Nepalinews

Ten months after Nepal Electricity Authority and China Three Gorges International Corporation inked a joint venture agreement, the power authority and CTGIC today signed a deal to form a joint venture company to develop the 750-megawatt West Seti Hydropower Project. Though the NEA board, led by energy secretary, had endorsed the JVA allowing the authority to form a joint venture company to expedite the National Priority Project, CTGIC had taken a longer time to endorse the JVA through its board. The agreement signed today between NEA Managing Director Kulman Ghising and Yao Feixiong, director of investment department of CTGIC, has paved the way for forming a joint venture company to take forward the project. The joint venture company will develop a business plan to execute the project and the project development agreement will be signed with the Investment Board Nepal. Maha Prasad Adhikari, CEO of IBN, which looks into implementation of hydropower projects with generation capaci

 

The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation has issued Aircraft Search and Rescue Regulation, 2017, which provides for a provision of an 11-member National Coordination Committee led by minister or sta According to the regulation published in the Nepal Gazette on Monday, the NCC to be formed in Kathmandu Flight Information Region shall make policy provisions relating to aircraft search and rescue operation. As per the regulation, KFTR refers to all airspace located within the geographical boundary of Nepal. Similarly, there shall be a seven-member Rescue Coordination Committee headed by general manager of Civil Aviation Office at the Tribhuvan International Airport to carry out search and rescue operation of aircraft in a coordinated manner. The new law has also stipulated a provision of Search and Rescue Coordination Centre at TIA for deployment of trained human resources in case any aircraft goes missing within KFIR. The regulation requires the Civil Aviation Authority

Sanu Babu Lamsal, a quake victim from Gorkha, recently transferred the ownership of his cab after acquiring a taxi permit from the government and registering the vehicle at Bagmati Transport Management Office. Though the government had issued new taxi permits to 1,500 quake survivors, such as Lamsal, through lucky draws held on June 22 and 23 to assist them with their livelihood, Lamsal said he had little choice in transferring the ownership of his cab after he found that the government scheme would actually add financial burden on quake victims instead of assisting them. “Firstly, we cannot afford to buy these cabs that cost almost Rs 1.6 million. Secondly, it’s impractical for us to shift to Kathmandu Valley from our respective districts to run taxis,” Lamsal said, explaining his decision. He, however, declined to disclose the amount for which he transferred the vehicle ownership. Lamsal said he would not have transferred the ownership of his taxi if the government had assured h

KATHMANDU:  Nepal Rastra Bank, the central bank of Nepal, said that it was making utmost efforts to retrieve money amounting to over Rs 400 million transferred to various banks abroad by hackers using SWIFT from NIC Asia Bank. Some unidentified hackers broke into the Society for Worldwide Interbank Telecommunication (SWIFT), an international payment network, at the NIC Asia Bank in Kathmandu, and had siphoned off the amount from there during the Tihar festival. It has been learned that Hackers have transferred the amount to eight banks in six countries. According to the Joint-Spokesperson at the NRB, Rajendra Pandit, NRB has asked the domestic banks to make efforts to retrieve the amount transferred abroad. Also, it has sought help of banks in those six countries from where hackers have requested the transfer. Meanwhile, NIC Asia Bank has been stepping up its effort towards this end. A total of 11,000 banking and financial institutions across 200 countries are said

KATHMANDU:  International media have reported that few Nepali banks have become latest to fall victim to hackers siphoning off millions of dollars by targeting the backbone of the world financial system, SWIFT. SWIFT, or Society for Worldwide Interbank Telecommunication, is a global financial messaging system that thousands of banks and commercial organisations across the world use to transfer billions of dollars every day. It has been learned that the concerned authorities of the banks have already requested the Nepal Rastra Bank to initiate the cancellation of transfer of funds with the Central Banks of other countries where the money have already been transferred of lately. The incident occurred on the day of Laxmi Puja during the Tihar Festival. Meanwhile, it has not been clear, how, where and how much money have been transferred from Nepali banks. It has been learned that NIC Asia Bank among others’ SWIFT codes have been hacked by unknown hackers by using malware

