PRABHAKAR GHIMIRE
KATHMANDU, Nov 30: The
Ministry of Commerce and Supplies (MoCS) has approved an action plan
for developing and giving a boost to the export of 19 potential items
that have been identified by the Nepal Trade Integration Strategy
(NTIS), a government´s blueprint to promote exports, as highly potential
exportable products.
The action plan targets to increase export of each of those items to one billion rupees within a year.
“The work plan has been formulated in line with the government´s
Immediate Action Plan for Governance and Economic Reform. It was
forwarded to the Prime Minister´s Office a couple of days ago from our
ministry for approval,” Toya Narayan Gyawali, joint secretary at the
MoCS told Republica on Thursday.
In an effort to boost export of Nepali products, the government had
unveiled NTIS on 24 June, 2010, devising different plans to strengthen
Nepal´s supply capacity by enhancing domestic production of exportable
goods.
Under the NTIS, the government has identified 19 products with export
potential and given high priority to their production and export.
Among the goods selected under the NTIS are large cardamom, ginger,
honey, lentils, tea, noodles, medicinal, essential oils handmade paper,
silver jewelry, iron and steel, pashmina and wool. Similarly, NTIS has
incorporated seven services, tourism, labor, health, and education, IT
& Business Process Outsourcing, engineering and hydro-electricity.
Out of the 12 goods selected of NTIS, annual exports of ginger,
essential oil, medicinal herb, noodles, hand-made papers and sliver
jewelries stands below one billion rupees.
As per the action plan, the MoCS set a target to initiate the process to
set up a processing plant for ginger in Jhapa, diversify its market and
impart necessary trainings to farmers to make ginger products.
In a bid to promote the international market of Nepali honey, the action
plan envisages to initiate the management of residue and pesticide in
local honey. The government is also planning to initiate trainings for
entrepreneurs to promote production, processing and market promotion of
Nepali hand-made papers.
The action plan also incorporates programs to make easy availability of
raw materials for noodles and coordinate with other concerned agencies
to promote production and trade of noodles.
The government will also initiate process to establish medicinal herbs
collection center in Surkhet, start processing of medicinal herbs to
make semi-processed products and impart training to producers to
increase production of essential oil.
Process to register the collective trade mark of Nepali tea, facilitate
branding of orthodox tea and intensify the quality monitoring to
maintain the exportable quality of tea to promote production and market
of tea are envisaged under the action plan.
Amid lingering process to get duty drawback after the exports of iron
and steel products from Nepal, the government is also planning to
simplify the process to encourage production, processing and export
promotion of the largest export item from Nepal.
Launching of pilot project to promote mountain goats farming to fulfill
the growing demands for wool for Chyangra Pashmina, and expansion of
registration of trade mark of Nepali Chyangra Pashmina in seven more
countries are also among the targets under the NTIS work plan.
Similarly, the government will conduct feasibility study to promote production of sheep wools in Jumla and Humla districts.
To promote silver jewelries, the government will initiate programs to
maintain purification of silver products, impart training on making
silver products and increase participation at international trade fairs.
Amid reported cases of re-export of lentils, the government has included
a plan to promote lentils exports from genuine Nepali producers and
exporters and establish a strong linkage between producers and
distributors of lentils. Programs to initiate the process to register
the collective trade mark of black cardamoms, control diseases in
cardamom farms and encourage farmers to use new varieties of cardamom
seeds to promote black cardamom are also part of the plan.
Under the plan to promote service sectors identified in NTIS, the
government will update the trade information, ascertain the export
status, forge coordination with line ministries and launch programs to
facilitate for promoting service trade.
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