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Notice (8): Undefined variable: file [APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60]Code Context// $file = 'http://aabhiyan:QUVLg8Wzs2F7G9N7@nepalstock.com.np/api/indexdata.xml';if(!$xml = simplexml_load_file($file)){$viewFile = '/var/www/html/newbusinessage.com/app/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'articles' => array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ) ), 'current_user' => null, 'logged_in' => false ) $articles = array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '2146', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => '‘South Asian Diaspora Investment Bank Could Supplement SAARC Efforts’', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> An investment bank to manage the $1.3-trillion wealth of the South Asian diaspora can help supplement the efforts of SAARC, says an expert. It is felt that the importance of the grouping has been eroded over the years due to political differences across the region, he said.</div> <div> </div> <div> This is part of the ‘trilateralism idea’ mooted by former Bangladesh Foreign Minister Iftekhar Chowdhury at the second South Asian Diaspora Convention (SADC) in Singapore today. Chowdhury said the bank could play a role in guiding South Asian diaspora investment, especially in the infrastructure sector, in the region which is a market of 1.8 billion people. Chowdhury told that the 38-million strong South Asian diaspora has an estimated wealth of $1.3 trillion and was looking at new investment opportunities.</div> <div> </div> <div> The diaspora comprising 20 million Indians, 7 million Bangladeshis, 8 million Pakistanis and 3 million Sri Lankans, is estimated to save about $350 billion from their annual estimated earnings of $1 trillion. Yesterday during his address at the SADC, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram called on the Indian diaspora to invest in India and be part of the country’s prosperity in his speech at the SADC yesterday. Chowdhury said it is the right time to channel that investment to the South Asian region, given the many politically-impeded challenges being faced by these investors in placing their money in this vast region.</div> <div> </div> <div> He is currently a principal fellow at the Institute of South Asia Studies (ISAS), the organiser of the two-day SADC which ended today. The proposed South Asian Diaspora Investment Bank could be located in one of the international financial centres — London, New York or Singapore. Chowdhury said the bank’s role would bring about a change in the politically-weakened SAARC and could give a big impetus to the regional organisation which has made little progress since its inception.</div> <div> <em>(The Hindu Business Line)</em></div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-11-25', 'modified' => '2013-12-03', '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' => 'An investment bank to manage the $1.3-trillion wealth of the South Asian diaspora can help supplement the efforts of SAARC, says an expert. It is felt that the importance of the grouping has been eroded over the years due to political differences across the region, he said.', 'sortorder' => '1993', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '2095', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Nepal Gains In Global Prosperity Ranking', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>--By TC Correspondent</strong></div> <div> </div> <div> D<span style="font-size: 12px;">espite ongoing political uncertainty, Nepal has achieved higher prosperity. According to the Legatum Prosperity Index 2013, Nepal climbed 6 places up this year to reach 102nd position among 142 countries across the world. Nepal was ranked 108th position last year. The index published by the Legatum Institute, a UAE-based investment organisation and think-tank shows Nepal’s progress mainly in the area of personal freedom. Nepal scored 77 points in the personal freedom sub-index which includes sections such as civil liberties and tolerance among ethnic groups. The sub-index highlights more freedom of choice for ordinary Nepalis and ethnic harmony in the country. The Legatum Prosperity Index has been benchmarking 142 countries since 2007 in 8 distinct sub-indices: economy, education, entrepreneurship and opportunity, governance, health, personal freedom, safety and security and social capital. </span></div> <div> </div> <div> Nepal’s economic performance was not seen satisfactory as the country declined 5 places to 92nd position in economy sub-index, mainly because of decline in its gross domestic savings. Nepal also moved down in the safety and security sub-index, by 17 places to 101st due to increase in state violence and the number of refugees. Similarly, Nepal also did not fare well in entrepreneurship and opportunity as the country was placed at 111th position in the sub-index. </div> <div> </div> <div> Nepal ranked 100th in governance, 104th in education, 97th in health and 95th in social capital sub-indices. However, Nepal ranked above India, Bangladesh and Pakistan in the overall index. Bangladesh ranked below Nepal at 103rd position whereas India was placed at 106th in the index. Bangladesh ranks above India in the index for the first time in 2013. Although Bangladesh’s rank has remained constant since last year, India has declined five places in the same period. India has fallen down the Prosperity Index rankings consistently over the last five years. Pakistan was the lowest ranking country in the entire Asia-Pacific region with 132nd position whereas China stood at 51st in the index. </div> <div> </div> <div> Norway ranks first in overall Prosperity, as it has since 2009, confirming its place as the most prosperous country in the world for the fifth consecutive year. The country also ranks first in the economy and social capital sub-index in 2013. Switzerland, Canada, Sweden and New Zealand secured 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th position respectively. Meanwhile, US ranked 11th in the index. US moved down four places to 24th in the Economy sub-index. Countries that have overtaken the US in the economy sub-index include New Zealand (17th) and South Korea (19th), among others. The UK has moved down three places to 16th in overall Prosperity, as a result of decreases in the rankings for six out of eight sub-indices since last year. The UK has been leapfrogged by Austria (15th), Germany (14th), and Iceland (13th).</div> </div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-11-11', 'modified' => '2013-11-25', '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' => 'Despite ongoing political uncertainty, Nepal has achieved higher prosperity. According to the Legatum Prosperity Index 2013, Nepal climbed 6 places up this year to reach 102nd position among 142 countries across the world. Nepal was ranked 108th position last year. The index published by the Legatum Institute, a UAE-based investment organisation and think-tank shows Nepal’s progress mainly in the area of personal freedom.', 'sortorder' => '1990', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '2022', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Nepal’s Gender Gap Narrows', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> <strong>--By Sanjeev Sharma</strong></div> <div> </div> <div> The gender gap in Nepal narrowed in 2013 as more women came to join labour force and participatory policies helped female population grasp various opportunities, a latest global report shows. According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2013, published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on 25th October, Friday, Nepal ranked 121st with a total score of 0.605. Nepal climbed 2 spots up from last year’s 123rd position. In 2011 and 2010 Nepal was ranked at 126th and 115th position respectively. Neighbouring China and India were ranked 69 and 101 respectively. In the South Asia region, Sri Lanka ranked 55th, Bangladesh 75th, Bhutan 93rd, Maldives 97th and Pakistan came at 135th. </div> <div> </div> <div> The index assesses 136 countries, representing more than 93% of the world’s population, on how well resources and opportunities are divided among male and female populations. The report measures the size of the gender inequality gap in four areas: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, political empowerment and health and survival. Nepal ranked 116th place in economic participation and opportunity sub-index. Similarly, Nepal’s female educational attainment was ranked at 130th place and political empowerment was ranked at 41st place. In female health and survival sub-index, Nepal was placed at 112th position. </div> <div> </div> <div> Nepal, placed in the low income group countries (US$1,035 or less) in the report, particularly fared well in labour force participation indicator with a rank of 12th position. Nepal’s female-to-male ratio was 0.94 in the sub-index. Neighbouring China and India were ranked lower in the indicator with 40th and 124th position respectively. Whereas, the world’s largest economy United States stood at 40th position in terms of labour force participation. Similarly, Nepal also did well in terms of female political participation with a rank of 22nd in women in parliament indicator. Germany ranked lower than Nepal in the indicator with 24th position. China along with Bangladesh, Pakistan and India came at 51st, 68th, 69th and 106th places respectively. </div> <div> </div> <div> Nepal however scored lower in wage equality indicator with a rank of 97th position. China and India were ranked at 60th and 86th place respectively in the indicator. Nepal also pared down in legislators, senior officers and managers indicator with 96th position. However, Nepal performed better than South Korea and Japan who were ranked 105th and 106th respectively. Likewise, Nepal’s progress in female literacy was seen sluggish as the country ranked 125th place in the literacy rate indicator. Nepal also didn’t achieve any significant gain in female population’s health life as it ranked 119th out of 136 countries in the health life expectancy sub-indicator. </div> <div> </div> <div> WEF has been publishing the report since 2006. The Philippines ranked highest in Asia-Pacific region (5th place) in the eighth edition of the report primarily due to success in health, education and economic participation. According to the report, Iceland remained at the 1st position for the 5th consecutive year followed by Finland, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, New Zealand, Denmark, Switzerland and Nicaragua. Meanwhile, United States lowered to 23rd from last year’s 22nd in the index and Japan dropping to 105th from 101st of 2012. Yemen was the lowest ranking country in the index (136th).</div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-10-28', 'modified' => '2013-10-28', '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 gender gap in Nepal narrowed in 2013 as more women came to join labour force and participatory policies helped female population grasp various opportunities, a latest global report shows. According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2013, published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on 25th October, Friday, Nepal ranked 121st with a total score of 0.605. Nepal climbed 2 spots up from last year’s 123rd position.', 'sortorder' => '1892', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1977', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Fama, Shiller, Hansen Win Nobel Prize For Asset-Price Work', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> </div> <div> The widespread criticism of economists’ failure to predict the banking crash was addressed on Monday, 14th October by the Nobel committee when it awarded the much coveted prize for economics to three academics who try to show how financial markets work.</div> <div> </div> <div> The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the prize to Eugene Fama and Lars Peter Hansen of the ultra-conservative Chicago school alongside Robert Shiller, the liberal Yale economist famous for warning of the US sub-prime housing bubble in 2005. Fama and Hansen, two followers of Milton Friedman’s free-market theories, said they were surprised to win the annual prize which they agreed would turn their lives upside down. The academy said it was honouring the three prizewinners for their work examining the way markets work. They will share the prize of Swedish Kroner 8m (£781,782) equally. The academy said the three economists were at the top of their field “for their empirical analysis of asset prices that greatly improved our understanding of how financial markets work, when they seem to work well and when they seem to work otherwise”.</div> <div> </div> <div> Fama, 74, is notorious in leftwing circles for denying financial bubbles exist and asserting recessions are a largely unexplainable fixture of capitalism that should be allowed to take their course. His research has examined how external factors such as insider trading and government regulation can distort the workings of financial markets. In the years before the crash he joined other disciples of Friedman, including former Federal Reserve boss Alan Greenspan, in defending the efficient-markets hypothesis that underpinned the deregulation of the banking system.</div> <div> </div> <div> In the aftermath of the banking crash, Fama blamed the US government, arguing its policy of loosening laws restricting access to credit was at the heart of the crisis. He said the banking industry acted rationally in response to distorting incentives put in place by an interfering government. The American mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, were encouraged to lower the bar to lending, fuelling the sub-prime boom.</div> <div> </div> <div> “The financial markets were a casualty of the recession, not a cause of it,” he told the New Yorker in 2010. Fama has recently specialised in producing models that show the way stock markets and other asset markets work.</div> <div> </div> <div> Hansen, 60, is best known for his work modelling how economic actors cope with risk and changing environments. Fama and Hansen join 87 other Nobel Prize winners affiliated with Chicago University. Their success means eight Nobel winners will be working at the faculty, including six in economics.