic growth and employment and in raising living standard.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs1b.jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 611px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
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					<div style="text-align: center;">
						<span style="font-size:18px;"><strong>World&rsquo;s Top 10 Influential Female Entrepreneurs&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Wu Yajun" src="/userfiles/images/1%20(Copy)(5).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 117px;" />Wu Yajun</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Wu Yajun holds the title of229th richest person in the world. The journalist-turned Chinese businesswoman is the Chairwoman of Longfor Properties, an investment holding company, which manages several businesses including real estate and property investment, development and management across China. Born to an ordinary family in 1965, she and her former husband founded Chongqing Zhongjianke Real Estate Co Ltd in 1995, which was later renamed as Longfor Properties. &nbsp;Her net worth as of 2013 is estimated at USD 4.4 billion. Wu is also serving as the member of China&#39;s National People&#39;s Congress. She is among the top 50 in Forbes&#39; Power-Women list.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Zhang Yin" src="/userfiles/images/2%20(Copy)(5).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 119px;" />Zhang Yin</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Zhang Yin is the founder and director of China&#39;s biggest paper maker- Nine Dragons Paper Holdings Limited. The company buys scraps from US and other parts of the world and turns them into cardboard boxes to export Chinese goods. At the age of 49 in 2006, she became the first woman to top the list of richest Chinese businesspersons, according to the Huron Report. Zhang Yin&#39;s net worth is estimated at USD 3.9 billion as of 2012.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Rosalia Mera" src="/userfiles/images/3%20(Copy)(5).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 119px;" />Rosalia Mera</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Rosalia Mera is the co-founder of Inditex, a worldwide fashion retailer, which owns famous brands such as Zara, Massimo Dutti, Pull and Bear and Bershka among others. At the age of 11 Mera dropped out of school and began to work as a sales person in a clothing store. With her former husband, she co-founded the Zara clothing chain in 1975, which later became the world&#39;s largest fashion retailer. Mera died on 15th August 2013 after suffering a stroke at the age of 69. At the time of her death she was the richest woman in Spain and the world&#39;s richest self-made woman. Before her death, Rosalia&#39;s net worth was estimated at USD 6.1 billion.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Oprah Winfrey" src="/userfiles/images/4%20(Copy)(4).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 117px;" />Oprah Winfrey</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Oprah Winfrey has been ranked as the richest African-American of the 20th century who is currently North America&#39;s only black billionaire. The 60- year old celebrity entrepreneur and philanthropist is best known for her talk show &quot;The Oprah Winfrey Show&quot;, which was considered as the highest-rated program of its kind in history from 1986 to its ending in 2011. She was also the world&#39;s only black billionaire in between 2004-2006. Winfrey is the founder of Harpo Productions, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) television channel and Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls. Oprah received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013, the highest civilian award of the United States. Her net worth is estimated at USD 2.9 billion as of 2013.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Arianna Huffington" src="/userfiles/images/5%20(Copy)(3).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 117px;" />Arianna Huffington</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Arianna Huffington is the creator of the Pulitzer-prize winning news website and blog &quot;The Huffington Post.&quot; She started the website in 2005. In 2009, she ranked 12 in Forbes&#39; list of the Most Influential Women in Media. The 63-year old Greek-American author and syndicated columnist has an estimated net worth of USD 35 million. In 2011, after the sale of The Huffington Post to AOL for USD 315 million, she became the President and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group. &nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw" src="/userfiles/images/6%20(Copy)(2).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 119px;" />Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is the chairman and managing director of Biocon Limited, a biotech company based in Bangalore. Partnering with an Irish firm to make industrial enzymes, she founded the company in 1978 when she was just 25 with a seed capital of Rs 10,000. She is regarded as India&rsquo;s first biotech entrepreneur. The 60-year old businesswoman is also the Chairman of Indian Institute of Management (IIM-Banglore). She is in the Forbes&#39; list of the world&#39;s 100 most powerful women and the Financial Times&rsquo; top 50 women in business list. As of 2010, her net worth is estimated at USD 900 million.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Yelena Baturina" src="/userfiles/images/7%20(Copy)(2).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 115px;" />Yelena Baturina</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Regarded as the richest Russian woman and the Russia&#39;s only woman with net worth more than USD one billion, Yelena Baturina is the founder of construction and infrastructure investment company Inteco. She founded the company in 1991 as a plastic manufacturer but later changed its business. Baturina witnessed her net worth fell dramatically during the height of the financial crisis of 2008/09. The 50-year old entrepreneur also owns a hotel chain and is the founder of BE OPEN, a cultural and philanthropic foundation.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Giuliana Benetton" src="/userfiles/images/8%20(Copy)(2).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 116px;" />Giuliana Benetton</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Giuliana Benetton is the founder of Benetton Group, a worldwide fashion brand, which operates a network of more than 6,500 stores and outlets across 120 countries. The Italian company, which is fully owned by the Benetton family, owns famous clothing line-up brands such as United Colors of Benetton, Undercolors of Benetton, Playlife and Sisley. Giuliana started the family business in 1965 by knitting sweaters. At the age of 76, Giuliana is currently serving asdirector of Benetton Group and Edizione S.R.L, a financial holding company of the Benetton family. Her net worth is estimated at USD 2 billion as of 2013.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Mary Perkins" src="/userfiles/images/9%20(Copy).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 119px;" />Mary Perkins</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Mary Perkins is the richest self-made British businesswoman. Alongside with her husband Douglas Perkins, she co-founded Specsavers in 1984, a leading global retail chain of optics (eyeglasses and contact lenses), hearing equipment and optician services. Born in 1944, Mary was the daughter of an optician who studied optometry at Cardiff University where she met Douglas.</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						Specsavers Optical Group Ltd which is fully owned and by Perkins family operates 1,650 stores across the globe. Mary became the first female optician in the UK to receive the title of &quot;Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire&quot; (DBE) in 2007. She was also included in the list of BBC Radio 4&#39;s 100 most powerful women in the UK. As of 2011, her net worth is estimated at USD 1.15 billion.&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><img alt="Yoshiko Shinohara" src="/userfiles/images/10%20(Copy)(1).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 119px;" />Yoshiko Shinohara</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Yoshiko Shinihora is considered as the most influential Japanese female entrepreneur. At the age of 77, she is currently the chairman and CEO of Tempstaff Co. Ltd, a human resource management and consulting firm that specializes in contingent hiring, job placement along with childcare services. The company operates and provides services to its 59,000 clients across the world including Japan,United States, China, Singapore, India, Indonesia and South Korea. Shinohara started the company as a temporary job recruitment agency with a seed capital of USD 9,000 in 1973 in her apartment after divorcing at the age of 38. At first, she struggled to find clients as she had to lobby against Japan government&#39;s stiff opposition to temporary job placements. Her business flourished in the 1990s as economic downturn coupled with rising deflation forced Japanese companies to abandon long-term job guarantees to their employees. Tempstaff now has 5,000 staffs and earns USD 2.9 billion annually.&nbsp;</div>
				</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-07',
			'modified' => '2014-05-07',
			'keywords' => 'new business age cover story news & articles, cover story news & articles from new business age nepal, cover story headlines from nepal,  current and latest cover story news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali cover story economic news and events,  ongoing  cover story news of nepal',
			'description' => 'Women entrepreneurship is gaining importance in Nepal as well. In this issue, NewBiz focuses on the problems, issues, challenges faced by Nepali women entrepreneurs, and ways to overcome them.',
			'sortorder' => '2616',
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	(int) 2 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2760',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Retreat Of The Meek Fellow',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Finally, the new coalition government has taken a shape. But it took complete three months since the second elections to the Constituent Assembly (CA-II), on 19th of November, 2013. Prime Minister Sushil Koirala who first allegedly agreed two weeks ago to entrust Home Ministry portfolio to its potentially unavoidable coalition partner, the CPN-UML, had flickered and temporarily back-tracked on this commitment; once he got sworn in to the post. It invited a nasty public exchange of diatribes between the leaders of the ruling Nepali Congress and major partner, the UML. But, if he wanted to save his government, Koirala had no other viable alternative to succumbing to UML demands of Home Ministry to be led by none other than the &#39;big muscled&#39; &nbsp;UML Vice-chairman Bamdev Gautam. Koirala&#39;s space of political maneuvering was further tapered by complete non-cooperation from his own party colleague Sher Bahadur Deuba which compounded the task of giving a complete shape to the government. The perception of insecurity in Koirala was not unfounded. He indeed was apprised of the potential danger by those who have knowledge of informal level of intimacy between Deuba and UML Parliamentary Party leader K P Oli. Unlike Koirala, who hardly suffered any mention-worthy length of jail term during the panchyat days, Deuba and Oli for years spent in the same prison cell. And, now they share same wavelength of banter and modus operandi of &#39;practical politics&#39; of money, muscle, maneuvering and machinations.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As the bare arithmetic in the House has it, Nepali Congress doesn&rsquo;t have any other option than placating the UML unless it had chosen to appease both UCPN (Maoists) and Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal (RPP-N) to sum up to the magic number of three hundred and one to save the government. But, the latter option to materialize involved a lot of ground-work and maneuvering, yet disposing the possible coalition always to walk on the razor-edge. Nonetheless, given the track record of the UML, the Maoists and the RPP-N would perhaps have been relatively easier bed-fellows for Congress. Yet, it is mere a conjecture.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This unpleasant episode of Home Ministry row at the very initial days of the Koirala-led coalition has three clear indications. First, Koirala as the prime minster has very little flexibility than resorting to the politics of give-and-take. Second, he takes hard stances at wrong turnings, the only consequence of which is to back-track rather humiliatingly, virtually in no time. Third, no party is reading the crucial arithmetic of the House before resorting to high-pitched verbal bashing in a political reality that is mandated for nothing but a coalition rule.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Why is the Home Ministry such a big controversy in every stage of government formation? Not only in the cross-party power sharing as is now, there are instances even when a single party majority rule, the portfolio is contested to the extreme among the aspirants. There may be some political arguments forwarded by its minister-aspirants to bag the post, but the craving is rather a political anti-thesis. This time around, Gautam could convince his party that the party would perform better if he became the home minister. The Congress aspirants who stopped Koirala from conceding the ministry to UML have had similar claims. Essentially, these were just the premonitions to destabilize and debase democracy by advocating straight rigging in the elections, misusing the state machinery. But the current political values of Nepal seem to have, unfortunately, accepted is as part of the game. If we evaluated history, any such impact of altering election results or adding the political clout of the party awarded with this portfolio, however, are mere perceptive fallacies. The reality is something different.