– Bidhan Acharya, Kathmandu
Poush 25, 2072- As always, both positive and negative news were on the headlines this week. Most of the economic news were about the unofficial blockade and its effects. Some of the main economic news of this week have been presented below:
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The Kathmandu Metropolitan City is said to be planning to bring large public buses including electric ones from China in order to tackle the problem of frequent fuel crisis and traffic jams in the capital city.
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This week Norwegian company named Statkraft has made the decision to pull out their investment of the 650 MW Tamakoshi III Hydropower Project. The company has mentioned that its internal policy and situation of Nepal is the main reason for pulling out of the project. But the ongoing uneasy relation between India and Nepal is seen as the major reason for its withdrawal from the project as it was planning to sell the electricity to India.
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Many earthquake victims have died of cold since the beginning of this winter so government has been trying to speed up the process to provide warm clothes and blankets to them. The government has allocated Rs. 10,000 to the 600,000 earthquake affected households in 23 districts as winter relief. However, less than half households have received winter relief package of Rs. 10,000.
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In order to promote trade and tourism with China, Nepal is proposing its northern Neighbor to open three border points on the 9th Coordination Committee Meeting which is going to be held in the coming month.
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The devastating earthquake and undeclared blockade led to decline in trade with both China and India. As a result, the trade with third countries has almost tripled in the corresponding five months of the current fiscal year of 2015-16.
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Former finance minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat has been declared as the 'Best Finance Minister' globally by “The Banker” magazine. Mr. Mahat has been awarded for his exemplary work and pro-active effort to revive the country through catastrophic earthquake.
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The draining water levels along with the fuel shortage has resulted Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to increase load shedding from 77 hours to 86 hours per week. Currently, the demand is at its peak which cannot be fulfilled by the supplies available.
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Rough Guides, a UK-based publisher of travel and reference information, has listed Nepal as the best place to visit in 2016. The magazine further added that the tourism sector of Nepal is gradually reviving from the devastating earthquake.
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Minister of Finance, Bishnu Prasad Paudel has announced Economic Rehabilitation Fund of Rs 100 billion in order to promote those sectors and business enterprises that have been affected from devastating earthquake, Tarai unrest as well as undeclared blocked from India.
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According to a projection done by World Bank, Nepal is going to suffer from sluggish economic growth in the current Fiscal Year 2015/16. The Nepalese economy will grow by 1.7 percent only against the previous estimate of 3.7 percent due to the ongoing trade disruption.
"This summarized news has been written on the basis of news published on The Kathmandu Post and My Republica"