</div> <div> </div> <div> Shiller, 67, has risen to prominence following a career that has seen him adapt free-market theories to take on board concepts of exuberance and irrationality. Unlike Fama, who denies it is possible to measure whether assets are overpriced, Shiller has documented how markets can fall victim to bubbles that become unsustainable.</div> <div> </div> <div> In a video interview with the Guardian last year he said finance was not about making money but making money work for the good of communities. His book Irrational Exuberance, published in 2000, debunked the idea that markets always price assets efficiently, without triggering bubbles.</div> <div> </div> <div> The academy said: “While it is hard to predict whether stock or bond prices will go up or down in the short term, it is possible to foresee movements over periods of three years or longer. These findings, which might seem surprising and contradictory, were made and analysed by this year’s laureates.”</div> <div> </div> <div> Americans have dominated the economics awards in recent years; the last time there were no US economists among the winners was in 1999. The Nobel committees have now announced all six of the annual awards for 2013</div> <div> </div> <div> <table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%"> <tbody> <tr> <td bgcolor="#E5E4E2"> <div> <span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Lars Peter Hansen</strong></span></div> <div> In another triumph for Chicago University, Hansen, 60, has been rewarded for his work developing a statistical method to test theories of asset pricing.</div> <div> </div> <div> In 1982 Hansen presented a statistical theory – called the Generalized Method of Moments – then used it to test whether historical share prices were consistent with the best known asset-pricing model at the time. He found the methods being used must be rejected because they failed to explain share movements. As a result, Hansen’s work helped confirm Shiller’s preliminary findings on bubbles and inspired new research.</div> <div> </div> <div> <span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Eugene Fama</strong></span></div> <div> Chicago University states that Fama, 74, “is widely recognized as the father of modern finance”, although that boast is clearly double-edged given the markets’ recent performance.</div> <div> </div> <div> His views are considered to be the direct opposite of Shiller’s, as they are based on the “efficient markets hypothesis”. This is the idea that markets incorporate all known information about an asset’s value, making it pointless trying to predict which way they will move.</div> <div> </div> <div> <span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Robert Shiller</strong></span></div> <div> Shiller, 67, is one of the few economists who can claim to have foreseen both the bursting of the dotcom bubble and the US housing crash.</div> <div> </div> <div> His prescient book Irrational Exuberance was first published in 2000, and he followed it up with a second edition in 2005, which took the then unfashionable view that US housing looked dangerously overvalued.</div> <div> </div> <div> He has given his name – along with colleague Karl Case – to the most closely watched housing market indicator in the US, the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index. His most recent book, Finance and the Good Society, is about the benefits of financial innovation.</div> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <p> </p>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-10-21', 'modified' => '2013-10-28', '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 widespread criticism of economists’ failure to predict the banking crash was addressed on Monday, 14th October by the Nobel committee when it awarded the much coveted prize for economics to three academics who try to show how financial markets work.', 'sortorder' => '1879', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1958', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Economists Fear Debt Ceiling Fight May Bring Recession', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> Forget the current government shutdown. Economists say it’s the upcoming debt ceiling impasse that could plunge the United States into a recession. About half of the 22 economists surveyed by CNN Money say a recession will be unavoidable if Congress fails to raise the nation’s debt ceiling before the Treasury runs out of cash later this month.</div> <div> </div> <div> A couple more say a recession is possible depending on how far past the deadline Congress goes before acting. And even those who aren’t predicting recession say not raising the debt ceiling would be a very bad idea.</div> <div> </div> <div> “Financial markets are already being impacted in the short-run as a result of heightened uncertainty,” said Sean Snaith, director of the Institute for Economic Competitiveness at the University of Central Florida. But he said there would be greater long-term damage due to the spending cuts that would occur.</div> <div> </div> <div> “The fiscal shock treatment of having to eliminate the deficit in one fell swoop would reduce GDP by more than 5% and cause a severe recession,” he said.</div> <div> </div> <div> The Treasury Department has also been sounding the warning bells about the debt ceiling. In a report Thursday, Treasury said failure to raise the limit would have a “catastrophic effect” on the economy, sparking an even deeper recession than the 2008 downturn that accompanied the meltdown in financial markets.</div> <div> </div> <div> The economists agree the threat posed by not raising the debt ceiling is significantly greater than that posed by the federal government shutdown that started Tuesday. None predicted a recession being caused by the shutdown alone.</div> <div> </div> <div> “A short to medium duration partial shutdown is not enough to cause recession,” said Sam Bullard, economist with Wells Fargo Securities.</div> <div> </div> <div> But if the debt ceiling isn’t raised, the economists have many different worries, including disruptions in financial markets, followed closely by a loss of confidence in the dollar and Treasuries and very deep cuts in government spending.</div> <div> </div> <div> “No one can know for sure exactly what would happen in the event of a default, but we can all be sure that it would be bad,” said Russell Price of Ameriprise Financial.</div> <div> </div> <div> Even those economists who aren’t predicting a recession are worried about the risks posed by the debt ceiling.</div> <div> </div> <div> “Merely missing the debt ceiling deadline will not trigger a recession, but the risks will rise rapidly with each week after the deadline passes,” said Patrick O’Keefe, director of economic research at accounting firm Cohn Reznick.</div> <div> </div> <div> Some of the economists believe if Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling then the administration will act unilaterally. That might cause a constitutional crisis but they believe it would avoid a financial crisis.</div> <div> </div> <div> “My expectation in this scenario is that the President finds a sufficiently plausible constitutional rationale to ignore the debt ceiling and keep on meeting all US Federal obligations on time with no exceptions,” said Bill Cheney, chief economist with Manulife Asset Management.</div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <p> <strong style="font-size: 14px;">US Debt Crisis Threatens World Economy: IMF</strong></p> </div> <div> Terming the current debt crisis in America as “mission-critical”, the International Monetary Fund has warned the US that its impending debt crisis could damage not only its domestic economy, but the entire global economy. “The ongoing political uncertainty over the budget and the debt ceiling does not help. The Government shutdown is bad enough, but failure to raise the debt ceiling would be far worse, and could very seriously damage not only the US economy, but the entire global economy,” the IMF Managing Director, Christine Lagarde, said on Thursday. “So it is “mission-critical” that this be resolved as soon as possible,” Lagarde said in her address to the George Washington University. The United States, she said, needs to “slow down and hurry up.” By that she meant less fiscal adjustment today and more tomorrow, she added.“That means replacing the sequester with more back-loaded measures that do not hurt the recovery. At the same time, the US needs to do more to make debt sustainable down the road — by containing the growth of entitlement spending and raising revenues,” Lagarde said.</div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-10-08', 'modified' => '2013-10-21', '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' => 'Forget the current government shutdown. Economists say it’s the upcoming debt ceiling impasse that could plunge the United States into a recession. About half of the 22 economists surveyed by CNN Money say a recession will be unavoidable if Congress fails to raise the nation’s debt ceiling before the Treasury runs out of cash later this month.', 'sortorder' => '1824', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1875', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Economic Freedom: Hong Kong, Singapore On Top, US Falls In Rankings', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> The United States has fallen 15 places since 2000 in the global ranking of economic freedom, while Hong Kong and Singapore maintained their top spots. The ‘Economic Freedom of the World’ report 2013, compiled by Canada’s Fraser Institute, ranks Hong Kong first with an overall Economic Freedom Rating of 8.97, followed by Singapore (8.73). In the area of credit market regulations, both the East Asian City States scored 10 out of 10. The United States is positioned as the world’s 17th freest economy behind nations such as New Zealand, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, Mauritius, Finland, Bahrain, Canada, and Australia, who are in the top ten. Throughout most of the period from 1980 to 2000, the United States was ranked as the world’s third-freest economy, behind Hong Kong and Singapore. </div> <div> </div> <div> The U.S. ratings and rankings have fallen in all five areas of the EFW index. The worst reduction was in the area of Legal System and Property Rights, where the rating had slid to 6.93, placing the United States 38th worldwide, tied with Venezuela. The report blames the slippage of the United States, once considered a bastion of economic freedom, on ‘overspending, weakening rule of law, and regulatory overkill on the part of the U.S. government.’ Major countries that ranked below the United States include Germany, Japan, South Korea, France, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Brazil, and India. China, despite being a major economic power, is ranked as low as 123rd in a list of 152 countries. Eight of the ten lowest-rated countries are located in Africa, with Myanmar and Venezuela ending up in last place.</div> <div> </div> <div> The index published in the report, which was compiled using data and surveys from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and World Economic Forum, measures the degree to which the policies and institutions of countries are supportive of economic freedom. The cornerstones of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom to compete, and security of privately owned property. The degree of economic freedom to rank countries was measured using five criteria: size of government, legal system and property rights, sound money, freedom to trade internationally, and regulation.</div> <div> </div> <div> The average chain-linked economic freedom rating for the countries has increased from 5.34 in 1980 to 6.87 in 2011. Nations that are economically free out-perform non-free nations in indicators of well-being. Nations in the top quartile of economic freedom had an average per-capita GDP of $36,446 in 2011, compared to $4,382 for nations in the bottom quartile in the same period. Life expectancy is 79.2 years in nations in the top quartile compared to 60.2 years in those in the bottom quartile. Political and civil liberties are considerably higher in economically free nations than in less free nations.</div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <div> </div> <div> <strong><span style="font-size:16px;">Nepal Falls among Least Economically Free Countries</span></strong></div> <div> </div> <div> Meanwhile, Nepal remained among the least economically free countries in the report for this year. The report states that the degradations in terms of the legal structures and security of property rights and size of the government weighed down on the economic freedom of the country. Nepal ranked 125th out of 152 countries in the report. According to the report, Nepal scored 6.19 out of 10. This marked the further degradation of economic freedom in Nepal. Last year, the country was placed in 110th position out of 144 nations and scored 6.33 points in the index. </div> <div> </div> <div> The ‘Economic Freedom of the World Report 2013’ further emphasized the Nepal government size to be reduced. Regarding the area of ‘size of government’ in the index, Nepal scored 7.6 in 2013 (31st position in the world) against 8.34 of the previous year. The area of ‘freedom to trade internationally’ also declined to 6.4 (118th in the world) which scored 6.74 in 2012.</div> <div> </div> <div> However, the report also showed that Nepal made little progress regarding areas of ‘legal structures and ensuring property rights to its citizens’ with a score of 4.2 (126th in the world) this year against 3.85 of 2012. Similarly, the country also performed better in the areas of ‘access to sound money’ and ‘regulations on credit, labour and business.’ With the improvements in taming of inflation and money growth in the financial system, the area of access to sound money improved slightly to 6.3 (136th in the world) from last year’s 6.26. Likewise, the area of regulations on credit, labour and business also rose to 6.5 (109th in the world) from 6.47 last year.