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Home Ministry is a marrying point of politics with crime. Apart from possible corruption avenues, the minister will have unhindered access to unearmarked security expenses under titles like &#39;for intelligence operation&#39; and &#39;FADA&#39; (financial assistance, donation and awards). Being the joint head of the civil administration with extensive quasi-judicial rights at the district level represented by the chief district officers (CDOs) and of two police organizations ensure the incumbent a stream of incomes in enormous sizes. Such lucre comes from every source you can think of, or may be even beyond that, including the contrabands, counterfeits, smuggling, extortion and human trafficking. Therefore, it is not any surprise why every ex-home minister has a noted underworld operator under his protection and some parties have even given them seats in the party central committees. That is that.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In his entire political career, Koirala&#39;s main working strategy has been the procrastination of the crucial decisions. This old habit of his doesn&#39;t seem to have died, even though he is the prime minister now. At his personal level, indecision comes in two forms; he doesn&#39;t read any file to be decided upon, it depends on some of his &#39;trusted&#39; lieutenants to do the job and brief him. And, he doesn&#39;t &#39;trust&#39; those briefings too and begins to investigate whether there could be any vested interest involved of the person who briefed thus. And, the safest he finds is not to decide anything. This is not a desirable quality in any chief executive, that too of Nepal in these pressing hours when many important agenda await decisions, rather sooner.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The phrase &#39;within one year&#39; becomes a wont in tongue of all major politicians in the coalition. The initial promise was to write and promulgate the new constitution within a year from the date of the CA elections-II. It is now the fourth month running since and parties are signing so called agreements to deliver a constitution again, within a year. The understanding between the two major coalition partners, Congress and UML, to shuffle the prime ministership after a year makes us apprehensive. Implicitly, they are saying shamelessly, that the constitution will not be written within a year from now on. The intentions are not honest.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For now, Koirala&#39;s quest for corruption-free governance is a task impossible in view of the coalition made shaky by severe intra-party wranglings and factionalisms in both of the major ruling parties. Gautam at the helm of Home Ministry is sure to let loose all possible &#39;channels&#39; of illegal trade in gold, currencies and goods. He proudly repeats &#39;one year in the ministry is enough to finance the personal politics for a decade and even larger benefit to the party in the longer-term.&#39; It is not difficult to foresee that Koirala would helplessly witness the drama of the ministers who behave more smartly than himself, albeit merely in their vested interests. Technically, he cannot afford to break the coalition. In practice, he cannot assert designs due to his meekness. And, politically he is a redundant deadwood who doesn&#39;t enthuse with vision and mission of his own, and keeps on bungling processes as he did in forming the current government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He has severe diplomatic drawbacks. He is not &#39;wholly&#39; trusted by the southern neighbour. There was a point in history when he was alleged of having connections with the people with dubious backgrounds like late Jamin Shah and the likes who were suspected of mobilizing funds from suspicious sources. The West is apprehensive for the same reason as India is and China knows &#39;very little&#39; about him as their official press points out. Therefore, his identity crisis couples with his crisis of confidence to run the government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is not difficult to see that even the second CA election has not taught any lesson to our leaders. Therefore, the priority is still being given to power-sharing games than to writing of the constitution. As pointed out by UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal that constitution is &#39;unlikely&#39; to be written even by this CA appears to be self-fulfilling. The priorities of the coalition partners are different from constitution writing. The Oli-Gautam duo in UML wants to exploit every possible benefit of being in the government to win the party presidency for Oli in its national convention slated for coming May. There is even a widespread concern that the local elections now considered for April might be pushed further away due to the convention to elect new executive.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are enormous challenges and externalities. Leaders like Dahal and Kamal Thapa of RPP-N would be happier to see that this coalition failed, just because they wanted to prove that no one is better in terms of delivery. Being in the government is perhaps the sweetest part of the cake. When the process of finalizing the provisions of the new constitution actually begins, demands and impediments from outside of CA are likely to rule the roost. Madhesis, janjatis and pro-identity federalist have plans of forwarding their agenda through protests on streets to incorporate them in the constitution; ignoring the fact that they were largely rejected by the voters. The moves of Maoist-Baidya group could even be more irksome.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The only good sign is that the two largest parties in the CA have been able to form a coalition. A couple of other fringe parties have come to their support. Ideologically, the coalition is perhaps the closest-- best explained by their unconditional stance on ballot-based democracy. Above all, the coalition commands more than two-thirds of majority in CA and the Legislature Parliament.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But the prime minister must develop a habit of deciding things than only being a meek onlooker. And, the work on constitution writing must now begin without any further delay.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-11',
			'modified' => '2014-04-11',
			'keywords' => 'new business age  nepal politics news & articles, nepal politics news & articles from new business age nepal, nepal politics headlines from nepal,  current and latest nepal politics news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali nepal politics economic news and events,  ongoing  nepal politics ne',
			'description' => 'Prime Minister Sushil Koirala who first allegedly agreed two weeks ago to entrust Home Ministry portfolio to its potentially unavoidable coalition partner, the CPN-UML, had flickered.',
			'sortorder' => '2615',
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	(int) 3 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2724',
			'article_category_id' => '91',
			'title' => 'A Donor-Dependent Private Sector',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Siromani Dhungana and Hom Nath Gaire&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Aid orientation has been evident among Nepal&rsquo;s private sector organizations as they are hell bent on bagging projects from donor agencies to carry out activities for their own welfare and day to day activities. Sometimes, their race for getting projects appears to be &lsquo;unhealthy&rsquo;.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Here are some examples:&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>USAID Nepal Economic, Agriculture and Trade (NEAT) activity provided grant to the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) to conduct Public Private Dialogue (PPD) on draft of Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Act (FITTA) last year. The draft was prepared by the Institute of Policy Research and Development (IPRAD). CNI&rsquo;s rival, the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), started to criticize the activities under that project. The dispute became visible when the FNCCI formally organized a programme to challenge some provisions of the draft such as allowing Nepali investors to invest abroad, and accused that the draft was totally in favour of some businessmen affiliated to CNI. Due to the controversy, the Ministry of Industry could not table the draft at the Cabinet meeting. Government officials say that the reason behind the conflict between FNCCI and CNI was nothing more than the grant from USAID NEAT, which phased out last year.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>European Union had tentatively agreed, according to a FNCCI source, to provide a grant of five-million euro to FNCCI for the promotion of products listed in the Nepal Trade Integration Strategy in the European market. Later, the project was bagged by CNI in the name of &ldquo;Go International&rdquo;. In informal discussions, FNCCI officials still blame CNI for using all kinds of tricks to get the project. In this case, even employees at EU were dragged into controversy. Now, the project is being handled by CNI instead of FNCCI.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Similar is the case of the SAARC Trade Promotion Network (SAARC TPN), a regional trade facilitation project supported by German International Cooperation (GIZ). There was a big hue and cry on which organization should represent Nepal&rsquo;s private sector in this project as the project seeks participation from all SAARC countries. Both FNCCI and CNI were at loggerheads over the participation. Later, the GIZ decided to include all umbrella organization creating different sub committees to settle the dispute. The third organization, Federation of Nepal Cottage and Small Industries (FNCSI), also became a part of the project due to dispute between two big organizations, FNCCI and CNI.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Businessmen affiliated with Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) started a new initiative, National Business Initiatives (NBI) with grants from International Alert and GIZ. Many consider it as NCC&rsquo;s attempt to get projects from donor agencies.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Foreign Aid: A Meeting Agenda</strong></span></div>
<div>
	According to some members of CNI and FNCCI, members of both umbrella organizations get engaged in heated debates over foreign aid during their board meetings.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Some members directly accuse the leadership of inefficiency if the rival organization gets a donor-funded project, a member of FNCCI told The Corporate on the condition of anonymity.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a shame that our businessmen openly ask for projects during talks with representatives of the donor agencies,&rdquo; a CNI member said, &ldquo;They should be rather talking about bilateral trade or expanding Nepali business abroad or even inviting foreign investors.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Making Umbrella Organizations a Begging Bowl&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Why is our private sector making the umbrella organizations a begging bowl? It is tough question. It is no surprise as our private sector has &lsquo;feudal mindset&rsquo; and they are hell bent on amassing profit, ethically or unethically, says Deependra Bahadur Kshetry, former vice-chairman at National Planning Commission.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is shameful that they are also dependent on the government to carry out their activities. But they scold the government whenever they get the chance just to cover their own weaknesses, he claimed.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepal&rsquo;s private sector lacks innovative approach, he opined. &ldquo;They utilize their creativity just to make profit from the policy lapses. For instance, they amassed billions from the multi-billion VAT scam. Problems such as under and over-invoicing, income splitting and transfer pricing are rampant,&rdquo; said Kshetry.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Instead of making the umbrella organizations a begging bowl, the private sector should utilize their income source to become self-reliant, he said.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Major umbrella organizations &ndash; FNCCI, CNI and NCC &ndash; are member-based organizations and they should run from their members&rsquo; contributions, a businessman suggested. Besides, FNCCI, CNI and NCC earned millions by issuing Certificate of Origin. But the problem is they are never transparent, according to him.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Dependency to what Extent?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	It may sound ridiculous but it is a fact that Nepal&rsquo;s private sector seeks help from the government not only for promotional activities but also to get opportunities for foreign trips and organizing events such as seminars, summits and conferences. For example, some umbrella organizations wrote to the government demanding that the government bear their travel costs to participate in the Ministerial Meet of WTO held in Bali, Indonesia. But the government refused the proposal.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Representatives of the umbrella organisations promote their businesses abroad but ask the government to provide air-fare and other essential cost, an official said. This suggests that Nepal&rsquo;s private sector is completely dependent and inefficient, Kshetry claimed. &ldquo;Many evidences show that, apart from some genuine firms, we can categorize our private sector just as household businesses.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td bgcolor="#E5E4E2">
				<div>
					<div>
						<div style="text-align: center;">
							<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>They Get Aid From</strong></span></div>
						<div style="text-align: center;">
							&nbsp;</div>
						<div>
							<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>FNCCI:</strong></span> FNCCI has been actively cooperating with various foreign / international organizations such as UNDP, USAID, DFID, UNIDO, UNCTAD/GATT/ITC, THE WORLD BANK, ILO, PPPUE, SEQUA-GTZ Private Sector Promotion Project, UNFPA, Asia-Invest, JICA, IOE, NIKKEIREN, APO, JETRO, SAARC Secretariat, ICIMOD, AOTS etc in carrying out various activities for the promotion of business and industry. (Source: FNCCI)</div>
						<div>
							&nbsp;</div>
						<div>
							<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>CNI:</strong></span> USAID, European Union, GIZ, DFID, IFC, Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship etc.</div>
						<div>
							&nbsp;</div>