The government has begun the process to distribute embossed number plates for vehicles on the basis of provincial structure against the current zonal format. This means that vehicles will now be issued embossed number plates based on the province they are registered in. Tok Raj Pandey, spokesperson for Department of Transport Management (DoTM), said that a proposal has been sent to the Cabinet to start distribution of embossed number plates for vehicles under the provincial format. DoTM had begun installing embossed number plates on vehicles belonging to the government and diplomatic agencies from August 20. However, the then Development Committee of the Legislature-Parliament had directed the government to introduce provincial format for the distribution of embossed number plates over the zonal format as the country has already adopted provincial and federal system of governance. “Following the direction from the parliamentary committee, we have made necessary amendments

MUMBAI:  India’s central bank on Saturday dismissed media reports that it was not necessary to link national identity card numbers, known as Aadhar numbers, to bank accounts. It said in a statement the requirement remained in force under anti-money laundering rules.“The Reserve Bank clarifies that, in applicable cases, linkage of Aadhaar number to bank account is mandatory under the Prevention of Money-laundering (Maintenance of Records) Second Amendment Rules, 2017,” it said in a statement. The RBI also said that anti-money laundering rules announced in June 2017 have “statutory force” and banks have to implement them without awaiting further instructions. The Aadhar program, which is the world’s largest biometric identity card program, has triggered some claims that it is an infringement of privacy of citizens. India’s top court in August had said that privacy is a fundamental right and the verdict was expected to complicate efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s gover

WASHINGTON:  The United States does not aim to impede European trade and business transactions with Iran despite President Donald Trump’s decision last week to decertify the 2015 nuclear agreement, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told the Wall Street Journal. European Union leaders in Brussels on Thursday highlighted the need to protect their companies and investors dealing with Iran from any adverse effects should c against Iran, officials said.“The president’s been pretty clear that it’s not his intent to interfere with business deals that the Europeans may have under way with Iran,” Tillerson told the Journal in an interview Thursday. “He’s said it clearly: ‘That’s fine. You guys do what you want to do.'” Trump last week adopted a harsh new approach to Iran by refusing to certify its compliance with the nuclear deal struck with the United States and five other powers including Britain, France and Germany. The Republican president gave Congress 60 days to decide whethe

NEW DELHI:  India is likely to stick to its fiscal deficit target of 3.2 percent of GDP, and may accelerate sales of government stakes in lenders and other companies as part of an effort to recapitalize banks, an adviser to the prime minister said on Tuesday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has already used up nearly all of its budget for the current fiscal year and tax revenues are expected to fall far short of initial expectations. At the same time economic growth has slowed, sparking calls for more stimulus.                                                                               But Surjit Bhalla, a member of Modi’s Economic Advisory Council, told Reuters in an interview, that the government had stuck to its fiscal deficit targets over the past three years and is expected to do so this year as well. The central bank has warned that missing the fiscal deficit target could lead to a spike in inflation, hurting macro-economic stability. Indian stocks slid last m

Betting on the surplus power in the system by the end of next year along with completion of the 456-megawatt Upper Tamakoshi Hydroelectric Project (UTHEP), Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) is taking the initiative to promote electric vehicles for competent management of the surplus power.The power utility has called a tender to instal charging stations in different places of major cities to encourage people to shift to electric vehicles. According to the power utility, a charging station in the NEA office premises will be installed shortly and the authority is also mulling over making electric vehicles mandatory for top posts from director level to spread the message that electric vehicles should be given due priority. According to Prabal Adhikari, spokesperson for NEA, the power utility is planning to first instal charging stations in Kathmandu Valley and major cities and gradually expand to other areas after the flow of electric vehicles increases. Moreover, the power utility

In a major setback to the government’s reconstruction drive, Nepal Telecom has pulled out of reconstruction of Dharahara — one of Kathmandu’s iconic landmarks that collapsed during the devastating earthquake of April 25, 2015. According to National Reconstruction Authority, it received a letter from NT on Tuesday stating the company’s unwillingness to rebuild the monument in Sundhara that had come to symbolise the havoc created by the deadly temblors over two years ago. “NT has stated in its letter that it is unable to rebuild Dharahara as per the design of the government,” informed Yam Lal Bhoosal, spokesperson for NRA. As per Bhoosal, NT has cited two main reasons for pulling out of Dharahara reconstruction — the government’s refusal to let NT rebuild the monument as per a design that ensures sustainable operation of Dharahara after it is erected, and the local cultural communities being opposed to rebuilding Dharahara according to the design proposed by Department of Archaeolo

The government has given the responsibility of the executive director of Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) to Joint Secretary at Ministry of Supplies (MoS), Prem Prasad Acharya.A ministerial-level meeting at MoS today decided to give the responsibility of NOC’s top post to Acharya until further notice, according to Urmila KC, undersecretary at MoS. The post of executive director at NOC had become vacant after the government, on Monday, sacked the then executive director of the corporation Gopal Bahadur Khadka for his alleged involvement in financial irregularities while procuring land for the development of petroleum infrastructure.