</div> </div> <p> </p>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-09-30', 'modified' => '0000-00-00', '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 United States has fallen 15 places since 2000 in the global ranking of economic freedom, while Hong Kong and Singapore maintained their top spots. The ‘Economic Freedom of the World’ report 2013, compiled by Canada’s Fraser Institute, ranks Hong Kong first with an overall Economic Freedom Rating of 8.97, followed by Singapore (8.73). In the area of credit market regulations, both the East Asian City States scored 10 out of 10.', 'sortorder' => '1736', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1808', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'China Becomes World’s Third Largest Investor After US, Japan', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> </div> <div> China has emerged as the world’s third largest investor as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from the giant jumped by 17.6 percent last year defying a global pattern. China’s outbound FDI rose 17.6 percent year-on-year in 2012 to a record high of USD 87.8 billion, according to the 2012 Statistical Bulletin of China’s Outward Foreign Direct Investment (ODI) by the Ministry of Commerce. Even as global ODI slid 17 percent last year amid uncertainties facing the world economy, China is now world’s third-largest investor, following the United States and Japan, for the first time since the country began to release the data a decade ago. </div> <div> </div> <div> China currently holds about USD 3.30 trillion foreign exchange reserves. About USD 1.20 trillion is invested in US bonds. China was world’s sixth-largest investor in 2011, with an ODI flow of USD 74.65 billion. Last year’s increase represented an acceleration from 8.5 per cent in 2011, when the global economic recovery was weak in the face of continuing financial turmoil in Europe and the United States. “The Chinese government introduced measures to encourage outbound direct investment in pursuit of the ‘going abroad’ strategy, and the country’s outward FDI maintained robust growth in recent years,” said Zhou Zhencheng, commercial counselor of the department of outward investment and economic cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce. Huo Jianguo, president of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, was quoted by the state-run China Daily as saying that the surge in ODI was mainly driven by domestic enterprises eager to tap overseas markets and profit from using global resources. “Debt crises and slowing growth in developed economies opened up great opportunities for Chinese enterprises to invest abroad, and the renminbi’s appreciation helped the process,” Huo said. </div> <div> </div> <div> China’s non-financial ODI went up 13.3 per cent last year to USD 77.73 billion, accounting for 88.5 per cent of the total. Financial ODI surged 65.9 per cent to USD 10.07 billion, the bulletin said. Investment in US jumped 123.5 per cent to USD 4.05 billion, making it the second-largest destination for China’s ODI, the report said. Total ODI to developed economies was around USD 13.51 billion. Chinese investors have established about 22,000 overseas enterprises in 179 countries and regions, “and about 79.2 per cent of them made profits or maintained a balance”, Zhou said. He warned that Chinese enterprises are facing rising risks and challenges, including political unrest in Africa and Southeast Asia. Other challenges include increasing competition from developed economies and restrictions in those markets.</div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <p> <span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Chinese Investment in Nepal Rising</strong></span></p> </div> <div> The northern neighbour has been gradually increasing its investments in Nepal. According to Nepal government’s latest data, in the fiscal year 2012/13, China committed highest foreign direct investment (FDI) in Nepal surpassing India. In the last FY China alone accounted for 30.89 percent of the total amount of the FDI commitment in Nepal. The data showed that Nepal has received Rs 19.39 billion worth of Chinese FDI against Rs 11.49 billion in the previous FY. In FY 2011/12, China stood second in terms of investments in the country after India. </div> <div> </div> <div> In the last FY, investors from mainland China and Hong Kong registered 96 and four investment projects respectively. The investment projects mainly include medium and small businesses such as hotels, restaurants, travel agencies, handicrafts, fisheries and agricultural industries. However, Chinese investors are also pouring their investments in big infrastructure projects of Nepal. Sinohydro Resources Ltd, a Chinese multinational giant has invested in the 50 megawatts Upper Marsyangdi ‘A’ hydropower project, which is under construction. Similarly, Sinohydro and other Chinese contractors are also developing major Nepali hydel projects such as the 456 MW Upper Tamakoshi, 30 MW Chamelia, 14 MW Kulekhani-3.</div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-09-16', 'modified' => '2013-09-23', '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' => 'China has emerged as the world’s third largest investor as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from the giant jumped by 17.6 percent last year defying a global pattern.', 'sortorder' => '1669', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1725', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'India Outpaces Japan To Become World’s 3rd Largest Internet User', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> India surpassed Japan to become the world’s third-largest Internet user, based on the size of its online population, behind only the U.S. and China. The growth highlights the potential of India’s fast-growing e-commerce market, according to a report from global digital measurement and analytics firm ComScore.</div> <div> </div> <div> “Riding on a 31 per cent year-on-year increase, India’s online population grew to 73.9 million. With an extended online universe in excess of 145 million the market is at a tipping point for online businesses. India is the world’s third largest Internet population,” the report said.The country overtook Japan by adding 17.6 million users in 2012, the ComScore report said.Of the total 644 million home and work Internet users in Asia-Pacific as of March 2013, China accounted for a lion’s share of 54 per cent followed by India (11.5 per cent), Japan (11.4 per cent), Southeast Asia (9.6 per cent) and rest of APAC (13.5 per cent).On consumption, ComScore said that media fragmentation is occurring at light speed in today’s multi-platform environment, which features not only computers, but smartphones, tablets, gaming platforms and a ever-increasing number of emerging devices.</div> <div> </div> <div> According to the study, India has the youngest skewing online population among BRIC countries, with 75 percent of its Internet users under the age of 35. “Although the U.S. held 66 percent of the total global Internet audience in 1996, it now accounts for just 13 percent of the global online users, while the Asia-Pacific region accounted for 41 percent and Europe accounted for 27 percent of the global Internet users in 2012,” the report states. </div> <div> </div> <div> However, U.S. users spent the most time on the Internet with North Americans spending 37.2 hours, while users from Asia-Pacific spent just 17.2 hours, on an average, in a month. India’s strong growth in its Internet audience -- at six times the global average growth rate – holds enormous opportunity for the country’s e-marketers, which helps the country’s e-commerce sector, which is estimated to reach $100 billion in size by 2015, according to estimates.</div> <div> </div> <div> “While 60 percent of Web users in India visit online retail sites, time spent on shopping sites still has huge growth potential,” the report said. India’s online retail market grew more than 60 percent in 2012-2013, with the apparels market growing by 21 percent, ComScore said. Indian Internet users spent 25 percent of their online time in social networking websites, with 86 percent of the total audience visiting such sites in the last fiscal year. Facebook dominates the segment with 59.6 million user-visits and a 28 percent increase in the traffic. Entertainment and online video segments also witnessed exponential growth with 54 million users, in 2012-13. “The online video audience in India grew an astounding 27 percent in the past year, and YouTube continues to be the top video property with more than 55 percent share,” according to the report. </div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <h5> ‘Mobile internet fueling internet population growth in Nepal’</h5> <div> In line with the global surge, Nepal is also witnessing a staggering growth of internet population. According to a report published by Nepal Telecom Authority (NTA) in July, over 25 per cent of Nepali citizens have access to internet connection. “As of mid-July (last fiscal year), Nepal’s internet penetration rate reached 26.10 per cent of the total population against the rate of 19 per cent in the same period of last year,” the report states. </div> <div> </div> <div> The report informed that the total number of internet users has reached 6.91 million. </div> <div> The robust use of internet is fueled by mobile internet, sub-broadband and high speed services such as WiMax. However, the high speed 3G wireless mobile network is seen as the main driving factor of internet population growth in Nepal. “Out of total subscribers, 6 million users surf the world wide web through their mobile devices,” reads the NTA report. The sharp rise in the availability of low-cost smartphone handsets and competitive bandwidth prices are seen as factors attracting internet users. Furthermore, the appeal of social media is also considered as another major element which contributes to the rise of internet users. In July, commercial web traffic data provider Alexa Internet Inc, a subsidiary of Amazon.com, ranked Facebook as the most popular website among Nepali internet users. The company also ranked Twitter and Linkedin in 12th and 13th place in Nepal respectively.</div> <div> </div> </div> <p> </p>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-09-02', 'modified' => '2013-09-10', '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' => 'India surpassed Japan to become the world’s third-largest Internet user, based on the size of its online population, behind only the U.S. and China.', 'sortorder' => '1586', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1689', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Economic Downturn In India, Indonesia Raise Fears', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> The recent equity sell-down and currency fall in India and Indonesia have raised contagion fears across Asia, similar to the Asian financial crisis in 1997. What started off as a relatively contained sell-down in Indonesia and India is now turning into a confidence crisis. The Indian rupee has lost 12 percent since May 2013, making it the worst performer in the emerging market currency basket, Xinhua said in an analysis Saturday.</div> <div> </div> <div> There is now widespread panic over the rupee, and the short-term measures imposed by the Indian government such as curbing the import of gold are widely seen as ineffective. In Indonesia, the sharp weakening in the rupiah and weak commodity export prices have caused its foreign exchange reserves to fall by a significant 18 percent year-to-date from $112 billion to $92 billion, fuelling investors’ concerns over the defensibility of the currency and the concurrent risks of sharp policy rate hikes.</div> <div> </div> <div> The impact of capital outflows and financial turbulence as a result of India and Indonesia problems will undoubtedly be significant and widespread in other Asian emerging economies such as Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines, where bubbles have been inflated by easy credit and super easy monetary policy. During the 1997 Asian financial turmoil, the currency meltdown in Thailand sent a chain reaction of weaker currencies, falling stock markets and a steep rise in private debt across Southeast Asian economies and South Korea, sinking most of them into deep recession.</div> <div> </div> <div> CIMB research said for the rest of the Asian economies, recent developments in India and Indonesia should have very little negative economic impact. Backed by better regulated financial sector and stable domestic growth drivers, Asian financial markets should also be able to maintain a steady inflow of capital. Credit Suisse research believed that the impact of India and Indonesia sell-down upon North Asian economies such as China and South Korea will also be limited. (news.yahoo.com)</div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <p> <strong><span style="font-size:14px;">‘Crisis unlikely due to currency depreciation’</span></strong></p> </div> <div> Negative spillover effects from India in the Nepali economy have always been pertaining issue for the Nepali economy. Crisis in value of rupee is the latest in the series. With the sharp depreciation of Nepali rupee (NPR) against the US dollar, caused by the devaluation and volatility in Indian rupee (INR), experts have started serious debate over the pegged exchange rate.</div> <div> </div> <div> However, chief economic advisor at Finance Ministry Dr Chiranjivi Nepal ruled out the possibility of revising pegged exchange rate. 'The weakening of Indian and other Asian currencies is unlikely to bring crisis like 1997, now the economies are in better position compare to that period,' said Nepal. According to Nepal, the depreciation of INR will not continue for long time. Indian government has continuously putting effort to control the steep fall of value of rupee against dollar,” he opined, adding that it can be expected that Indian central bank will take aggressive measures to contain INR in a level. </div> <div> </div> <div> The recent massive depreciation of Indian currency has thrown all these logics out of the window and the situation calls for a serious debate on whether Nepali rupee should maintain the peg system. When asked about the review of existing exchange rate, Nepal rejected such calls. 