						<div>
							<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Nepal Chamber of Commerce:</strong></span> Nepal Chamber of Commerce is representing Nepal as a national focal point for Regional Investment Information and Promotion Services (RIIPS) of UN\ESCAP. The Chamber has been conducting seminar and training, related to business and economy, with the help of International organizations, such as International Trade Centre &ndash; ITC (UNCTAD &ndash; WTO) and the Asian Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology (APCTT). (Source: NCC)</div>
					</div>
				</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-09',
			'modified' => '2014-04-10',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'The umbrella organisations of the Nepali private sector are vying with each other to lure foreign grants. This is damaging their public image.',
			'sortorder' => '2614',
			'image' => null,
			'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00',
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	(int) 4 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2725',
			'article_category_id' => '109',
			'title' => 'Mid-term Monetary Review Creates Sell-off In Stocks',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By TC Correspondent</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In an apparent sign of continuing weakness, Nepal stock Exchange Limited (Nepse) index closed nearly 9.15 points lower on Sunday, the first trading day of the week. Declined in the barometer of country&rsquo;s capital market is attributed by fall in the majority sub-indices traded in the day. Along the Nepse, sensitive index which represents share trading of class &lsquo;A&rsquo; listed companies fell 2.22 points. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Out of total seven sub-index traded Sunday, six were in red. The Insurance sub-index was the biggest loser which fell 40.36 points followed by Hydropower sub-index (16.92) and Banking sub-index (11.99 points). Similarly, sub-indices of &lsquo;Others&rsquo;, Hotels and Development Banks fell respectively by 4.7 points, 3.58 points and 3.41 points. In the mean time, Finance sub-index was only the gainer of the day which increased 6.89 points. Sunday around 732 thousand units of shares of 125 companies were traded through 2347 transactions, which worth Rs. 300 million as daily turnover. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Weekly Indices" src="/userfiles/images/weekly.jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 354px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Weekly Review</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepse index fell 20.05 points last week. The benchmark index which was closed on Sunday due to public holiday started its weekly trading on Monday at 825.70 points and settled down at 805.65 points on the last day (Thursday). After witnessing three straight weeks of gains, Nepse, retreated back last week as investors went to secure their gains through profit-booking strategy.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Analysts say that the investment in the domestic market lost steam after the central bank in its mid-term review of monetary policy of FY 2013/14 hinted to the tightening of margin lending against share certificates. In recent months, margin lending has become one of the attractive investment tools in the country&rsquo;s financial sector as the swelling liquidity is leaving the banks without much investment options in real sectors.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, analysts also opine that settlement of political issues regarding the formation of new government has also affected the domestic stock market. Investors were highly encouraged to book their profits that they earned from the stocks that they purchased during post election months. This indicates that the positive impact of new political development by second CA election is fading.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepse registered as highest as 811.04 points on the opening day (Monday) and observed lowest level at 800.05 points on Tuesday of the last week. During the last week, 3.69 million units of shares worth Rs 1.19 billion were traded in the stock market through 9,514 transactions. The weekly turnover declined 19.32 per cent while, number of transactions shed 12.98 per cent compared to the previous week. Meanwhile, unit of shares traded rose 3 per cent. Nepal Bank Limited climbed to the top spot in terms of weekly turnover. Similarly, Nabil Balance Fund-1 grabbed the top position in terms of number of share units being transacted for the week. In terms of market capitalization, Nepal Telecom maintained its top spot as earlier weeks. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Most of the trading sub-indices saw declining trend last week. Hotels sub-index was the biggest weekly gainer with 37.37 points followed by Hydropower (21.04 points), Insurance (9.85 points) and Finance (0.13 points).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&lsquo;Others&rsquo; was seen as the biggest weekly loser as the sub-index declined 16.44 points. Sub-indices of development banks and commercial banks, meanwhile, lost 7.37 points and 6.68 points respectively. Sub-indices of Trading, Manufacturing and processing, meanwhile, remained unchanged for the week. Reflecting the declining trend in major sub-indices, Sensitive Index representing the share trading of blue chip stocks belonging to class &lsquo;A&rsquo; listed companies also fell 1.63 points. &nbsp;</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-09',
			'modified' => '2014-04-09',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'In an apparent sign of continuing weakness, Nepal stock Exchange Limited (Nepse) index closed nearly 9.15 points lower on Sunday, the first trading day of the week. Declined in the barometer of country’s capital market is attributed by fall in the majority sub-indices traded in the day. Along the Nepse, sensitive index which represents share trading of class ‘A’ listed companies fell 2.22 points.',
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	(int) 5 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2766',
			'article_category_id' => '52',
			'title' => 'Housing The Business',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The housing and the real estate business (HREB) has a double-sword positive effect on the economy. It is a global perspective to this business, perhaps barring Nepal. It is a capital intensive business like any other profit making venture and, at the same time, helps to solve a pressing problem of shelter to the populace. But despite the potential, Nepali HREB languishes in absurdities and hangs on to uncertainties. It has been more than one and a half decades since HREB began in an organised fashion led by private sector investment. But the bottlenecks of policy confusions, information asymmetries and public (mis)perceptions remain the same as they used to be a decade ago.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	According to a rough estimate, Nepali HREB is now worth more than Rs 150 billion, which is a third of the current year&#39;s national budget. There is an estimated annual demand of some forty five thousand units of family apartments, mainly in the urban centres of the country. Half of the demand is only in the Kathmandu valley. But, the total annual cumulative supply of apartment-type living is limited only to sixteen thousand units nation-wide. The demand and supply mis-match is one half of the story and the price and financing mismatch is the other.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	What&#39;s wrong with Nepali HREB as an investment and growth industry? Perhaps everything! The government doesn&#39;t have a comprehensive policy on it. In addition, the very perspective of the government about HREB is largely bigotry. Some regulations regarding ownership have been issued but implementation has not been as effective as expected. Given the fact that the private sector is doing a national service by providing housing facilities to the people which otherwise is the government&rsquo;s responsibility, it should have acknowledged and treated accordingly. As long as the government considers itself as the vehicle to an egalitarian society, it is indeed the government&rsquo;s responsibility to address problems like this.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	One emulative recent example could be the British government&rsquo;s initiative of Help-to-Buy (HTB) scheme, introduced by Chancellor George Osborne&rsquo;s last fiscal year budget, targeting the first time home owners. The &pound;25 billion scheme that began in January 2014 plans equity finance of 20 percent of the cost of buying or constructing a new house. The government plans to implement the HTB scheme in a three year time horizon. The objectives are well defined. First, to help revive the ailing HREB and also simultaneously support lower end populace to own a house of their own.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But in our case, the government is treating the investors and developers as criminals and crooks, let alone contemplating providing an equity financing. It was true that there was a degree of over-exposure of the finical sector to HREB. But that was a compulsion at a point of time due to utter lack of other sectors for the BFIs to invest. Shouldn&#39;t the government share the blame for failing to create an atmosphere for a diversified business and thus the BFIs&#39; investment? Instead, the government apparatus is at complete loss of direction to address the problems of the sector. On top of that a rung of top public service officials were determined to ruin the entire HREB.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Without naming names, there are projects in limbo which would have been completed well if the institutions like the central bank wouldn&#39;t have been vindictive to some chosen promoters of the schemes. It is true that some developers had had multiple business stakes and resorted to some duplicity. But the right approach for the government and central bank strategy should have been to save the projects and investment and penalize and admonish only the wrong-doers. To say the least, the government has not been sensitive to the potential ramifications of its apathy and antipathy to HREB.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-24',
			'modified' => '2014-04-09',
			'keywords' => 'new business age  from the editor news & articles, from the editor news & articles from new business age nepal, from the editor headlines from nepal,  current and latest from the editor news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali from the editor economic news and events,  ongoing  from the edi',
			'description' => 'The housing and the real estate business (HREB) has a double-sword positive effect on the economy. It is a global perspective to this business, perhaps barring Nepal. It is a capital intensive business like any other profit making venture and, at the same time, helps to solve a pressing problem of shelter to the populace. But despite the potential, Nepali HREB languishes in absurdities and hangs on to uncertainties. It has been more than one and a half decades since HREB began in an organised fashion led by private sector investment. But the bottlenecks of policy confusions, information asymmetries and public (mis)perceptions remain the same as they used to be a decade ago.',
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	(int) 6 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2767',
			'article_category_id' => '46',
			'title' => '“Hospitality Is The Right Industry”',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;">Anil Malik is the general manager of Radisson Hotel Kathmandu since August 2013. He has wide experience in the hospitality sector and this is his third tenure with the Carlson Group. Earlier he has worked with the Grand Hyatt, Centara Hotels and Resorts and the O Hotel. He spoke to the New Business Age about his experience in Nepal and the tourism possibilities of the country.&nbsp;</span><strong style="font-size: 16px;">Excerpts:&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Tell us about your career and corporate journey?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Right from my childhood I have seen my mother hosting guests at home. I did Bachelor of Science with geology as major. However after graduation I got interested in hospitality. I appeared in the all India entrance examination, I was qualified and with great hard work I jumped into the hospitality industry.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Why hotels and hospitality? What points of attraction and challenges mark work in hotel sector?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	I personally feel that hospitality is the only sector where you meet so many unique people, learn new culture and learn new food habits. That&rsquo;s why I personally feel that hospitality is the right industry for a person like me who loves food and meet new people.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Carlson Group is the only group, which is expanding, in large capacity. In India we in 2014 we are expecting to have 50 new properties. We are expanding in China, and Hong Kong. In Nepal there are possibilities of expansion and my company is seriously looking to it. Because the country has lots of potential and I have also visited some of the places such as Chitawan and Pokhara, which hold high possibilities. A feasibility report for these possibilities is underway and which I look forward to present at the Carlson office. Carlson has got various brands under its umbrella. We have got budget segments therefore possibilities can be worked out according to the demand. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>What major practices have you introduced in Radisson in the last quarter?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	When I joined I found training opportunities lacking here. There are many hotel management colleges in the country but the biggest challenge is that most of the graduate go aboard to work thereby creating scarcity of skilled manpower. Since my initial days here I have always tried to engage with the staff and to make them more management friendly. There are a number of union issues in Nepal and here also there were some issues in the past. I have been trying to resolve this issue in a professional way by engaging with the employees and interacting with them through open communication channels. As part of this strategy, we started organizing Friday town hall meeting where the general manager interacts about the budget and other management issues with the staff. This is one of the initiations that I took. Apart from that we have started participating in various corporate social responsibility programmes and as a part of it we have made some donation to the Red Cross Nepal and on February 15 we organized Radathon in association with the Nepal Tourism Board.