Bangladesh to give duty free access to 108 Nepali products

PRABHAKAR GHIMIRE

KATHMANDU, Feb 19: Bangladesh has agreed to provide duty-free access to 108 Nepali goods, mainly farm products, and sought preferential treatment for 153 Bangladeshi products in Nepal.

The joint-secretary level technical meeting held between the two countries in Dhaka on Sunday finalized the list of products. The meeting was asked to finalize modalities to implement the agreement made during the commerce secretary meeting held in Kathmandu on July 30, 2012.
“Bangladeshi officials have handed us an offer list, agreeing to provide zero-tariff access to 108 Nepali products in their market. This will help boost our exports to Bangladesh in the coming days,” said Naindra Prasad Upadhyaya, joint-secretary at the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies (MoCS), who led the Nepali trade delegation for the talks. Nepali officials had proposed a list of 146 products for duty-free access facilities.

According to Upadhyaya, Bangladesh has agreed to provide preferential treatment to Nepali lentil, vegetables, cereals, wheat flour, fruits, juice, dairy and handmade papers, among others.

“We will finalize the modality on implementing the zero-tariff facility at the upcoming joint-secretary level meeting to be held in Kathmandu,” Upadhyaya told Republica.
He also said the modalities could be set through Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), Nepal-Bangladesh Transit Treaty 1976 or any other bi-lateral agreement.

• Bangladesh seeks duty-free access to 153 products
• Dhaka agrees to implement on arrival visa for Nepalis
• Operational modalities of two ports to be finalized in next meeting

The Nepali delegation, however, is yet to decide on providing duty-free access to 153 goods proposed by Bangladeshi officials. The South Asian neighbor has sought preferential treatment for fish products, pharmaceuticals, textiles and electrical goods, among others, in the Nepali market.

“We have received a list of products from Bangladeshi officials for duty-free access to Nepali market. We will finalize the list at the upcoming meeting as we need to do some homework before taking final decision,” he added.

Data compiled by the Trade and Export Promotion Center shows Nepal exported goods worth Rs 2.57 billion to Bangladesh in 2011/12, while Nepal imported goods worth Rs 8.09 billion from its second largest trading partner in South Asia in the same fiscal year. During the first half of the current financial year, Nepal´s exports to Bangladesh have increased remarkably by 63 percent to Rs 2.06 billion.

Both sides also held extensive discussion on the draft documents on operational modality of Chittagong and Mongla Ports, which are crucial for promoting trade between the two South Asian nations.

“Though we discussed in detail about the operational modalities as drafted by both the sides, we are yet to give finishing touch to it. We are also in the process of preparing the modality in line with the concept of the South Asia Sub-regional Economic Cooperation (SASEC),” he further added.

The two countries are scheduled to finalize the modality in next meeting of joint secretaries.

Regarding the Kathmandu-Dhaka direct bus service which was agreed in principle by the commerce secretary level meeting, the two sides agreed to finalize the draft of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the service at the upcoming joint-secretary meeting after Nepal demanded more time to study the document.

Amid reports on denial of on arrival visas to Nepalis traveling to Bangladesh through land route, Bangladeshi officials assured the Nepali side that they would instruct immigration officials to ensure effective implementation of the facility.

At the secretary level meeting in Kathmandu, officials of the two countries had agreed to provide on arrival visas to each others´ citizens.

Nepali officials said Nepali travelers are facing difficulties in getting on arrival visa in the absence of immigration office in Banglabanda - the point to enter Bangladesh through land route.

At the Dhaka meeting, both sides also agreed to recognize quality certification issued by laboratories of both the countries for harmonization of quarantine under Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) regime.

Crucial trade talks overdue amid widening trade deficit

PRABHAKAR GHIMIRE

KATHMANDU, Feb 10: Nepal faced 27 percent rise in trade deficit to Rs 251 billion over the first six months of 2012/13 and lack of timely trade negotiations with key trading partners might worsen the country´s trade figures further.

Traders say delay in crucial trade talks with India, Bangladesh and the US would affect Nepal´s capability to strengthen international trade. Nepal-India trade talk, which is supposed to be held at least every six month at either secretary or joint secretary level, has been pending for over a year.

Luxury items, farm products jack up trade deficit

PRABHAKAR GHIMIRE

KATHMANDU, Feb 15: With Nepal´s trade deficit going through the roof, a couple of days ago a Nepali economist argued that Nepal could manage the trade imbalance even without enhancing its supply capacity.

But how? His obvious answer was: ´by reducing the ever increasing import of luxury goods and by gradually decreasing the import of those goods that can be produced in Nepal´.