'Nepali economy will encounter many problems if the existing exchange rate is changed,' he said. 'Reviewing the rate will ease the dollar price but cheaper foreign goods will influx the Nepali market and more money will be needed for the import of goods.' He further added that the government to take proper policies aiming to boost the export to take benefit from the strong dollar. </div> <div> </div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-08-26', 'modified' => '0000-00-00', '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 recent equity sell-down and currency fall in India and Indonesia have raised contagion fears across Asia, similar to the Asian financial crisis in 1997.', 'sortorder' => '1550', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1639', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Gold Demand From India, China Could Hit Record 1,000 Tonnes Each In 2013', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> India’s gold demand could reach a record 1,000 tonnes this year as consumers buy for the festival and wedding season in the second half, the World Gold Council said, which may scuttle the country’s efforts to curb its imports and a trade deficit. Demand from China, which is on course to challenge India’s position as the top gold consumer this year, could also soar to a record 1,000 tonnes in 2013, the WGC said. </div> <div> </div> <div> Strong physical buying from the world’s biggest consumers, who account for nearly 60 per cent of global demand, will help prop up prices of the metal that have shed about 20 per cent this year after 12 consecutive annual gains. Consumer demand has however not been enough so far to compensate for a sharp drop in investor appetite this year, the WGC said in its quarterly report on Thursday. India, which wants to keep imports below 850 tonnes in 2013, has raised import taxes three times in eight months. On Wednesday, it banned overseas purchases of gold bars and coins to rein in dollar spending. </div> <div> </div> <div> But the resilience in Indian demand has offset government efforts to curb imports, which revived in July after dropping in June. According to WGC, India’s consumption of gold rose to 310 tonnes in the second quarter ended June, highest in the last 10 years, despite government curbs to restrict imports to rein in burgeoning current account deficit. Much of the demand was met by stocks that had been built up to healthy levels following the April price drop. Imports more than doubled to 338 tonnes in April-June of this calendar year, it said. Gold consumption stood at 181.1 tonnes in the same quarter last year.</div> <div> </div> <div> “We’ve seen that demand is robust,” Somasundaram PR, WGC’s India managing director, told Reuters. “Once the monsoon is over, rural incomes will rise and that will have its own impact on demand.” </div> <div> </div> <div> “There are also a lot more marriage and festival dates in October and November in the fourth quarter,” said Somasundaram, who estimated full-year demand between 900 tonnes to 1,000 tonnes for both India and China. Hitting the upper end of that range would be record annual consumption for both the countries, he said. The rural population accounts for about 60 per cent of gold demand in India, where the precious metal forms an essential part of a bride’s dowry and is considered auspicious as a gift or offering at religious festivals. India’s demand reached 566 tonnes in the first half of the year, a 50 per cent jump but still lower than China’s 600 tonnes, the industry-funded WGC said in its report.</div> <div> </div> <div> Demand this year has been particularly strong as falling prices have prompted consumers across the world to buy bullion in the form of jewellery, bars and coins. Analysts say India’s moves to curb imports have been unable to stifle demand, thus pushing local prices to around $50 an ounce above London spot prices. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Record Buying in China </strong></div> <div> China’s gold-buying spree in the first six months of the year is likely to continue into the second half amid festivals and uncertainty about the economy, which has seen a slowdown in nine out of the past 10 quarters. </div> <div> </div> <div> “The falling gold price is key. But there are also other macroeconomic conditions that are pushing (the Chinese) to gold,” said Albert Cheng, WGC’s managing director for the Far East region. (Agencies)</div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <h2> <strong>Appetite for Gold in Nepal Rising</strong></h2> </div> <div> The consumption of yellow metal among Nepali consumers has been following an increasing trend. According to Ministry of Finance (MoF), gold import in Nepal reached 5,807 kg which is worth Rs 26 billion in the fiscal year 2012-13.</div> <div> </div> <div> However, the import of gold was slightly down in the last FY compared to the whopping 5,900 kg in the FY 2011-12. Traders blame the quota system imposed by the government for the decline in the last fiscal year though their overall gold consumption outlook remains bullish. “Our initial estimation shows that about 26 tonnes of gold will be consumed by the end of current FY in the domestic market,” said Manik Ratna Shakya, general secretary of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers Association (NEGOSIDA). </div> <div> </div> <div> Shakya informed that the average daily gold demand in the domestic market stands at 30 kg on average. “The average daily demand in the marriage season stands around 35 kg. We’ve witnessed the seasonal demand of gold up to 50 kg in the past,” he mentioned. Shakya blamed the restrictions imposed on gold imports for the low quantity trade. “The quota system has actually promoted illegal trade and it has some immediate impacts,” he told The Corporate weekly, “The government’s revenue from gold import will decline and the remittance inflow will also suffer as migrant workers may buy gold abroad and send it here using informal channels due to the restrictions.”</div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-08-19', 'modified' => '2013-08-19', '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' => 'India’s gold demand could reach a record 1,000 tonnes this year as consumers buy for the festival and wedding season', 'sortorder' => '1500', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1594', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Global Ecommerce To Top $1.2 Tn, Driven By Asia-Pacific Growth', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> Independent market research firm eMarketer released a study claiming that business-to-consumer (B2C) ecommerce will increase by 17 percent globally in 2013, with worldwide sales expected to reach $1.2 trillion. The Asia-Pacific region is driving ecommerce growth more than any other, and is expected to outpace the rest of the world at 23 percent growth over last year. China and Indonesia are leading the region’s growth. “Asia-Pacific already accounts for nearly a third of all B2C ecommerce sales in the world, a share of the total just below North America’s. Next year, Asia-Pacific will lead all regions in share of the worldwide total spent online,” the study asserted.</div> <div> </div> <div> Indonesia is expected to see ecommerce growth up 65 percent compared to 2012. China is up 71 percent over last year. Comparatively, the U.S. expects only a 12 percent rise in ecommerce by the end of the year.</div> <div> </div> <div> While the Asia-Pacific leads in growth, North America maintains its lead in actual sales. North America spent $373 billion in 2012, which is expected to rise to $420 billion in 2013. The Asia-Pacific spent $316 billion in 2012 and eMarketer anticipates $389 billion to be spent this year. However, the Asia-Pacific is set to overcome the reigning top spender by the end of next year. While North America is expected to have $469 billion in sales for 2014, the Asia-Pacific will take the lead at $502 billion. The gap will widen even further by 2016 – with the Asia-Pacific expected to spend $708 billion versus North America’s $580 billion.</div> <div> </div> <div> The study also indicated that more web users in the Asia-Pacific are embracing online shopping. “Ecommerce sales growth will be supported by an estimated 1.03 billion digital buyers around the world this year, 44.4% of whom will be in Asia-Pacific. China alone will boast 269.4 million digital buyers this year—a figure that includes internet users ages 14 and older who make at least one purchase via any digital channel during the calendar year. The US remains the country with the second-largest number of digital buyers, at 155.7 million this year,” the study claimed. The study concludes that many web users in the Asia-Pacific who previously weren’t buying online will decrease this year. eMarketer expects penetration to increase in China, from 40 percent last year to a projected 71 percent of internet users by 2017. Current digital buyer penetration in the U.S. is just slightly above that projection currently at 72 percent.</div> <div> </div> <div> “There is still significant room for growth, though, in developing markets where many internet users are still not buying online. Western Europe and North America are the only regions in the world where a majority of the online population is also a digital buyer,” said the study. As countries like China increase its wealth, it becomes inevitable that more of its citizens will be connected to the web. It is logical to assume that many of those Internet users will discover the advantages (and disadvantages) of buying online.</div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <div> <strong><span style="font-size:14px;">E-markets in Nepal on the Rise</span></strong></div> <div> </div> <div> E-commerce market in Nepal emerged about a decade ago. Kick-started through gift-sending and bill payment services through online portals, the market went on to expand due to increasing purchasing power among Nepali consumers. Online shopping revenues have witnessed fast paced growth as the number of internet users in Nepal continues to rise. The domestic e-commerce market has now expanded into various segments such as online shopping, e-banking, mobile commerce, electronic cash transfers and e-ticketing. Time and money saving hassle-free services are seen to be the main factors in attracting internet users to online markets. </div> <div> </div> <div> Annual online transactions in Nepal are estimated to be around Rs 10 billion, although an official figure is not available. Many online shopping websites have emerged since the inception of e-commerce in Nepal. Muncha.com, Thamel.com, Harilo.com, Yeskantipur.com, Metrotarkari.com, Foodmandu.com, Bhatbhatenionline.com and Nepbay.com are some of the popular websites among Nepali online shoppers. Some of these sell their own products whereas others deliver from global sites such as eBay and Amazon. Nepali shoppers have the option to buy products ranging from groceries and fresh vegetables to cars from online portals. </div> <div> </div> <div> However, lack of a clear policy is hindering the growth of online markets here. “The government has not helped the domestic e-commerce market and neither obstructed it,” says Balkrishna Joshi, the CEO of Thamel.com. According to Joshi, the e-commerce market in Nepal is facing problems in the bill payment system. “Establishing a central payment gateway will solve this problem, the central bank and concerned authorities should look into this,” Joshi said. “Similarly, creating a safer online environment for customers will also attract more investments in e-markets here,” he added.</div> <div> </div> </div> <div> </div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-08-12', 'modified' => '2013-08-12', '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' => 'Independent market research firm eMarketer released a study claiming that business-to-consumer (B2C) ecommerce will increase by 17 percent globally in 2013, with worldwide sales expected to reach $1.2 trillion.', 'sortorder' => '1455', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1547', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Global Economy Gains Steam', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> In a apparent sign that global economic recovery is gaining momentum, the manufacturing activities in United States and Europe rose at a faster pace in July. According to various surveys published last week, US manufacturing grew in July at its fastest pace in two years while European factories snapped a two-year run of declining output, suggesting a prolonged euro zone recession may be near its end. Also the output at British factories also surged last month, while an index of China’s massive manufacturing sector suggested the slowdown in the world’s No. 2 economy may be stabilizing. JPMorgan’s Global Manufacturing PMI edged up to 50.8 in July from 50.6 in June, holding above the 50 mark that divides growth from contraction. “Global manufacturing output continues to expand at a modest pace, consistent with a global economy that is held back from considerable fiscal drags in the first half of the year,” said Joe Lupton, senior economist at JPMorgan. </div> <div> </div> <div> A sharp rise in new orders in US helped propel the Institute for Supply Management’s index of national factory activity to a two-year high of 55.4 in July, beating economists’ expectations of 52.0 and June’s reading of 50.9. A separate index from financial data firm Markit rose to 53.7, a four-month high, from 51.9 in June. “It’s obviously good news. Orders have bounced back. If this is happening in the context of a global improvement, that’s a good thing,” said Pierre Ellis, senior global economist at Decision Economics Inc in New York. </div> <div> </div> <div> Meanwhile, Markit’s Eurozone manufacturing PMI showed marginal growth among factories for the first time in two years, with the index at 50.3, up from 48.8 in June. Output rose in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland, France and Austria. </div> <div> </div> <div> The company’s flash composite PMI, based on surveys of thousands of companies across the