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>What contribution have you made specifically in making the hotel more hospitable?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Last year we added around hundred rooms to existing 160 rooms capacity of hotel Radisson. The additional hundred rooms are very modern compared to other hotels. And now my task is to see that the corporate people target these hundred rooms. To achieve this objective we are building close ties with the corporate sector. Besides this we are going to open the doors of our new Indian cuisine restaurant to our guest and adding to that a Japanese restaurant opening in the pipeline.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>What are the major challenges of hotel industry in Nepal? How do you think they can be addressed?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Recently Trip Advisor rated Nepal as the hottest destination. The only challenge I personally feel here is that the tour operators who are getting this groups in the country they are somehow trying to undersell Nepal as a major tourist destination. The occupancy must have grown but not the revenue and let&rsquo;s not forget that tourism plays a very important role in the development of the country&rsquo;s economy. Therefore we should try not to undersell Nepal. Costly airfare is another problem. It costs around Rs 50,000 to fly back and forth to Delhi. Such a high fare, I think, is bringing down the number of Indian tourist visiting Nepal. At the same time the rooms are expensive as we have 18 hours power cuts and we cannot compromise with our services for our guests. That is revenue is less and expenses are more.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Tourism potentials are very high in Nepal but the income is still around $ 5 billion and 11 per cent of the nation&rsquo;s GDP. Where is &nbsp;the disconnect? What can be done in this context by the private sector and the government?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	In Nepal there are many areas, which can be explored. Tourist visit Nepal mostly to see Kathmandu. The government of Nepal along with the Nepal Tourism Board should brand it as &lsquo;Explore Nepal&rsquo; and they should come out with new destinations that are still to be explored. I personally feel that the government should identify new values and new areas to attract much more tourist.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>What is the situation of skilled manpower in the hospitality industry?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	There are eight five-star hotels since a very long time. Though the government has itself not taken any measures to expand it, very soon three hotels are coming to Nepal. Along with that the government has also signed agreements with around ten other five-star properties. Opening of these hotels will open new job opportunities. What I have found is staff appointment in Nepal is very low. Job openings are available only if a person retires from the position or moves abroad. So how do you expect to have new talent when there are no new hotels and no new vacancies?</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>What are your suggestions to the major hotel and tourism management colleges? What inputs should they make to develop talent here?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	They have to be more professional, the corporate culture has to be taught and exposure has to be given to them. And the same time they should have a tie up with some groups of hotel where some concrete steps can be taken. At the moment my hotel has around 80 trainees but what about the other students as there are only eight five-star hotels. &nbsp;Definitely the remaining students will move abroad.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>What is your personal management philosophy with regards to hotel management and its efficient leadership?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Speaking on a personal note there has to be a leadership quality and attitude has to be very positive. Along with it one should have an urge to teach the juniors, should believe in teamwork as it&rsquo;s not possible to achieve the objectives without team work. At the same time one should try to impart maximum knowledge to juniors to make the team competent. The country should also have a corporate culture, which I hope will definitely grow.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>',
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			'created' => '2014-03-24',
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			'description' => 'Anil Malik is the general manager of Radisson Hotel Kathmandu since August 2013. He has wide experience in the hospitality sector and this is his third tenure with the Carlson Group. Earlier he has worked with the Grand Hyatt, Centara Hotels and Resorts and the O Hotel. He spoke to the New Business Age about his experience in Nepal and the tourism possibilities of the country. Excerpts:',
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	(int) 7 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2765',
			'article_category_id' => '47',
			'title' => 'A Visionary Developer',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Sujan Tiwari</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Om Rajbhandary, Executive Chairman of Brihat Group and Chairman of Comfort Housing is a long-familiar name in Nepali real estate sector. Many may find it hard to believe that one of the most prominent developers and the pioneer of community housing in Nepal actually started his career as Medical Representative. Rajbhandary, a promoter of planned urbanization has conquered a lot in the real estate sector, and has a lot more up his sleeve.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Rajbhandary, a real estate expert, developer and builder and pioneer of community living in Nepal doesn&rsquo;t like to be known only as a businessman. &ldquo;I am not just working for my business, I am working for the betterment of entire real estate sector of Nepal,&rdquo; says Rajbhandary. Rajbhandary, over the years, has made enormous contribution for the professional management of the sector. Brihat Group has been publishing a newsletter for the last six years to educate and aware the people about the sector and about its market. Rajbhandary was the first person to work as a Real Estate Faculty Member of Ace Institute of Management and in Apex College. He has taught Real Estate, an optional subject to MBA and BBA students in these colleges.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Rajbhandary has been promoting real estate, infrastructure and urbanization through presentations in various national and international programmes. He is also the Visiting Speaker of Thai Real Estate School of Business, and is regarded as a key speaker in Asia-Pacific region. He was also the first to introduce Real Estate Marketing Agent Course in Nepal in 2009 to generate certified real estate marketing agents. At present, Brihat Group has produced more than a hundred such agents. &nbsp;He has played a major role in many fairs and expos, and has been the coordinator of various real estate exhibitions. Rajbhandary has also addressed the issue of the sector in the government, and is always coordinating with government authorities and international agencies like IFC and IMF for improving the sector.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>The Genesis</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Surprisingly, Rajbhandary started his career as a Medical Representative for a company called Winthrop in the year 1984. Soon, he was promoted to District Sales Manager. He left the job in 1992, when he was further promoted and had to go to India. &ldquo;I always wanted to work in my own country and become an entrepreneur. So I left the job after nine years,&rdquo; said Rajbhandary. His experience in Winthrob taught him corporate culture, and he also learnt a lot about administration. Back in his head , he had plans of doing his own business. In the same year, he, with five other partners, started CE Constructions. The company then started dealing with construction business, successfully carrying out government and private construction projects.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The first project of CE Constructions was the installation of transmission line in Lumbini. Other major projects accomplished by the company in the following decade include Gokarna Golf Resort, Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management (NATHM), Sagarmatha Chaudhary Eye Hospital in Lahan, Siddhartha Children and Women Hospital in Butwal, Buddha Maya Garden Hotel at Lumbini and extended portion of B and B Hospital among others.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;After a decade of its inception, CE Constructions was a popular name in Nepali market. Around the same time, Rajbhandary came up with the concept of community housing, which was a relatively new concept in Nepal back then. In the year 2001, he started the construction of Comfort Housing with the concept of community living. &ldquo;It was started with the concept of providing customers with stand-alone housing units with property ownership, infrastructure and amenities,&rdquo; explained Rajbhandary. But like any new idea, his idea of community living wasn&rsquo;t readily accepted in the market. It took some time for the market to get used to the new concept.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There were 76 houses in his first Comfort Housing Community Living project at Sitapaila, and it took him two years to sell all the houses. Within the two years&rsquo; time, the concept gradually picked up, and his second such project at Budhanilkantha was completely booked in two days, and sold within six months. &ldquo;This proved that the market has slowly accepted the concept of community living. We were encouraged by this, and constructed even more such housings,&rdquo; says Rajbhandary. &nbsp;The popularity and credibility of the housing grew so much that the next Comfort Housing project at Ichhangu had to be sold with lottery system. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Going Beyond</strong></span></div>
<div>
	According to Rajbhandary, he is committed to enhance the quality of life of Nepalis. &ldquo;For this, we had to go beyond Kathmandu. So we searched for good locations, and constructed our fourth Comfort Housing in Dharan,&rdquo; says he. At the same time, Rajbhandary again started something new, the idea of Vertical Community Living or apartments. Then he constructed The Comfort Housing (TCH) Tower-2 at Lazimpat which was ready by year 2006. It also was a huge success as all the apartments were sold out in a single day. In 2007, TCH Tower-3 was ready. &ldquo;There were 41 apartments, and for that we received 350 applications. That too was sold with lottery system,&rdquo; says he. For the sale of his next two ventures TCH Community Living at Thaiba and TCH Tower-4 at Sitapaila, potential buyers were informed three months in prior. &nbsp;The demand was so high that these two properties also had to be sold on lottery basis.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As Comfort Housing only concentrated on community living houses and apartments, Rajbhandary thought of constructing other housing structures like senior housing, rental housing, environment friendly housing and low cost housing among others. &ldquo;To move on further with this, I started Brihat Investments Pvt Ltd in the year 2008,&rdquo; says he. According to him, Brihat Investments was started to promote real estate investment, entrepreneurship and marketing. Under the company, he constructed first environment-friendly community living with the theme of eco-urbanization at Ramkot. These houses have eco-friendly features like UV protected windows, reduced use of wood, rain water conservation, solar street lights and proper disposal of household wastes among others. There are 76 units in the community, and 30 units are handed over and 18 units are already occupied. Brihat Group now has four companies under it, Brihat Investments Pvt Ltd, Brihat Developers and Builders Pvt Ltd, Swayambhu Hotels and Apartments Pvt Ltd and Pioneer Developers and Builders Pvt Ltd.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Early Life</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Rajbhandary was born in 2019 BS in Yangal of Kathmandu to Late Bishnu Bahadur Rajbhandary and Narayan Devi Rajbhandary. Growing up, he was very close with his grandfather Bhairab Bahadur Rajbhandary. He is the youngest among two sisters and a brother. He did his schooling from Laboratory School till grade 8, and did his SLC from Viswa Niketan School. He did his Intermediate and Bachelor degree in science from Amrit Science Campus.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Present and Future</strong></span></div>
<div>