The number of countries with whom Nepal enjoys trade surplus is on the decline. As of mid-August, the country had trade surplus with 18 countries out of 94, with whom the country has trade relations. The number of countries with which Nepal had trade surplus stood at 30 in the first month of the last fiscal 2016-17. As per the trade statistics of the first month of this fiscal unveiled by the Department of Customs (DoC), the country had trade surplus with the United States, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Norway, Romania, Namibia, Portugal, Uruguay, Morocco, Yemen, Bolivia, Chile, Dominica, Azerbaijan, New Caledonia, Tajikistan, Iceland and Lithuania. Nepal exports handicraft products, carpets, garments, pashmina, jewellery, among others, to the aforementioned countries. Though advanced economies like the United States and European countries have extended zero tariff facility for Nepali products as the products manufactured in least developed countries, the country has not be

LONDON:  Unemployment is the biggest risk for businesses globally, according to a World Economic Forum survey of business leaders published on Wednesday. The company executives put unemployment or underemployment as the top risk over the next 10 years, followed by fiscal crises and the failure of national governance, data from the WEF’s Executive Opinion Survey showed.The survey of 12,411 executives across 136 countries provides a backdrop for the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks report published shortly before its annual January meeting in Davos, Switzerland, according to a spokesman for insurance broker Marsh. Marsh is part of Marsh & McLennan ( MMC.N ), which published the data together with Zurich Insurance ( ZURN.S ). “Geopolitical risks and events have led to uncertainties which raise questions about how to manage resilience in uncertain times,” said John Scott, chief risk officer, commercial insurance, at Zurich. For businesses in the North America, East Asia an

TOKYO:  Asian shares slipped on Tuesday, supported by record highs on Wall Street but hobbled by uncertainty as traders awaited a Federal Reserve meeting for clues on US monetary policy. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.1 percent after wobbling between positive and negative territory for much of the morning.On Wall Street on Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a record high for the fifth straight session, and the S&P 500 marked its second straight closing record high, as higher US Treasury yields helped lift financial shares. At a two-day meeting beginning later on Tuesday, the Fed is expected to take another step toward policy normalization and announce plans to begin unwinding its $4.2 trillion portfolio of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities. The Fed is expected to hold interest rates steady, with investors looking for clues on its anticipated pace of further tightening later this year and next. The market is p

SEOUL/JIAXING:  On a faded notice pasted to the padlocked doors of the Lotte Mart superstore in China’s Jiaxing, a date can still be read: March 6, 2017 – when the store was ordered to “temporarily” close over alleged fire safety issues. The shuttered entrance and flapping notices are a blunt reminder of how South Korean businesses have become unwitting victims in a year-long diplomatic stand-off between Beijing and Seoul.Last September, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned his South Korean counterpart that bilateral ties would suffer if Seoul did not properly handle China’s opposition to the planned deployment of a US anti-missile defence system in South Korea. Now – with the system’s installation mostly complete amid growing threats from North Korea – the fallout is evident in both the shuttered Chinese stores of Lotte and the empty Seoul shopping districts once jammed with Chinese tourists. The Jiaxing outlet, southwest of Shanghai – along with around 90 other Lotte Mart st

Minister for Commerce Min Bahadur Bishwakarma inaugurated the eighth edition of Made in Pakistan Expo at the United World Trade Centre today. The expo is being organised by the Rawalpindi Chambers of Commerce and Industry in collaboration with a number of Pakistani businessmen, who would be exhibiting their products, as per a media release. The Pakistani products, which include furniture, leather items, handicrafts, textile products and artificial jewellery, among others, are for sale at the exhibition. A group of more than 50 businessmen from Pakistan are participating in the trade fair. “The event will greatly help in introducing Pakistani products to Nepali consumers and provide a platform for interaction between the businessmen of the two countries. This will in turn enhance the volume of trade between the two countries,” the release states. Prominent speakers at the inauguration programme of the eighth Made in Pakistan Expo were Amjad Hussain B Sial, secretary gene