region, jumped to an 18-month high of 50.4, from 48.7. Readings above 50 signify growth. In China, the official factory PMI was a bit stronger than expected last month, although growth remained modest. The biggest surprise came from the UK, where Markit’s UK manufacturing PMI jumped to 54.6, trumping even the most optimistic forecast in a Reuters poll of economists and triggering a rise in sterling. </div> <div> </div> <div> Overall, the data allayed fears that the global economy’s mid-year lull would deepen. “We’re seeing different trends in different parts of the world, which are to a large extent offsetting each other,” said Andrew Kenningham, senior global economist at Capital Economics in London. </div> <div> <em>(Agencies)</em></div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <div> <strong>‘Nepal likely to benefit from global economic recovery’</strong></div> <div> </div> <div> Nepal has thus far been relatively aloof from the global financial crisis and economic meltdown in the West. The Nepali economy is insulated against such external shocks as risks from inflow of toxic assets remains zero. This is mainly due to the country's financial market not integrated with international market. However, there are signs of strain contributed by indirect impact through trade (reduction of export earnings, and especially contraction of merchandise exports) and spillover effects from India. The steady decline in foreign aid funding is also seen as another impact of the global meltdown. </div> <div> </div> <div> Nepal also saw a marginal rise in tourist arrivals caused by declining disposable income in advanced economies. As India and China are more prone to global risks, negative spillovers from their weakening economies is exerting pressure on Nepal. The sharp depreciation of the Nepali currency (which maintains an exchange rate peg with the Indian Rupee) in recent days is an example of such spillovers. Subdued demand in recession-marred Europe, the major export market of India, is said to be the main cause of the Indian Rupee’s devaluation. </div> <div> </div> <div> But with the global economic recovery gathering pace, experts are hoping that external headwinds faced by the Nepali economy are likely to fade away in the coming days. "Economic revival in the United States and Europe is positive for South Asia, it will eventually create demand in the region," says Dr Chiranjibi Nepal, Ecomomic Advisor to the Nepali Ministry of Finance. According to him, the rise in demand for manufactured goods along with other materials will boost the manufacturing sector, thus generating employment. "Nepal's major exports to Europe and US, such as garments, carpets and handicrafts can benefit from the recovery," he adds. Dr Nepal also mentioned the prospect for rise in tourist arrivals from developed nations as disposable income in western nations is bound to increase following the economic recovery.</div> <div> </div> </div> <p> </p>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-08-05', 'modified' => '2013-08-05', '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 a apparent sign that global economic recovery is gaining momentum, the manufacturing activities in United States and Europe rose at a faster pace in July.', 'sortorder' => '1408', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1503', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'India To Be World’s 3rd Largest Auto Market By 2016', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> India will become the third largest automotive market in the world by 2016 ahead of Japan, Germany and Brazil, riding on its domestic automotive sales, according to IHS Automotive, a global market information provider. Although the economic growth vulnerability and lower sentiment resulted in market slowdown in 2012 and 2013, India is expected to regain strong growth trend from 2014 onwards, said the Colorado-based firm. </div> <div> </div> <div> “We expect that by 2016, vehicle sales would surpass Brazil, Germany and Japan making India the third largest market,” IHS Senior Principal Economist Charles Chesbrough said here. </div> <div> </div> <div> In 2012, China, the US and Japan were the top three global automotive markets and India was ranked six after Brazil and Germany in the fourth and fifth positions respectively. Sounding bullish on the Indian market in the mid to long term, IHS said: “Investment reform policy will induce better environment for domestic and foreign enterprises. India light vehicle production (is) expected to reach 7 million by 2020.” </div> <div> </div> <div> The implications for auto demand are huge in India and the country has been moving along the penetration path, it said. “With demand for vehicles declining in most mature markets in the face of the global recession, high fuel costs and urban driving restrictions, the industry is turning its attention more strongly towards the expanding middle classes in the new powerhouse of China, India, Brazil, Russia and other growing nations,” Chesbrough said. </div> <div> </div> <div> The growth of automobile sales will not be restricted only to mass market vehicles, IHS said. “The favorable Indian market conditions are acting as a catalyst for luxury and premium carmakers, which are receiving impetus from new launches. The top-end carmakers have posted double-digit growth for the quarter ended June 30, 2013,” IHS Director James Chao said. </div> <div> </div> <div> According to IHS, in terms of production volume, India would move to fourth position in 2020 ahead of Germany and Brazil from its currently sixth spot. IHS said as India develops, its citizens acquire wealth, demand for automobiles will increase as the need of personal transportation rises. “It may take a little longer in India because they do not have the infrastructure...but we know about the personal behaviour as people gain wealth, they want freedom, ability to go where they want to go and when they want to go,” Chesbrough said. <em>(The Economic Times)</em></div> <div> </div> <table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%"> <tbody> <tr> <td bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <h1> More Vehicles, Less Roads </h1> <div> Nepali auto market has expanded at rapid pace in the recent years. The construction of roads and other related infrastructures have contributed to the rise of vehicles sales. According to Economic Survey published by Nepal government last week, on an average, 61 vehicles are sharing one kilometer of road around the country. The total number of registered vehicles has reached 1.5 million by the end of fiscal year 2069/70. The survey reports that vehicle import has increased by 40 per cent annually. More than 142,000 vehicles were sold in FY 2069/70 compared as to 101,000 in previous FY. Increase in remittance, raised income of middle class families and road expansion activities are seen as the key driving factors for increased vehicle sales. </div> <div> </div> <div> However, the low availability of roads is seen as major problematic factor. Particularly, with the increase of vehicle sales, Kathmandu valley and other major cities are facing huge traffic congestions on a daily basis. The total length of road around the country reached 24,583 kms by the end of last FY which is very less compared to the number of registered vehicles. The sluggishness in road construction and expansion is also seen as another factor hindering the vehicle sales. The official data has showed that 518 km road was constructed in eight months of last FY which is about 58 per cent less compared to FY 2068/69. According to Tulsi Prasad Sitaula, Secretary at Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, the roads are constructed only with government investments, which has not brought the expected speed of infrastructure development. ‘Private sector is pouring its investment only in importing vehicles but the roads constructions are not carried out to equalize the investment,’ he said.</div> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p> </p>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-07-29', 'modified' => '2013-07-29', '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' => 'India will become the third largest automotive market in the world by 2016 ahead of Japan, Germany and Brazil', 'sortorder' => '1364', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1455', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'India Relaxes FDI Norms To Boost Slowing Growth', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> India has relaxed foreign direct investment (FDI) rules across several industries, including telecoms, single brand retail and oil and gas, in a bid to lure capital inflows, prop up a sliding currency and accelerate growth. India’s weakest economic growth in a decade and a record high current account deficit have made the rupee the worst-performing emerging Asian currency so far this year. The changes will have to be approved by India’s cabinet before they become law, although that is seen as a formality. Here are the sectors in which FDI caps will be revised: </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Telecoms </strong></div> <div> The FDI cap on the telecoms sector was raised to 100 percent from 74 percent. While a foreign company can buy up to a 49 percent stake in an Indian phone carrier without seeking approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board(FIPB), any investment beyond that will need the country’s foreign investment regulator’s nod. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Petroleum and Natural Gas </strong></div> <div> The FDI cap for the sector was left unchanged at 49 percent, but foreign investment up to 49 percent will no longer require FIPB approval. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Insurance </strong></div> <div> Foreign investment up to 49 percent in insurers will not require the government’s approval. The foreign investment limit in the sector is currently capped at 26 percent. A bill to raise the cap to 49 percent is stuck in parliament. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Defence Production </strong></div> <div> There was effectively no change in the FDI cap of 26 percent in the defence sector, although trade minister Anand Sharma said a cabinet panel would consider any FDI proposal for investment above 26 percent in state-of-the-art technology. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Retail </strong></div> <div> FDI up to 49 percent in the single-brand retail sector will no longer require the FIPB’s approval. The government also said it will issue clarifications soon on its FDI policy for supermarkets. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Commodity, Power and Stock Exchanges </strong></div> <div> Foreign investment of up to 49 percent will not require the government’s approval. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Asset Reconstruction Companies </strong></div> <div> India will allow FDI up to 49 percent with no government approval, but foreign investors will need FIPB approval to buy a bigger stake in an Indian asset reconstruction company. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Courier Services </strong></div> <div> Foreign investors can now invest up to 100 percent in the courier services sector and will not need government approval. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Credit Information Companies </strong></div> <div> India will allow up to 74 percent FDI in credit information companies, with no need to seek government approval for investments up to that level. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Civil Aviation and Media </strong></div> <div> The government left FDI caps in civil aviation and media unchanged at 49 percent and 26 percent respectively. </div> <div> <em>(Agency)</em></div> <div> </div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-07-22', 'modified' => '0000-00-00', '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' => 'India has relaxed foreign direct investment (FDI) rules across several industries, including telecoms, single brand retail and oil and gas, in a bid to lure capital inflows, prop up a sliding currency and accelerate growth. India’s weakest economic growth in a decade and a record high current account deficit have made the rupee the worst-performing emerging Asian currency so far this year.', 'sortorder' => '1316', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1408', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'World Unprepared For Urban Boom', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> In a world of more than nine billion people by 2050, most of the 6.5 billion urban dwellers will be living in developing countries, says the World Economic and Social Survey 2013, emphasising that new strategies are needed to address the impacts of rapid urbanisation around the world, including increasing demands for energy, water, sanitation, public services, education and health. </div> <div> </div> <div> According to the survey published by the UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs last week, more than 6.25 billion people will be living in cities by 2050. Within the time period of 2000-2050, developing regions could add 3.2 billion new urbanites, a figure larger than the entire world’s population in 1950. The survey found that the vision of sustainable development — promoting economic and social wellbeing while protecting the environment — has not been achieved, despite encouraging progress. Rising inequality and shortfalls in development partnership, rapid population growth, climate change and environmental degradation have hampered efforts. </div> <div> </div> <div> Damage to the global environment is reaching critical levels and threatens to lead to irreversible changes in global ecosystems, the survey said. The overarching environmental damage is anthropogenic, with humans releasing increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which is leading to global warming. If no policy framework is established to address this issue, the survey states, the number of people living in slums lacking access to basic infrastructure and services such as water, sanitation, electricity, health care and education might triple from 1 billion