	After the recession in housing sector about four years back, there have been some issues in lending and project financing. According to Rajbhandary, Nepal still has deficit of housing, but owing to the increased price of land, huge housing projects are not a possibility for now. &ldquo;To cope with this problem, we have come up with the idea of cluster housing. There are only houses in cluster housing without other infrastructures and community facilities,&rdquo; explains Rajbhandary. He is launching three such projects in Kathmandu within 2014.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In the future, Rajbhandary wants to develop the core city area of Kathmandu as a safe shelter to reduce the risk of earthquakes. He also wants to transform the area with better management in terms of transportation, sanitation and ventilation. Rajbhandary is also in favour of conserving our cultural heritages. &nbsp;He also wants to develop new towns to adjust with the growing population, and has dreams of bringing a public limited company for housing sector. &ldquo;I want planned urbanization to foster, not only in Kathmandu but all over Nepal,&rdquo; says the ambitious builder.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Personal Side</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Rajbhandary married Purnima Rajbhandary in the year 2050 BS. &ldquo;My wife has an enormous contribution towards my success. We are very compatible with each other, and enjoy a very friendly and happy relation,&rdquo; says he. &nbsp;She is an MBA graduate, also the CEO of Brihat Investments. The couple is blessed with a son Brihat, and under his name, the entire group is established. He is doing his engineering in Canada, and Rajbhandary wants his son to support his business with newer technologies, and take it to newer heights. &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He says he is a very helpful person with a light heart, and is popular among his friends, family and acquaintances. He considers leadership and eloquence among his strengths, and advocates independence and freedom of decision making. &ldquo;I believe in god, and respect my ancestors. I pay respect to the both every morning before I have my breakfast,&rdquo; says the faithful man. Besides his work, he is busy socializing. He loves travelling, listening to music and loves gadgets. Rajbhandary doesn&rsquo;t want to splurge on cars, and drives a Kia Sportage and Ford Classic.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Afterword</strong></span></div>
<div>
	A strong believer of entrepreneurship, Rajbhandary is contented with the fact that he has contributed to the nation through his constructions and employment. &ldquo;As our country is in political transition, the society has expectations form business leaders like us. We should be responsible towards the society,&rdquo; says he. According to him, knowledge is not a private property, and all should transform knowledge for the better good of society and country. &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Involvements</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Founding Chairman and Promoter, CE Constructions&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Director, Ace School</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Board Member, Industrial Promotion Board, Department of Industries&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Board Member, Kathmandu Valley Water Supply Management Board</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Executive Committee Member, FNCCI</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Coordinator, Urban Development Forum, FNCCI</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Third Vice President, Nepal Land and Housing Developers&rsquo; Association&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>National Team Member, Habitat for Humanity International&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Member, Canada Nepal Business Executive Committee&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Lifetime Special Member, Confederation of Asia-Pacific Chambers of Commerce of Industry (CACCI)</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Executive Committee Member, SAARC Chambers of Commerce and Industry (SCCI)</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Administrative Director/General Secretary, Hospice Nepal</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Senior Vice President/Fund Raising Committee Coordinator, Nepal Ambulance Service</div>
<div>
	&bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Chairperson-Vocational Service Project, Rotary Club of Kasthamandap</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-24',
			'modified' => '2014-03-25',
			'keywords' => 'new business age personality news & articles, personality news & articles from new business age nepal, personality headlines from nepal,  current and latest personality news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali personality economic news and events,  ongoing  personality news of nepal',
			'description' => 'Om Rajbhandary, Executive Chairman of Brihat Group and Chairman of Comfort Housing is a long-familiar name in Nepali real estate sector. Many may find it hard to believe that one of the most prominent developers and the pioneer of community housing in Nepal actually started his career as Medical Representative. Rajbhandary, a promoter of planned urbanization has conquered a lot in the real estate sector, and has a lot more up his sleeve.',
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	(int) 8 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2764',
			'article_category_id' => '42',
			'title' => 'Stocks Gear Up To 6 Years High',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<strong>--By Bikram Chitrakar</strong></div>
<div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Secondary market of Nepal spurted to new high after six years helped by partial settlement of political uncertainty. The Nepse, benchmark index of country&#39;s capital market, surged 37.20 points or 4.52 % to rest at 822.67 on February 20 as the highest of the review period while the lowest was 769.51 on February 03, 2014. On November 09, 2008 stock market index of Nepal had hovered around 810.81, and that has been surpassed by this review period&rsquo;s closing. The prime factor for this gear up has been pointed to the latest political developments which includes coming of the Constituent Assembly into function and the formation of Sushil Koirala-led Nepali Congress-CPN-UML coalition government. This tipped off the market with optimism and pushed the index to a new high after nearly six years.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		The growth in benchmark index has been primarily contributed by insurance and hydropower sectors. Insurance sector has been the new hot cake of investors since the middle of previous fiscal year. Likewise investors have preferred most of the hydropower companies. During the review period, the sub-index of insurance sector has gone up by 652.17 points and hydropower sub-index jumped 344.22 points.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Market capitalization for this period has been fueled up by 5% as compared to the preceding month. Flexible margin lending (loan against share certificates as security) by different financial institutions, excess liquidity in the banking system, narrow down of market interest rates and lack of better investment alternative have underpinned the recent growth in the capital market. &nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) has revised its list of category &ldquo;A&rdquo; stocks. The new list has 130 companies compared to 120 in the last year. As per the bylaws, companies with minimum of Rs 20 million paid-up capital with at least 1000 equity holders can be categorized in this group. Besides, the company should also post profit for three straight years and its book value must be above paid-up value.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		The momentum of this &quot;A Class&quot; category stocks has been reflected by the sensitive index. With the inclusion of new 10 companies in this category, the ratio of &#39;A&#39; graded companies with total listed companies now stands at 57%. Thus, the movements of the sensitive index and Nepse index show similar pattern. This indicates the need for introducing more categories and classification. &nbsp; &nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Performance by Sector</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Following the positive trend of previous weeks, most of the sub-indices under Nepse registered growth during this review period too in addition to banking and &lsquo;others&rsquo; sub-indices. Insurance sub-index turned to be the highest gainer of the review period with a growth of 652.17 points followed by hydropower sub-index, which increased by 344.22 points. Hotel sub-index also added 245.11 points to rest at 1402.23. Development bank sub-index went up the hill to 54.52 points while trading sub-index registered a growth of 15.04 points. However, banking sub-index faced the losing session with downfall of 14.40 points to rest at 765.85 while &#39;Others&#39; sub-index settled at 793.02 down by 3.52 points during the review period. &nbsp;Meanwhile, Sensitive index that reflects the movement of &ldquo;A Category&rdquo; stocks of Nepal Stock Exchange ascended 4.09 points or 2.29% to settle at 178.64 points while float index went up 2.55 points to 55.19. &nbsp;During the review period, total of Rs. 5.98 billion turnover was realized from 16.67 units of share traded through 53,942 transactions.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		During the period, 44.51 percent of the total turnover was captured by commercial banks. Insurance sector grabbed the second position with 20.79 percent while 18.23 percent was occupied by hydropower sector. Rest of the portions of total turnover were covered by remaining sectors.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Technically, the Simple Moving Average (SMA) of Nepse index is aggressive when SMA of these 30 days and the past 200 days are compared. Despite the positive expectations, chances of correction at this level seem prominent. However, Nepse index may further rise to test some psychological levels and perhaps next resistance. As per the pivot analysis, the next resistance of Nepse range is at 840.39 and 858.11, while the support levels stand at 787.23 and 751.79 at lowest.</div>
	<div style="text-align: right;">
		<em>(Chitrakar is a Stock Analyst with Jamb Technologies Pvt Ltd.)</em></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<img alt="Stock Taking" src="/userfiles/images/st(3).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 193px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
</div>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
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			'description' => 'The Nepse, benchmark index of country's capital market, surged 37.20 points or 4.52 % to rest at 822.67 on February 20 as the highest of the review period.',
			'sortorder' => '2609',
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	(int) 9 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2763',
			'article_category_id' => '37',
			'title' => 'Investment Issues  In Nepali Insurers',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<div>
		<strong>--By Ujjwal Chand &amp; Suraj Bansal</strong></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Currently, there are 25 insurance companies in Nepal -16 of them provide non-life insurance services and &nbsp;eight &nbsp;provide life insurance services while one provides both of these services. Insurance companies use their funds consisting of capital, reserves, premiums and loans to finance claim payments and other expenses. The remaining fund is invested as per the Investment Directives from the regulatory body, i.e. Insurance Board (Beema Samiti). As of FY 2011-12, these companies had investments to the tune of Rs. 60 billion out of which Rs. 52 billion was from life insurance companies and the rest was from non-life insurance companies.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		The insurance companies can put their investment funds in the sectors specified &nbsp;in the investment guidelines which specify that Life insurance companies must invest a minimum of 75% and non-life insurance companies minimum of 65% of their investment funds in combination of government securities, fixed deposits of commercial banks and development banks, and mutual fund/Citizen Investment Trust Schemes. They can put a maximum of 5% of their total investment fund in ordinary shares of public limited companies. Other areas for investment are secured debentures of Banks and Financial Institutions (BFI)s and Fixed Deposits (FDs) in finance companies. Non-life insurance companies can additionally invest in shares of real estate development or public limited housing company.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Importance of Returns from Investment&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		The operations of life and non-life insurance companies are different. Non-life insurance companies generate profit through both returns from investment and from regular insurance business. Life insurance companies, however, are suffering loss in the regular insurance business. Therefore, it is only due to the returns from investment that they are able to report positive bottom lines. Ganesh Dahal, deputy manager of Sagarmatha Insurance puts that &ldquo;the contribution of investment returns to the company&rsquo;s bottom line is at 40%&rdquo;and in similar vein Suraj Rajbahak, CA of Shikhar Insurance, shared that &ldquo;about 30% of the company&rsquo;s returns are from investment returns&rdquo;. Life insurance companies are far heavily reliant on the investment returns. Dip Bahadur BC, chief financial officer at Prime Life Insurance says, &ldquo;Investment returns not only sustain the company&rsquo;s expenses but also contribute to the bottom line&rdquo;. Bigyan Shrestha, finance chief at National Life Insurance, seconds this and states that &ldquo;the investment returns have been sufficient to sustain normal operations&rdquo; for the company.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<img alt="Returns from Investment" src="/userfiles/images/ep1%20(Copy)(6).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 227px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Investment returns of insurance companies&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Of the twenty-five insurance companies, only twenty had published their annual report for FY 2011-12 by September 2013. An analysis of the same shows that 15 of the 20 companies posted returns from 8.5% to 10.5% from investments. This was primarily due to the high interest rates on the fixed deposits of the BFIs.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		But, the returns from their investment in ordinary share was relatively weak during this period &nbsp;- ranging from 0% to 5.42%. However, during the same period, Nepse increased by 14.7%. This shows that the insurance companies underperformed Nepse in terms of returns from ordinary shares investments.