Luxury goods and other products that could be easily made in Nepal are major contributors to the ever skyrocketing trade deficit, which ran to over Rs 251 billion in the first six months of the current fiscal year.

Nepal spent Rs 17.52 billion for gold and silver imports during the review period, up by a whopping 28.5 percent compared to the same period last year.

Labor migration going digital

PRABHAKAR GHIMIRE

The days of job seekers wandering from place to place for information about foreign job opportunities are to end soon. The chaos resulting from fake documentation has been reduced significantly.

Foreign employment-related information exchange among offices concerned and Nepali missions abroad has strengthened over the year. These are some of the achievements realized through increasing use of Information Technology (IT) in regulating Nepal’s ill-managed labor migration abroad.

With the help of the official website of the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE)—www.dofe.gov.np, any job aspirant can get detailed information about job opportunities in a destination country, the category of workers demanded, the manpower agencies brokering the jobs, demand letters from employers, and other matters.

Fake documentation--- a key factor behind different problems facing Nepali workers abroad---has been greatly discouraged through introduction of IT in the foreign employment process.

Fake documentation--- a key factor behind different problems facing Nepali workers abroad---has been greatly discouraged through introduction of IT in the foreign employment process. Experience of more than two decades shows that fake documents are behind most of the problems facing Nepali migrant workers. Past efforts to curb cheating by employers and manpower agents could not minimize the problem until quite recently. With the use of IT at DoFE, the cases of submission of fake foreign employment-related documents by recruiting agencies here and abroad have come down. DoFE has introduced IT-based electronics in the verification and archiving of documents and in controlling irregularities in foreign employment. Enhanced Migrant Worker Information Management System (E-MWIMS) is used to store, preserve and retrieve information about workers who have left for foreign jobs with government permission. “We have kept electronic records at E-MWIMS on over two million workers who have left for overseas and this enables us to easily access particulars about any worker. This system has proved to be especially useful for accessing information on those who want to re-enter the foreign labor market after returning home,” said Purna Chandra Bhattarai, director general of DoFE. With E-MWIMS, renewal of labor permission for those wishing to re-enter the foreign labor market is easier. Electronic data has been shared among key agencies involved in regulating foreign employment, such as DoFE, the Tribuvan International Airport Labor Desk and Nepali missions abroad. “We have provided an Access Code to Nepali missions abroad to enable them to access information about any Nepali migrant immediately. The government can coordinate with Nepali embassies abroad to deal with any problems facing workers,” said Bhattarai. Nepali embassies in India, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Qatar, the UAE and Kuwait have been lined with the Access Code since the last three months. To deal with the practice of using fake stickers for labor permission, the government went automatic three weeks back, introducing a digital sticker system integrated with a Quick Response (QR) Bar Code. “We can immediately verify the sticker’s authenticity with a testing machine that reads the Bar Code. We have initiated the system to verify stickers for jobs under institutional channels,” Bhattarai said. The bar code in the sticker can display photos and information of up to 1,800 characters. To make transactions transparent, CCTV monitoring and recording at eight points at DoFE was initiated a year and half back. Bank vouchers have also been integrated with E-MWIMS. Long term vision DoFE is planning a Personalized Web Application to establish a daily record of workers leaving for foreign employment. Web Application will be automatized and linked with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) and DoFE. DoFe is also planning to enable recruiting agencies to enter data themselves and link DoFE with health institutions issuing medical reports, insurance companies and foreign employment orientation centers.
Published on 2013-02-06 11:30:11

Malaysians demand pay on par with foreign workers

PRABHAKAR GHIMIRE

KATHMANDU, Jan 24: Malaysians have exerted pressure on their government to maintain uniformity in remuneration between foreigners, including Nepalis, and local workers, heightening the possibility of migrant workers being stripped of additional allowances.

Though the recent hike in remuneration by the Malaysian government for blue-collar workers ensures a monthly remuneration of 900 ringgit, foreign workers are entitled to additional 200 ringgit as food and transportation allowance. Local workers are not happy even after over 60 percent hike in their salaries and have demanded allowances on par with migrant workers.

Food security means more than high output

PRABHAKAR GHIMIRE

KATHMANDU, Feb 2: Between 1.3 billion and 2.2 billion tons of food is wasted every year due to lost harvests, inefficient storage practices and wastage at retail as well as consumer levels, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has disclosed.

This shows that food insecurity is caused not by insufficient production but by poor distribution and imprudent management of available food. As per the widely accepted definition, food security involves not only availability and access to food but also affordability and fulfillment of the dietary needs of people.