at present to 3 billion by 2050. </div> <div> </div> <div> The survey states that sustainable development of urban areas requires integration, coordination, and investments to tackle issues of land-use, food security, job creation, building new roads, biodiversity conservation, water conservation, renewable energy sourcing, waste and recycling management, and the provision of education, health care and housing. The survey calls for ambitious, action-oriented sustainable development strategies to address the different levels of urban development that are adaptable to different contexts. </div> <div> </div> <div> Estimates indicate that food production will have to increase 70 percent globally to feed an additional 2.3 billion people by 2050. The survey emphasises that economic and financial incentives to create and adopt new technologies will require policy reforms including taxes and subsidies, as well as regulatory reforms. (Agency)</div> <table border="0" cellpadding="20" width="99%"> <tbody> <tr> <td bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <div> <span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>‘Nepal’s push for urbanization is poorly managed’</strong></span></div> <div> </div> <div> Nepal, once viewed as least urbanised country in South Asia, is witnessing a rapid pace of urbanisation. Population increase and migration are considered as significant factors in the growth of cities across the country. Rise in infrastructure development and increased economic opportunities too are fuelling the push for urbanisation. According to government data , Nepal’s urban population grew at 4.45 percent in 2012 compared to the previous year. Some 20 percent of Nepal’s population is currently living in urban areas. The contribution of urban areas to the gross domestic product (GDP) is assumed to be 65 percent. Urban areas in Nepal spread across 3,276 km square of the total area. A report published by The World Bank last year marked Nepal as the fastest urbanising nation in South Asia. </div> <div> </div> <div> However, poorly managed urbanisation in Nepal is ringing alarm bells as many problems have emerged. Particularly, the growth of cities is associated with rise in unemployment, inadequate health service, poor sanitation, urban slums, environmental degradation and crime. The World Bank last year warned that unless the government seriously manages urbanisation better, the country could fail to attain economic efficiency from the process. In March 2013, the bank also published another report entitled ‘Urban Growth and Spatial Transition: An Initial Assessment’ which warns about the consequences of unmanaged urbanisation in Nepal. ‘Nepal’s urban centres, particularly the Kathmandu Valley, are already facing serious challenges due to multiple factors such as inadequate infrastructure, haphazard planning and poor business environment,’ states the report. The report strongly advocates for the government to prioritise on investment in infrastructure, connect cities internally and externally and make growth inclusive in order to foster the growth and sustainability of urban area</div> <div> </div> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p> </p>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-07-15', 'modified' => '2013-09-04', '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 a world of more than nine billion people by 2050, most of the 6.5 billion urban dwellers will be living in developing countries, says the World Economic and Social Survey 2013', 'sortorder' => '1270', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = falseinclude - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 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
Warning (2): simplexml_load_file() [<a href='http://php.net/function.simplexml-load-file'>function.simplexml-load-file</a>]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "" [APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60]file not found!Code Context// $file = 'http://aabhiyan:QUVLg8Wzs2F7G9N7@nepalstock.com.np/api/indexdata.xml';if(!$xml = simplexml_load_file($file)){$viewFile = '/var/www/html/newbusinessage.com/app/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'articles' => array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ) ), 'current_user' => null, 'logged_in' => false ) $articles = array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '2146', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => '‘South Asian Diaspora Investment Bank Could Supplement SAARC Efforts’', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> An investment bank to manage the $1.3-trillion wealth of the South Asian diaspora can help supplement the efforts of SAARC, says an expert. It is felt that the importance of the grouping has been eroded over the years due to political differences across the region, he said.</div> <div> </div> <div> This is part of the ‘trilateralism idea’ mooted by former Bangladesh Foreign Minister Iftekhar Chowdhury at the second South Asian Diaspora Convention (SADC) in Singapore today. Chowdhury said the bank could play a role in guiding South Asian diaspora investment, especially in the infrastructure sector, in the region which is a market of 1.8 billion people. Chowdhury told that the 38-million strong South Asian diaspora has an estimated wealth of $1.3 trillion and was looking at new investment opportunities.</div> <div> </div> <div> The diaspora comprising 20 million Indians, 7 million Bangladeshis, 8 million Pakistanis and 3 million Sri Lankans, is estimated to save about $350 billion from their annual estimated earnings of $1 trillion. Yesterday during his address at the SADC, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram called on the Indian diaspora to invest in India and be part of the country’s prosperity in his speech at the SADC yesterday. Chowdhury said it is the right time to channel that investment to the South Asian region, given the many politically-impeded challenges being faced by these investors in placing their money in this vast region.</div> <div> </div> <div> He is currently a principal fellow at the Institute of South Asia Studies (ISAS), the organiser of the two-day SADC which ended today. The proposed South Asian Diaspora Investment Bank could be located in one of the international financial centres — London, New York or Singapore. Chowdhury said the bank’s role would bring about a change in the politically-weakened SAARC and could give a big impetus to the regional organisation which has made little progress since its inception.</div> <div> <em>(The Hindu Business Line)</em></div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-11-25', 'modified' => '2013-12-03', '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' => 'An investment bank to manage the $1.3-trillion wealth of the South Asian diaspora can help supplement the efforts of SAARC, says an expert. It is felt that the importance of the grouping has been eroded over the years due to political differences across the region, he said.', 'sortorder' => '1993', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '2095', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Nepal Gains In Global Prosperity Ranking', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>--By TC Correspondent</strong></div> <div> </div> <div> D<span style="font-size: 12px;">espite ongoing political uncertainty, Nepal has achieved higher prosperity. According to the Legatum Prosperity Index 2013, Nepal climbed 6 places up this year to reach 102nd position among 142 countries across the world. Nepal was ranked 108th position last year. The index published by the Legatum Institute, a UAE-based investment organisation and think-tank shows Nepal’s progress mainly in the area of personal freedom. Nepal scored 77 points in the personal freedom sub-index which includes sections such as civil liberties and tolerance among ethnic groups. The sub-index highlights more freedom of choice for ordinary Nepalis and ethnic harmony in the country. The Legatum Prosperity Index has been benchmarking 142 countries since 2007 in 8 distinct sub-indices: economy, education, entrepreneurship and opportunity, governance, health, personal freedom, safety and security and social capital. </span></div> <div> </div> <div> Nepal’s economic performance was not seen satisfactory as the country declined 5 places to 92nd position in economy sub-index, mainly because of decline in its gross domestic savings. Nepal also moved down in the safety and security sub-index, by 17 places to 101st due to increase in state violence and the number of refugees. Similarly, Nepal also did not fare well in entrepreneurship and opportunity as the country was placed at 111th position in the sub-index. </div> <div> </div> <div> Nepal ranked 100th in governance, 104th in education, 97th in health and 95th in social capital sub-indices. However, Nepal ranked above India, Bangladesh and Pakistan in the overall index. Bangladesh ranked below Nepal at 103rd position whereas India was placed at 106th in the index. Bangladesh ranks above India in the index for the first time in 2013. Although Bangladesh’s rank has remained constant since last year, India has declined five places in the same period. India has fallen down the Prosperity Index rankings consistently over the last five years. Pakistan was the lowest ranking country in the entire Asia-Pacific region with 132nd position whereas China stood at 51st in the index. </div> <div> </div> <div> Norway ranks first in overall Prosperity, as it has since 2009, confirming its place as the most prosperous country in the world for the fifth consecutive year. The country also ranks first in the economy and social capital sub-index in 2013. Switzerland, Canada, Sweden and New Zealand secured 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th position respectively. Meanwhile, US ranked 11th in the index. US moved down four places to 24th in the Economy sub-index. Countries that have overtaken the US in the economy sub-index include New Zealand (17th) and South Korea (19th), among others. The UK has moved down three places to 16th in overall Prosperity, as a result of decreases in the rankings for six out of eight sub-indices since last year. The UK has been leapfrogged by Austria (15th), Germany (14th), and Iceland (13th).</div> </div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-11-11', 'modified' => '2013-11-25', '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' => 'Despite ongoing political uncertainty, Nepal has achieved higher prosperity. According to the Legatum Prosperity Index 2013, Nepal climbed 6 places up this year to reach 102nd position among 142 countries across the world. Nepal was ranked 108th position last year. The index published by the Legatum Institute, a UAE-based investment organisation and think-tank shows Nepal’s progress mainly in the area of personal freedom.', 'sortorder' => '1990', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '2022', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Nepal’s Gender Gap Narrows', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> <strong>--By Sanjeev Sharma</strong></div> <div> </div> <div> The gender gap in Nepal narrowed in 2013 as more women came to join labour force and participatory policies helped female population grasp various opportunities, a latest global report shows. According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2013, published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on 25th October, Friday, Nepal ranked 121st with a total score of 0.605. Nepal climbed 2 spots up from last year’s 123rd position. In 2011 and 2010 Nepal was ranked at 126th and 115th position respectively. Neighbouring China and India were ranked 69 and 101 respectively. In the South Asia region, Sri Lanka ranked 55th, Bangladesh 75th, Bhutan 93rd, Maldives 97th and Pakistan came at 135th. </div> <div> </div> <div> The index assesses 136 countries, representing more than 93% of the world’s population, on how well resources and opportunities are divided among male and female populations. The report measures the size of the gender inequality gap in four areas: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, political empowerment and health and survival. Nepal ranked 116th place in economic participation and opportunity sub-index. Similarly, Nepal’s female educational attainment was ranked at 130th place and political empowerment was ranked at 41st place. In female health and survival sub-index, Nepal was placed at 112th position. </div> <div> </div> <div> Nepal, placed in the low income group countries (US$1,035 or less) in the report, particularly fared well in labour force participation indicator with a rank of 12th position. Nepal’s female-to-male ratio was 0.94 in the sub-index. Neighbouring China and India were ranked lower in the indicator with 40th and 124th position respectively. Whereas, the world’s largest economy United States stood at 40th position in terms of labour force participation. Similarly, Nepal also did well in terms of female political participation with a rank of 22nd in women in parliament indicator. Germany ranked lower than Nepal in the indicator with 24th position. China along with Bangladesh, Pakistan and India came at 51st, 68th, 69th and 106th places respectively. </div> <div> </div> <div> Nepal however scored lower in wage equality indicator with a rank of 97th position. China and India were ranked at 60th and 86th place respectively in the indicator. Nepal also pared down in legislators, senior officers and managers indicator with 96th position. However, Nepal performed better than South Korea and Japan who were ranked 105th and 106th respectively. Likewise, Nepal’s progress in female literacy was seen sluggish as the country ranked 125th place in the literacy rate indicator. Nepal also didn’t achieve any significant gain in female population’s health life as it ranked 119th out of 136 countries in the health life expectancy sub-indicator. </div> <div> </div> <div> WEF has been publishing the report since 2006. The Philippines ranked highest in Asia-Pacific region (5th place) in the eighth edition of the report primarily due to success in health, education and economic participation. According to the report, Iceland remained at the 1st position for the 5th consecutive year followed by Finland, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, New Zealand, Denmark, Switzerland and Nicaragua. Meanwhile, United States lowered to 23rd from last year’s 22nd in the index and Japan dropping to 105th from 101st of 2012. Yemen was the lowest ranking country in the index (136th).