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Issues with current ordinary shares investment&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		There are few internal issues of the insurance companies themselves behind poor &nbsp;returns from ordinary shares investment. &nbsp;Additionally, there are some issues with the current ordinary shares investment practices that could damage these returns in the long run of the insurance companies. These internal issues are:</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Passive investment &ndash; Over-reliance on dividends&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Of the 20 insurance companies analyzed, four hadn&rsquo;t invested in ordinary shares at all in FY 2011-12. In the remaining sixteen insurance companies, dividends contributed about 99.97% of the overall return from this avenue in 2011-12. This means only 0.03% of the returns came from capital gains. Thus passive investing, thereby over reliance on dividends for income from ordinary shares investments remained as the most important reason for poor performance in ordinary shares investments by insurance companies.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Lack of experts, research-based decision making</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Further, the insurance companies did not follow research based decision making approach while selecting ordinary shares for investment. This is despite the fact that the insurance companies accept the high importance of investment decisions to the bottom-line. Moreover, investment team in these companies is made of up of generalists, i.e. overseeing all aspects of finance in the company, rather than specialists with specific field expertise.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Lack of Diversification</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Investment gurus advocating diversification of fund always caution that &ldquo;putting all your eggs in one basket is very dangerous&rdquo;. These insurance companies lack proper diversification in ordinary shares investments, which could damage the returns from this avenue in the long term. The ordinary shares investments were heavily concentrated in stocks of major BFIs, constituting 96% of total ordinary shares investments. In terms of diversification at company level, they fare even worse. Although they had invested in 67 securities, they heavily concentrated on six companies, constituting 67% of the total ordinary shares investments.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Issues with overall current investments&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		High interest rate exposure is found to be triggering volatility on the overall investment returns. This exposure was also due to the conservative guidelines that made it mandatory for the insurance companies to park their fund in interest-rate volatile investment avenues like fixed deposits. The conservative investment guidelines are curtailing the diversification of investments, and thereby introducing concentration risk on the investments.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>High interest risk exposure</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Due to regulatory constraints, large portion of the investment fund is parked in BFIs as fixed deposit. This brings about high interest rate risk in the investments returns of the insurance companies. Sushil Kumar Luniya, manager at Gurans Life Insurance, sees &ldquo;the decrease in interest rates of fixed deposits hampering insurance company returns for the current fiscal year&rdquo;. Manoj Shrestha, head of finance department at NLG Insurance, too regards &ldquo;the volatile bank interest rates as major factor deciding the investment returns&rdquo;. &nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Due to high interest rates prevalent during the sample period (average of 8.125% for commercial banks in FY 2011-12 as per the central bank&rsquo;s Monetary Policy document), most of the insurance companies had fair returns on the investments. Imagine the effect of decrease in the rates to 5.2%, as predicted by NRB Monetary Policy for 2013-14, on the investment returns !&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Now lets simulate this Simulating such scenario by decreasing the FY 2011-12 returns from fixed deposits of BFIs by the same proportion as the decrease in interest rate, i.e. from 8.125% to 5.2%. In FY 2011-12, it was found that only one insurance company was making loss. If the interest rates during this period were only 5.2, four insurance companies would have been at loss.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Lack of diversification options</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		The conservative investment guidelines put by the regulatory board give little room for diversification to insurance companies. Majority of the fund is to be parked in government bonds, and fixed deposit of commercial and development banks. Even in ordinary shares investments, insurance companies are finding hard to diversify from a stock market with over 76% concentration in BFIs. Thus there is huge concentration risk. &nbsp;If one bank or finance institution goes bust, the whole insurance industry would suffocate. One such event in Gurkha Development Bank has already occurred. Few insurance companies are still provisioning the losses from this bank&rsquo;s tragedy.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		But, investment guideline isn&rsquo;t the only sore finger. There is also lack of innovativeness among insurance companies in terms of diversifying their investments. As Dr. Fatta Bahadur KC, chairman of Insurance Board, claims, &ldquo;The investment guidelines clearly indicate flexibility of alternative investment avenues for the insurance companies&rdquo;. Upon request by insurance companies, the Board is ready to look into alternative investment proposals. But as this includes some hassles and would put the insurance company management under scrutiny if the innovation backfires, the insurance companies are reluctant to tread on this way.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Asset-liability mismatch</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Asset-Liability mismatch is a major issue with life insurance companies. Safer investment assets with longer maturity are hard to find in Nepali market, where bonds and debentures have minimal presence. Debentures of commercial banks bring concentration risk with them for the insurance companies, which already have major portion of their investment fund in the banks as fixed deposits and their ordinary shares. Dr. KC, sees &ldquo;Asset-Liability mismatch for life insurance companies as they issue policy for long term whereas they can invest for short term only&rdquo;. Dip Bahadur BC, CFO of Prime Life, also considers &ldquo;asset-liability maturity mismatch as a prevalent issue in all life insurance companies&rdquo;.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 18px;"><strong>The Way Ahead</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Resolving Internal Issues</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Internal issues - lack of research based decision making, diversification and active investing - can be resolved through robust internal research systems. To boost their ordinary shares investment performance through research backed investments, the insurance companies could build their own internal system and processes but at a huge cost. It would also mean taking two diverse businesses in parallel, i.e. insurance business and investment business. Outsourcing of ordinary shares investment management by availing the customized portfolio management service given by several financial intermediaries like Kriti Capital, Nabil Invest and Beed Management, seems more beneficial. Such outsourcing &nbsp;will not only enable insurance companies to focus on their core business, but also get better returns from their investments via expert handling of their funds at a relatively lower cost.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<img alt="Isues with Investment" src="/userfiles/images/ep2%20(Copy)(2).jpg" style="margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; width: 550px; height: 400px;" /></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Resolving external issues</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		There are limitations faced by insurance companies while investing their fund as per current investment guidelines. Fixed deposits have inbuilt interest rate risks. The life insurance companies face an additional issue of asset-liability maturity mismatch, with investments maturing in about 1-1.5 years and liabilities remaining active for about 10-13 years. There is need for long term investment alternative.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Further, diversification of fund is hard in a secondary market with heavy concentration of BFI stocks. With the investment fund increasing rapidly (CAGR of 21.35% from 2004-05 to 2011-12), there is a need to look for additional investment avenue to resolve these issues. This is not just voiced by the insurance company professionals but also by the insurance regulatory board.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Dr. KC feels that &ldquo;although the investment guidelines give flexibility to insurance companies to come up with alternative investment proposals, the time has come to review the overall investment guidelines&rdquo;.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		A suitable avenue to be added in the investment guidelines could be private placements in infrastructure companies. This will not just help the insurance companies to resolve the issues of diversification and the infrastructure companies in getting easier financing, but also help the overall economy of the nation. Dr. KC says that the Board is &ldquo;positive on investment made by insurance companies in hydropower and other infrastructure companies, and these avenues could be opened for investments&rdquo;. Most of the insurance companies also state that they are willing to invest in hydropower and other infrastructure companies, if allowed by investment board.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Insurance Board should allow investments by the insurance companies via private placements, as the secondary market doesn&rsquo;t have appropriate diversification opportunities. Further, the insurance companies would be able to invest at a bargain in the infrastructure companies due to their sheer investment fund size. Also, if SEBON comes up with more liberal rules on the issuance of shares at premium, the infrastructure companies could benefit hugely from private placements. Even if the insurance companies decide on being risk averse and just invest in debentures, they could do so in infrastructure debentures. As there isn&rsquo;t presence of these instruments in secondary market, private placement would be ideal way for diversification of &nbsp;by insurance companies. On the other hand, the infrastructure companies would have lower issue costs and lesser regulatory hassles than going public for raising finance. Also, in case of debentures, these companies would be avoiding interest rate exposure. Similarly, the promoters of infrastructure companies would be able to delay issuing the shares to public, thereby being in position with better financial statements before going public. This would help get better response on public issuance of shares at premium.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Thus the insurance companies should initiate this by coming up with effective proposal and lobbying with the Insurance Board for liberal investment guidelines.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		But, investment in private placements of the infrastructure companies (if allowed by the Board) requires expert knowledge on these companies and regular monitoring. Also, the entry and exit strategies must be taken into account as these investments are relatively less liquid as compared to secondary market investments. There will be need of diversification as well as policy and strategy development for the insurance companies vying to invest via private placements. So, to benefit from this additional investment avenue, insurance companies will have to develop in-house expertise or outsource private placements management services for financial intermediaries.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<em>(The article is based on a joint research conducted by Ujjwal Chand and Suraj Bansal as part of their academic requirement at KUSOM. The researchers can be contacted at: chandujjwal@gmail.com)</em></div>
</div>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
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			'description' => 'Insurance companies use their funds consisting of capital, reserves, premiums and loans to fi nance claim payments and other expenses.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2762',
			'article_category_id' => '31',
			'title' => '“Young Mind Is Always  Very Inquisitive Mind”',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;">The first Round Table was formed in Norwich, England in 1927. It was a club where the young business men of the town gathered on a regular basis. Louis Marchesi, founder of the Round Table International used to mention three things: there are things we must do, there are things we can do and there are things we should do. He was of the view that chance can be achieved with young minds. The same organization has been working in the various parts of the world now with the aim of increasing youth&rsquo;s involvement in businesses. Siromani Dhungana of the New Business Age spoke to its President Moffat Nyirenda during his recent visit to Nepal on issues surrounding youth entrepreneurship among others. Excerpt:&nbsp;</span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>RTI emphasizes on youth involvement in business. Why?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The young generation is the future of the society both in the corporate as well as in the civil society. So, it&rsquo;s very important to emphasis on them. Young mind is always very inquisitive so it can be easily tapped and prompted for entrepreneurship.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>How important is &lsquo;inquisitive mind&rsquo; in business?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	First of all, the world has been very dynamic and the issue of globalization has emerged as a crucial issue. The world has become really competitive. If you do not have inquisitive mind, you will easily die in the corporate world. You should always check the challenges and find out possible solutions to overcome those challenges. Also, you have to expand your business contacts. And only inquisitive mind can identify what&rsquo;s going on around the world.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>It is said that businessmen always seek favour from political parties. Can business organization run without political inclination?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Yes. If you have political inclination sometimes you have to compromise your business interest. Your professionalism, your business opportunity can face adverse situation due to direct political affiliation. So, it is extremely important to maintain neutrality in business.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>The phrase adopt, adapt and improve is a key facet of the RTI. How do you relate this phrase in business organization?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Yes, adopt, adapt and improve have always been our motto since our establishment in 1927 when young entrepreneur members felt the need for a club where they could come together with similar members and share their business experiences. In business &lsquo;adopt, adapt and improve&rsquo; is very relevant. First, we have to adopt the situation then we have to adapt it and we have to improve our way of doing according to necessity. The world is very dynamic, we need to adopt and also be ready to improve. This phrase is equally important in society too.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>How to inspire young generation in business sector?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	There are few aspects. First, young generation should realize that they need to do something. World is dynamic and this means that they will have to face the new challenges now and then. This realization leads them to involve in entrepreneurship. Further, they should realize that they have to contribute in the society. And, entrepreneurship is the best way to do so. Further, all concerned stakeholders should always encourage youth generation to be involved in entrepreneurship.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>What is more important: investment (capital) or idea to set up new venture?</strong></span></div>
<div>
	It depends on the how the country is structured. Idea and innovation is a must to start new venture for entering into the business world. At the same time, we cannot set up new business without capital. So the government, in many countries, provides special facilities and loans to innovative minds to let them start new venture. There should a balanced approach between capital and idea.</div>',
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			'keywords' => 'new business age business visitors news & articles, business visitors news & articles from new business age nepal, business visitors headlines from nepal,  current and latest business visitors news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali business visitors economic news and events, ongoing busin',
			'description' => 'The first Round Table was formed in Norwich, England in 1927. It was a club where the young business men of the town gathered on a regular basis. Louis Marchesi, founder of the Round Table International used to mention three things: there are things we must do, there are things we can do and there are things we should do.',
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	(int) 11 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2726',
			'article_category_id' => '137',
			'title' => 'Nepal Vying For 4.5% GDP Growth In 2014: ADB',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By TC Correspondent</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepal&rsquo;s gross domestic product (GDP) growth will rise to 4.5 per cent this fiscal year, a new Asian Development Bank (ADB) report has projected. &nbsp;&ldquo;The positive political outlook, expected increase in agriculture production following a favorable monsoon, modest improvement in capital expenditure following the timely full FY 2014 budget, and a strong services sector performance supported by remittance income are expected to boost gross domestic product (GDP) growth (at basic prices) to 4.5 per cent in FY 2014, up from 3.6 per cent in FY 2013,&rdquo; the Manila-based regional development bank in its latest macroeconomic update for Nepal informed.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The bank, however, mentioned that the forecast is lower than the government&rsquo;s projection of 5.5 per cent GDP growth due to less than expected increase in capital spending and a slightly lower services sector. &nbsp;&ldquo;Despite the timely full budget, expenditure performance was not satisfactory in the first half of FY 2014. Of the total planned expenditure of Rs 517.2 billion, only 30.3 per cent was spent largely due to the lower than expected capital spending. The slow pace of spending so far indicates that the capital budget will likely continue to be under spent as in the previous years,&rdquo; the report noted. &ldquo;In addition to the improvements in agriculture production, both domestic and foreign investment commitments increased remarkably in the first half of FY 2014.&rdquo;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The bank said that there is an urgent need to ramp up both the quantum and quality of capital spending as it not only &lsquo;crowds in&rsquo; private investments, but also helps create the foundations for the lackluster growth to take off on an employment-centric, high, inclusive and sustainable growth path.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	According to the report, Nepal may not meet its yearly revenue target this year due to the depreciation of the Nepali rupee against the US dollar which is slowing down import demand in the country. &ldquo;Even though the Rs 163.4 billion revenue mobilized in the first half of FY 2014 is 21.5 per cent is higher than the revenue mobilized in the corresponding period in FY 2013, it still is lower than the half-year target set for this fiscal year,&rdquo; it said.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, the bank forecasted the inflation rate to stand at 10 per cent in FY 2014, higher than the government&rsquo;s target of 8.5 per cent. &ldquo;Despite the expected improvement in agriculture harvest, the wage pressures, the persistently high price level in India, the rise in administered fuel prices, lower interest rates, the persistently weak Nepali rupee and the supply-side constraints, average annual consumer price index (CPI) inflation in FY 2014 is forecast at 10 per cent,&rdquo; ADB mentioned. The bank informed that inflation averaged 9.1 per cent in the first half of FY 2014, down from 10.7 per cent in the corresponding period in FY 2013. The decline in prices is mainly driven by the sharp slowdown in non-food and services prices. However, the persistence of the high inflation level is supported by rising food and beverage prices, which averaged 11.5 per cent in the first half of FY 2014 against 9.8 per cent during the same period in FY 2013, the report notes.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-09',
			'modified' => '2014-03-24',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'Nepal’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth will rise to 4.5 per cent this fiscal year, a new Asian Development Bank (ADB) report has projected.  “The positive political outlook, expected increase in agriculture production following a favorable monsoon, modest improvement in capital expenditure following the timely full FY 2014 budget, and a strong services sector performance supported by remittance income are expected to boost gross domestic product (GDP) growth (at basic prices) to 4.5 per cent in FY 2014, up from 3.6 per cent in FY 2013,” the Manila-based regional development bank in its latest macroeconomic update for Nepal informed.',
			'sortorder' => '2606',
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	(int) 12 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2761',
			'article_category_id' => '39',
			'title' => 'Chachan Group: Trader To Manufacturer',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Gaurav Aryal and Om Prakash Khanal</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<table align="right" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;" width="25">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>
				<img alt="Satish Chachan, Director, Chachan Group" src="/userfiles/images/cf1%20(Copy)(5).jpg" style="border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; width: 200px; height: 239px;" /></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
				<div align="center">
					<div>
						<strong>Satish Chachan</strong></div>
					<div>
						Director, Chachan Group</div>
				</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<div>
	Chachan Group evolved into a manufacturing and trading house when it changed its course into manufacturing from the family owned trading business. This move not only made the group grow leaps and bounds but also established itself as a leading industrial and trading house. The group in its initial days traded various commodities such as leather and leather products, cement, vegetable ghee, food grains, lentils, oil seeds, spices, consumer goods, fertilizer, pulses, edible oils and animal feeds. Today, the group not only trades these commodities but also produces them.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The group&rsquo;s expansion was not merely driven by the market force. There were visions and entrepreneurial skills of earlier generation of businessmen, Mahabir Prasad Chachan and Shree Maliram Chachan, who steered the business towards what it is today. When the group passed onto the new generation of businessmen, Babu Lal Chachan and Parmeshwar Lal Chachan who are Chairman and Vice-Chairman respectively, the group had reached to a position from where it would never have to look back.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Growing Larger</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Satish Chachan, Director of Chachan Group says that the group is continuously following the tradition established by its founders towards further growth of the company. He proudly says, &ldquo;Compared to the group&rsquo;s initial days, the company has achieved a remarkable success in cement manufacturing besides continuing its decades old cement selling business.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Within the last decade, the group has established three cement grinding plants each having a production capacity of 350 metric tonnes (MT) of cement per day in Birgunj. Similarly, the group has begun the construction of fourth cement grinding plant in Nepalgunj with the same capacity as that of a single unit in Birgunj.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Chachan says that the group had established a poly-plastic bag industry two years back in Birgunj. This factory has enabled the group&rsquo;s cement plants to use its own cement packing bags. &ldquo;This polyplastic bag industry has also earned a big business faith in the major sectors of the country. This clearly indicates the satisfactory present and past situation of the company and its growing capability to contribute a large amount of revenue to the nation.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Gaining Strength</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The group has shown remarkable progress in goods manufacturing that it has decided to specialise on. At present, it is producing cement, vegetable oil, leather goods, poly-plastic goods and various food products through its food processing units. Likewise, the group is also involved in trading through its three companies who have direct presence in over 19 different cities across the country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Chachan Group is today considered one of the leading business houses of Nepal based in Birgunj for producing variety of commodities with a wide reach across the country. Chachan claims that the products range that the company trades in and its wide network are suggestive of their market and the robust financial strength of the group.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He shares that the annual turnover of the group exceeds Rs 4 billion. He also adds that the staggering 70 per cent of the total turnover is generated by the cement wing of the group. While sharing the strength of the group, Chachan boasts that his business has been employing 1500 people directly along with a huge number of indirect employments in transportation and handling of the raw materials and finished products. He also adds that 300 employees are working in the cement wing alone. The group&rsquo;s beneficiaries such as construction companies, commercial enterprises, transporters, traders, farmers and consumers are spread over major parts of Tarai and hilly regions of the country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Changing the Course</strong></span></div>
<div>
	For decades, the group had been trading various commodities. Chachan says, &ldquo;This trade grew bigger and flourished gradually, which ultimately evolved into the establishment and identification of the Chachan Group. This can be regarded as the first and fundamental turning point of the company.&rdquo; Gradually the trading business expanded; meanwhile, various new manufacturing units were established.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Around one and a half decade ago, the group decided to establish cement manufacturing units realising the growing demand of construction materials and cement in particular. This demand was identified when the state owned cement plants such as Hetauda Cement, Udaypur Cement and other private cement producers were unable to meet the major percentage of cement demands. This inspired the group to establish Narayani Cement Udyog Pvt Ltd in Birgunj. This company today has production capacity of 1050 tonnes per day.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Roadmap Ahead</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Chachan believes that the group has kept its promise of offering best quality products and services at a reasonable cost and claims that it would open up new avenues for the group to expand its manufacturing and trading businesses in the days ahead. &ldquo;Our past experience gives us confidence that we have further opportunities and scope for expansion. We want to establish our own clinker producing units so that we can stand as one of the leading cement and clinker manufacturer of Nepal,&rdquo; envisions Chachan.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He reveals that the group has a clinker producing plant in the pipeline. He elaborated that this new plant will have a production capacity of 700 to 750 tonnes per day. Likewise, once the Nepalgunj based cement plant comes into operation, the group is planning to add another cement grinding plant there with production capacity and design similar to the existing one. Similarly, Chachan reveals that the group is planning to acquire a limestone quarry in a hilly area of Makawanpur district, few kilometres away from Hetauda. &ldquo;Besides this, we have been thinking to buy some additional land to establish the clinker producing plant. Though we are already in touch with some of the renowned Indian companies for establishing the clinker plant, we think this will materialise only after three to five years from now,&rdquo; he added. Similarly, Chachan is ready to expand other plants depending on the market demand and financial status.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Market Positioning</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Products of Chachan Group has a wide market coverage including major cities and towns such as Birgunj, Hetauda, Kalaiya, Narayanghat, Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Banepa, Batar, Pokhara, &nbsp;Bhairahawa, Krishna Nagar, Dang, Nepalgunj, Dhangadhi, Nijgarh, Gaur, Lahan, Janakpur, Jhapa, Morang, Ilam and other places in hilly and Tarai region. According to the group, major market for cement is in all the belts extending from Birgunj to Jhapa and in Hetauda, Narayangarh and major cities and towns of Bagmati zone.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	According to Satish Chachan, Director of the group, product placement is done through various dealers and transporters. Group&rsquo;s contact or branch offices and dealers are channels for distribution. Major product range includes daily commodities, construction materials, leather goods, fertilizers among others.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	All the factories of the group are being operated in full capacity to meet the market demand. &nbsp;Products are sold under different brand names such as Trishakti and Bajrashakti in the cement segment while other commodities also have their own niche brand value recognised in their market targets.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>CSR Commitments</strong></span></div>
<div>
	As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the group has given prime importance to environmental protection and freeing its locality from pollutants. The group is also strengthening and accelerating its sustainable environmental efforts through the reduction of environmental impacts and the conservation of the biodiversity. &ldquo;We have been aiming to provide satisfaction and gratification to as many stakeholders as possible. To this aspect, we believe and act ethically and relentlessly to seek improvement in the quality, safety, information security and reliability of our products and services,&rdquo; explains Chachan.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Satish Chachan, Director of the group says, &ldquo;We respect our customer and their culture and the community they belong to while we deal with them in the course of our business activities. We also engage in dialogues with various stakeholders in society and incorporate their feedback to enhance our CSR activities so that we can contribute our best to improve our surroundings, quality and the effectiveness of our activities.&rdquo;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, the company has dedicated itself in creating a safe and comfortable work environment for all its employees so that they can realise their full potential and have a fulfilling career, as a responsible corporate culture.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td bgcolor="#E5E4E2">
				<div>
					<div>
						<div>
							<div>
								<div>
									<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Sister Companies of Chachan Group</strong></span></div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Narayani Cement</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Jaya Bageshwari Cement</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Narayani Oil Refinery Udyog</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Narayani Leather Manufacturing Industries</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Narayani Modern Pulses Industries</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Shree Adhunik Dal Udyog</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Shree Agro Processing Unit</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Adarsh Oil Industry</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Adarsh Tel Udyog</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Adarsh Polyplastic Pvt Ltd</div>
								<div>
									&nbsp;</div>
								<div>
									<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Independent Trading Concerns under the Group</strong></span></div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Chachan Implex</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Devki International</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Manoj International Traders</div>
								<div>
									&nbsp;</div>
								<div>
									&nbsp;</div>
								<div>
									<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>SWOT Analysis</strong></span></div>
								<div>
									&nbsp;</div>
								<div>
									<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Strengths</strong></span></div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Customers</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Staff</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Good quality products and services</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Reasonable price</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Harmonic relationship with employees, customers and local surroundings</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Disciplined working attitude</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Timely revenue payments to the government</div>
								<div>
									&nbsp;</div>
								<div>
									<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Weaknesses</strong></span></div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Inability to give hundred percent employment to the local residents</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Cannot fulfilall the donation demands from local parties and their leaders</div>
								<div>
									&nbsp;</div>
								<div>
									<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Opportunities</strong></span></div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Prospects for growth of construction material businesses</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Growing domestic market and purchasing capacity of people</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Rapidly emerging technological innovations</div>
								<div>
									&nbsp;</div>
								<div>
									<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Threats</strong></span></div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Lack of smooth business environment</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Frequent bandhs and strikes</div>
								<div>
									&bull; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Lack of environment to work peacefully and uninterruptedly where the group is based</div>
							</div>
						</div>
					</div>
				</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-12',
			'modified' => '2014-03-24',
			'keywords' => 'new business age corporate focus news & articles, corporate focus news & articles from new business age nepal, corporate focus headlines from nepal,  current and latest corporate focus news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali corporate focus economic news and events,  ongoing  corporate foc',
			'description' => 'Chachan Group has evolved into a industrial house though it began its commercial journey as a trader.',
			'sortorder' => '2605',
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	(int) 13 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2734',
			'article_category_id' => '91',
			'title' => 'World Bank Stresses On Bankable PDA',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By TC Correspondent&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The World Bank Group has suggested that the Nepali government should focus on infrastructure sector, including hydropower, to achieve economic prosperity.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Wrapping up a six-day visit to Nepal on Saturday, board members underlined the need of developing hydropower and better connectivity. They emphasized the need to sign a bankable PDA.&rdquo;Nepal urgently needs to improve connectivity and power sectors,&rdquo; Jorg Frieden, executive director of the World Bank Group said.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;We need private sector to take lead in hydropower. And, we&rsquo;re working on to have a bankable PDA signed. Once that is done then we can bring full weight of the IFC,&rdquo; said Kyle F Kelhofer, IFC country manager for Nepal,&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Bangladesh and Bhutan.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He further said that IFC may be interested in equity investment on Upper Karnali Hydro Project. &nbsp;&ldquo;Any reasonable proposal that is technically and economically sound would be considered positively,&rdquo; Frieden added.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	They also suggested improving road connectivity to ensure road safety. On possible World Bank assistance to Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track, World Bank Country Director for Nepal Johannes Zutt said the bank is in discussion with the Nepali government on the issue.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The board members said that they see Nepal as a country that needs more resources and the bank will try its best to facilitate better resource mobilisation. However, the members cautioned that mobilisation of the resources would make sense only if it is combined with high quality policy and projects.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;The attention on political transition we know is certainly the priority, but it is not enough,&rdquo; said Frieden adding &ldquo;Economic growth is crucial to support transition. You cannot get stability if the economic performance does not improve. Thus attention on economy is necessary to facilitate the transition.&rdquo; He further added that the government should focus on creating jobs.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The team also emphasized spending in the public sector for the high economic growth. The emphasis comes a week after this fiscal year&rsquo;s mid-term budget review pointed that the capital expenditure stood at 30 percent, while only 19 percent of the allocated budget was spent on national pride projects. With World Bank country office in Nepal currently working on new country assistance strategy, the board members assured that they would recommend to the country teams&mdash;World Bank and IFC&mdash;to listen to the new government, new political leaders and society at large to understand what can be achieved and what really is expected.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-10',
			'modified' => '2014-03-24',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'The World Bank Group has suggested that the Nepali government should focus on infrastructure sector, including hydropower, to achieve economic prosperity.',
			'sortorder' => '2604',
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	(int) 14 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2736',
			'article_category_id' => '138',
			'title' => 'UMN's 60 Years In Nepal Celebrated',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	United Mission to Nepal (UMN), a missionary INGO has celebrated its sixty-years in Nepal. A programme was held on March 5, Wednesday at the UMN headquarter in Thapathali. The occassion was marked by staff members releasing one hundred balloons, commemorating the contributions of UMN to the country in health, education, industrial development, community development and capacity building.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Congratulating UMN on these achievements, the Minister for Energy, Radha Kumari Gyawali said, &quot;The nation hopes for UMN&#39;s continuous service and contribution in the coming days; the work must go on.&quot; Recognising some current difficulties regarding UMN&#39;s headquarters property, Gyawali promised to work with all parties to achieve a fair and just resolution.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	A commemorative stone was unveiled by UMN&#39;s Executive Director Dr Mark Galpin and Madan Prasad Rimal, director of the Social Welfare Council. Rimal praised the organisation&#39;s work and commitment to the poor in Nepal. &quot;UMN came to work in Nepal in 1954. The Government of Nepal invited them to come and start work here. I can say confidently that all the work that UMN has done in these 60 years has been according to the priority and the need of the Government of Nepal,&quot; he said &quot;They have always been transparent in matters of resources and finance.&quot; More than 300 UMN staff and former staff, representatives of other INGOs, government, and the christian community observed the programme.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-10',
			'modified' => '2014-03-24',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'United Mission to Nepal (UMN), a missionary INGO has celebrated its sixty-years in Nepal. A programme was held on March 5, Wednesday at the UMN headquarter in Thapathali. The occassion was marked by staff members releasing one hundred balloons, commemorating the contributions of UMN to the country in health, education, industrial development, community development and capacity building.',
			'sortorder' => '2603',
			'image' => null,
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include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157
View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971
View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933
View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473
Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968
Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200
Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167
[main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117