</div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-10-28', 'modified' => '2013-10-28', '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 gender gap in Nepal narrowed in 2013 as more women came to join labour force and participatory policies helped female population grasp various opportunities, a latest global report shows. According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2013, published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on 25th October, Friday, Nepal ranked 121st with a total score of 0.605. Nepal climbed 2 spots up from last year’s 123rd position.', 'sortorder' => '1892', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1977', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Fama, Shiller, Hansen Win Nobel Prize For Asset-Price Work', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> </div> <div> The widespread criticism of economists’ failure to predict the banking crash was addressed on Monday, 14th October by the Nobel committee when it awarded the much coveted prize for economics to three academics who try to show how financial markets work.</div> <div> </div> <div> The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the prize to Eugene Fama and Lars Peter Hansen of the ultra-conservative Chicago school alongside Robert Shiller, the liberal Yale economist famous for warning of the US sub-prime housing bubble in 2005. Fama and Hansen, two followers of Milton Friedman’s free-market theories, said they were surprised to win the annual prize which they agreed would turn their lives upside down. The academy said it was honouring the three prizewinners for their work examining the way markets work. They will share the prize of Swedish Kroner 8m (£781,782) equally. The academy said the three economists were at the top of their field “for their empirical analysis of asset prices that greatly improved our understanding of how financial markets work, when they seem to work well and when they seem to work otherwise”.</div> <div> </div> <div> Fama, 74, is notorious in leftwing circles for denying financial bubbles exist and asserting recessions are a largely unexplainable fixture of capitalism that should be allowed to take their course. His research has examined how external factors such as insider trading and government regulation can distort the workings of financial markets. In the years before the crash he joined other disciples of Friedman, including former Federal Reserve boss Alan Greenspan, in defending the efficient-markets hypothesis that underpinned the deregulation of the banking system.</div> <div> </div> <div> In the aftermath of the banking crash, Fama blamed the US government, arguing its policy of loosening laws restricting access to credit was at the heart of the crisis. He said the banking industry acted rationally in response to distorting incentives put in place by an interfering government. The American mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, were encouraged to lower the bar to lending, fuelling the sub-prime boom.</div> <div> </div> <div> “The financial markets were a casualty of the recession, not a cause of it,” he told the New Yorker in 2010. Fama has recently specialised in producing models that show the way stock markets and other asset markets work.</div> <div> </div> <div> Hansen, 60, is best known for his work modelling how economic actors cope with risk and changing environments. Fama and Hansen join 87 other Nobel Prize winners affiliated with Chicago University. Their success means eight Nobel winners will be working at the faculty, including six in economics.</div> <div> </div> <div> Shiller, 67, has risen to prominence following a career that has seen him adapt free-market theories to take on board concepts of exuberance and irrationality. Unlike Fama, who denies it is possible to measure whether assets are overpriced, Shiller has documented how markets can fall victim to bubbles that become unsustainable.</div> <div> </div> <div> In a video interview with the Guardian last year he said finance was not about making money but making money work for the good of communities. His book Irrational Exuberance, published in 2000, debunked the idea that markets always price assets efficiently, without triggering bubbles.</div> <div> </div> <div> The academy said: “While it is hard to predict whether stock or bond prices will go up or down in the short term, it is possible to foresee movements over periods of three years or longer. These findings, which might seem surprising and contradictory, were made and analysed by this year’s laureates.”</div> <div> </div> <div> Americans have dominated the economics awards in recent years; the last time there were no US economists among the winners was in 1999. The Nobel committees have now announced all six of the annual awards for 2013</div> <div> </div> <div> <table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%"> <tbody> <tr> <td bgcolor="#E5E4E2"> <div> <span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Lars Peter Hansen</strong></span></div> <div> In another triumph for Chicago University, Hansen, 60, has been rewarded for his work developing a statistical method to test theories of asset pricing.</div> <div> </div> <div> In 1982 Hansen presented a statistical theory – called the Generalized Method of Moments – then used it to test whether historical share prices were consistent with the best known asset-pricing model at the time. He found the methods being used must be rejected because they failed to explain share movements. As a result, Hansen’s work helped confirm Shiller’s preliminary findings on bubbles and inspired new research.</div> <div> </div> <div> <span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Eugene Fama</strong></span></div> <div> Chicago University states that Fama, 74, “is widely recognized as the father of modern finance”, although that boast is clearly double-edged given the markets’ recent performance.</div> <div> </div> <div> His views are considered to be the direct opposite of Shiller’s, as they are based on the “efficient markets hypothesis”. This is the idea that markets incorporate all known information about an asset’s value, making it pointless trying to predict which way they will move.</div> <div> </div> <div> <span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Robert Shiller</strong></span></div> <div> Shiller, 67, is one of the few economists who can claim to have foreseen both the bursting of the dotcom bubble and the US housing crash.</div> <div> </div> <div> His prescient book Irrational Exuberance was first published in 2000, and he followed it up with a second edition in 2005, which took the then unfashionable view that US housing looked dangerously overvalued.</div> <div> </div> <div> He has given his name – along with colleague Karl Case – to the most closely watched housing market indicator in the US, the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index. His most recent book, Finance and the Good Society, is about the benefits of financial innovation.</div> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <p> </p>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-10-21', 'modified' => '2013-10-28', '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 widespread criticism of economists’ failure to predict the banking crash was addressed on Monday, 14th October by the Nobel committee when it awarded the much coveted prize for economics to three academics who try to show how financial markets work.', 'sortorder' => '1879', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1958', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Economists Fear Debt Ceiling Fight May Bring Recession', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> Forget the current government shutdown. Economists say it’s the upcoming debt ceiling impasse that could plunge the United States into a recession. About half of the 22 economists surveyed by CNN Money say a recession will be unavoidable if Congress fails to raise the nation’s debt ceiling before the Treasury runs out of cash later this month.</div> <div> </div> <div> A couple more say a recession is possible depending on how far past the deadline Congress goes before acting. And even those who aren’t predicting recession say not raising the debt ceiling would be a very bad idea.</div> <div> </div> <div> “Financial markets are already being impacted in the short-run as a result of heightened uncertainty,” said Sean Snaith, director of the Institute for Economic Competitiveness at the University of Central Florida. But he said there would be greater long-term damage due to the spending cuts that would occur.</div> <div> </div> <div> “The fiscal shock treatment of having to eliminate the deficit in one fell swoop would reduce GDP by more than 5% and cause a severe recession,” he said.</div> <div> </div> <div> The Treasury Department has also been sounding the warning bells about the debt ceiling. In a report Thursday, Treasury said failure to raise the limit would have a “catastrophic effect” on the economy, sparking an even deeper recession than the 2008 downturn that accompanied the meltdown in financial markets.</div> <div> </div> <div> The economists agree the threat posed by not raising the debt ceiling is significantly greater than that posed by the federal government shutdown that started Tuesday. None predicted a recession being caused by the shutdown alone.</div> <div> </div> <div> “A short to medium duration partial shutdown is not enough to cause recession,” said Sam Bullard, economist with Wells Fargo Securities.</div> <div> </div> <div> But if the debt ceiling isn’t raised, the economists have many different worries, including disruptions in financial markets, followed closely by a loss of confidence in the dollar and Treasuries and very deep cuts in government spending.</div> <div> </div> <div> “No one can know for sure exactly what would happen in the event of a default, but we can all be sure that it would be bad,” said Russell Price of Ameriprise Financial.</div> <div> </div> <div> Even those economists who aren’t predicting a recession are worried about the risks posed by the debt ceiling.</div> <div> </div> <div> “Merely missing the debt ceiling deadline will not trigger a recession, but the risks will rise rapidly with each week after the deadline passes,” said Patrick O’Keefe, director of economic research at accounting firm Cohn Reznick.</div> <div> </div> <div> Some of the economists believe if Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling then the administration will act unilaterally. That might cause a constitutional crisis but they believe it would avoid a financial crisis.</div> <div> </div> <div> “My expectation in this scenario is that the President finds a sufficiently plausible constitutional rationale to ignore the debt ceiling and keep on meeting all US Federal obligations on time with no exceptions,” said Bill Cheney, chief economist with Manulife Asset Management.</div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <p> <strong style="font-size: 14px;">US Debt Crisis Threatens World Economy: IMF</strong></p> </div> <div> Terming the current debt crisis in America as “mission-critical”, the International Monetary Fund has warned the US that its impending debt crisis could damage not only its domestic economy, but the entire global economy. “The ongoing political uncertainty over the budget and the debt ceiling does not help. The Government shutdown is bad enough, but failure to raise the debt ceiling would be far worse, and could very seriously damage not only the US economy, but the entire global economy,” the IMF Managing Director, Christine Lagarde, said on Thursday. “So it is “mission-critical” that this be resolved as soon as possible,” Lagarde said in her address to the George Washington University. The United States, she said, needs to “slow down and hurry up.” By that she meant less fiscal adjustment today and more tomorrow, she added.“That means replacing the sequester with more back-loaded measures that do not hurt the recovery. At the same time, the US needs to do more to make debt sustainable down the road — by containing the growth of entitlement spending and raising revenues,” Lagarde said.</div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-10-08', 'modified' => '2013-10-21', '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' => 'Forget the current government shutdown. Economists say it’s the upcoming debt ceiling impasse that could plunge the United States into a recession. About half of the 22 economists surveyed by CNN Money say a recession will be unavoidable if Congress fails to raise the nation’s debt ceiling before the Treasury runs out of cash later this month.', 'sortorder' => '1824', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1875', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Economic Freedom: Hong Kong, Singapore On Top, US Falls In Rankings', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> The United States has fallen 15 places since 2000 in the global ranking of economic freedom, while Hong Kong and Singapore maintained their top spots. The ‘Economic Freedom of the World’ report 2013, compiled by Canada’s Fraser Institute, ranks Hong Kong first with an overall Economic Freedom Rating of 8.97, followed by Singapore (8.73). In the area of credit market regulations, both the East Asian City States scored 10 out of 10. The United States is positioned as the world’s 17th freest economy behind nations such as New Zealand, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, Mauritius, Finland, Bahrain, Canada, and Australia, who are in the top ten. Throughout most of the period from 1980 to 2000, the United States was ranked as the world’s third-freest economy, behind Hong Kong and Singapore. </div> <div> </div> <div> The U.S. ratings and rankings have fallen in all five areas of the EFW index. The worst reduction was in the area of Legal System and Property Rights, where the rating had slid to 6.93, placing the United States 38th worldwide, tied with Venezuela. The report blames the slippage of the United States, once considered a bastion of economic freedom, on ‘overspending, weakening rule of law, and regulatory overkill on the part of the U.S. government.’ Major countries that ranked below the United States include Germany, Japan, South Korea, France, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Brazil, and India. China, despite being a major economic power, is ranked as low as 123rd in a list of 152 countries. Eight of the ten lowest-rated countries are located in Africa, with Myanmar and Venezuela ending up in last place.</div> <div> </div> <div> The index published in the report, which was compiled using data and surveys from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and World Economic Forum, measures the degree to which the policies and institutions of countries are supportive of economic freedom. The cornerstones of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom to compete, and security of privately owned property. The degree of economic freedom to rank countries was measured using five criteria: size of government, legal system and property rights, sound money, freedom to trade internationally, and regulation.</div> <div> </div> <div> The average chain-linked economic freedom rating for the countries has increased from 5.34 in 1980 to 6.87 in 2011. Nations that are economically free out-perform non-free nations in indicators of well-being. Nations in the top quartile of economic freedom had an average per-capita GDP of $36,446 in 2011, compared to $4,382 for nations in the bottom quartile in the same period. Life expectancy is 79.2 years in nations in the top quartile compared to 60.2 years in those in the bottom quartile. Political and civil liberties are considerably higher in economically free nations than in less free nations.</div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <div> </div> <div> <strong><span style="font-size:16px;">Nepal Falls among Least Economically Free Countries</span></strong></div> <div> </div> <div> Meanwhile, Nepal remained among the least economically free countries in the report for this year. The report states that the degradations in terms of the legal structures and security of property rights and size of the government weighed down on the economic freedom of the country. Nepal ranked 125th out of 152 countries in the report. According to the report, Nepal scored 6.19 out of 10. This marked the further degradation of economic freedom in Nepal. Last year, the country was placed in 110th position out of 144 nations and scored 6.33 points in the index. </div> <div> </div> <div> The ‘Economic Freedom of the World Report 2013’ further emphasized the Nepal government size to be reduced. Regarding the area of ‘size of government’ in the index, Nepal scored 7.6 in 2013 (31st position in the world) against 8.34 of the previous year. The area of ‘freedom to trade internationally’ also declined to 6.4 (118th in the world) which scored 6.74 in 2012.</div> <div> </div> <div> However, the report also showed that Nepal made little progress regarding areas of ‘legal structures and ensuring property rights to its citizens’ with a score of 4.2 (126th in the world) this year against 3.85 of 2012. Similarly, the country also performed better in the areas of ‘access to sound money’ and ‘regulations on credit, labour and business.’ With the improvements in taming of inflation and money growth in the financial system, the area of access to sound money improved slightly to 6.3 (136th in the world) from last year’s 6.26. Likewise, the area of regulations on credit, labour and business also rose to 6.5 (109th in the world) from 6.47 last year.</div> </div> <p> </p>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-09-30', 'modified' => '0000-00-00', '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 United States has fallen 15 places since 2000 in the global ranking of economic freedom, while Hong Kong and Singapore maintained their top spots. The ‘Economic Freedom of the World’ report 2013, compiled by Canada’s Fraser Institute, ranks Hong Kong first with an overall Economic Freedom Rating of 8.97, followed by Singapore (8.73). In the area of credit market regulations, both the East Asian City States scored 10 out of 10.', 'sortorder' => '1736', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1808', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'China Becomes World’s Third Largest Investor After US, Japan', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> </div> <div> China has emerged as the world’s third largest investor as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from the giant jumped by 17.6 percent last year defying a global pattern. China’s outbound FDI rose 17.6 percent year-on-year in 2012 to a record high of USD 87.8 billion, according to the 2012 Statistical Bulletin of China’s Outward Foreign Direct Investment (ODI) by the Ministry of Commerce. Even as global ODI slid 17 percent last year amid uncertainties facing the world economy, China is now world’s third-largest investor, following the United States and Japan, for the first time since the country began to release the data a decade ago. </div> <div> </div> <div> China currently holds about USD 3.30 trillion foreign exchange reserves. About USD 1.20 trillion is invested in US bonds. China was world’s sixth-largest investor in 2011, with an ODI flow of USD 74.65 billion. Last year’s increase represented an acceleration from 8.5 per cent in 2011, when the global economic recovery was weak in the face of continuing financial turmoil in Europe and the United States. “The Chinese government introduced measures to encourage outbound direct investment in pursuit of the ‘going abroad’ strategy, and the country’s outward FDI maintained robust growth in recent years,” said Zhou Zhencheng, commercial counselor of the department of outward investment and economic cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce. Huo Jianguo, president of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, was quoted by the state-run China Daily as saying that the surge in ODI was mainly driven by domestic enterprises eager to tap overseas markets and profit from using global resources. “Debt crises and slowing growth in developed economies opened up great opportunities for Chinese enterprises to invest abroad, and the renminbi’s appreciation helped the process,” Huo said. </div> <div> </div> <div> China’s non-financial ODI went up 13.3 per cent last year to USD 77.73 billion, accounting for 88.5 per cent of the total. Financial ODI surged 65.9 per cent to USD 10.07 billion, the bulletin said. Investment in US jumped 123.5 per cent to USD 4.05 billion, making it the second-largest destination for China’s ODI, the report said. Total ODI to developed economies was around USD 13.51 billion. Chinese investors have established about 22,000 overseas enterprises in 179 countries and regions, “and about 79.2 per cent of them made profits or maintained a balance”, Zhou said. He warned that Chinese enterprises are facing rising risks and challenges, including political unrest in Africa and Southeast Asia. Other challenges include increasing competition from developed economies and restrictions in those markets.</div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <p> <span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Chinese Investment in Nepal Rising</strong></span></p> </div> <div> The northern neighbour has been gradually increasing its investments in Nepal. According to Nepal government’s latest data, in the fiscal year 2012/13, China committed highest foreign direct investment (FDI) in Nepal surpassing India. In the last FY China alone accounted for 30.89 percent of the total amount of the FDI commitment in Nepal. The data showed that Nepal has received Rs 19.39 billion worth of Chinese FDI against Rs 11.49 billion in the previous FY. In FY 2011/12, China stood second in terms of investments in the country after India. </div> <div> </div> <div> In the last FY, investors from mainland China and Hong Kong registered 96 and four investment projects respectively. The investment projects mainly include medium and small businesses such as hotels, restaurants, travel agencies, handicrafts, fisheries and agricultural industries. However, Chinese investors are also pouring their investments in big infrastructure projects of Nepal. Sinohydro Resources Ltd, a Chinese multinational giant has invested in the 50 megawatts Upper Marsyangdi ‘A’ hydropower project, which is under construction. Similarly, Sinohydro and other Chinese contractors are also developing major Nepali hydel projects such as the 456 MW Upper Tamakoshi, 30 MW Chamelia, 14 MW Kulekhani-3.</div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-09-16', 'modified' => '2013-09-23', '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' => 'China has emerged as the world’s third largest investor as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from the giant jumped by 17.6 percent last year defying a global pattern.', 'sortorder' => '1669', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1725', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'India Outpaces Japan To Become World’s 3rd Largest Internet User', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> India surpassed Japan to become the world’s third-largest Internet user, based on the size of its online population, behind only the U.S. and China. The growth highlights the potential of India’s fast-growing e-commerce market, according to a report from global digital measurement and analytics firm ComScore.</div> <div> </div> <div> “Riding on a 31 per cent year-on-year increase, India’s online population grew to 73.9 million. With an extended online universe in excess of 145 million the market is at a tipping point for online businesses. India is the world’s third largest Internet population,” the report said.The country overtook Japan by adding 17.6 million users in 2012, the ComScore report said.Of the total 644 million home and work Internet users in Asia-Pacific as of March 2013, China accounted for a lion’s share of 54 per cent followed by India (11.5 per cent), Japan (11.4 per cent), Southeast Asia (9.6 per cent) and rest of APAC (13.5 per cent).On consumption, ComScore said that media fragmentation is occurring at light speed in today’s multi-platform environment, which features not only computers, but smartphones, tablets, gaming platforms and a ever-increasing number of emerging devices.</div> <div> </div> <div> According to the study, India has the youngest skewing online population among BRIC countries, with 75 percent of its Internet users under the age of 35. “Although the U.S. held 66 percent of the total global Internet audience in 1996, it now accounts for just 13 percent of the global online users, while the Asia-Pacific region accounted for 41 percent and Europe accounted for 27 percent of the global Internet users in 2012,” the report states. </div> <div> </div> <div> However, U.S. users spent the most time on the Internet with North Americans spending 37.2 hours, while users from Asia-Pacific spent just 17.2 hours, on an average, in a month. India’s strong growth in its Internet audience -- at six times the global average growth rate – holds enormous opportunity for the country’s e-marketers, which helps the country’s e-commerce sector, which is estimated to reach $100 billion in size by 2015, according to estimates.</div> <div> </div> <div> “While 60 percent of Web users in India visit online retail sites, time spent on shopping sites still has huge growth potential,” the report said. India’s online retail market grew more than 60 percent in 2012-2013, with the apparels market growing by 21 percent, ComScore said. Indian Internet users spent 25 percent of their online time in social networking websites, with 86 percent of the total audience visiting such sites in the last fiscal year. Facebook dominates the segment with 59.6 million user-visits and a 28 percent increase in the traffic. Entertainment and online video segments also witnessed exponential growth with 54 million users, in 2012-13. “The online video audience in India grew an astounding 27 percent in the past year, and YouTube continues to be the top video property with more than 55 percent share,” according to the report. </div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <h5> ‘Mobile internet fueling internet population growth in Nepal’</h5> <div> In line with the global surge, Nepal is also witnessing a staggering growth of internet population. According to a report published by Nepal Telecom Authority (NTA) in July, over 25 per cent of Nepali citizens have access to internet connection. “As of mid-July (last fiscal year), Nepal’s internet penetration rate reached 26.10 per cent of the total population against the rate of 19 per cent in the same period of last year,” the report states. </div> <div> </div> <div> The report informed that the total number of internet users has reached 6.91 million. </div> <div> The robust use of internet is fueled by mobile internet, sub-broadband and high speed services such as WiMax. However, the high speed 3G wireless mobile network is seen as the main driving factor of internet population growth in Nepal. “Out of total subscribers, 6 million users surf the world wide web through their mobile devices,” reads the NTA report. The sharp rise in the availability of low-cost smartphone handsets and competitive bandwidth prices are seen as factors attracting internet users. Furthermore, the appeal of social media is also considered as another major element which contributes to the rise of internet users. In July, commercial web traffic data provider Alexa Internet Inc, a subsidiary of Amazon.com, ranked Facebook as the most popular website among Nepali internet users. The company also ranked Twitter and Linkedin in 12th and 13th place in Nepal respectively.</div> <div> </div> </div> <p> </p>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-09-02', 'modified' => '2013-09-10', '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' => 'India surpassed Japan to become the world’s third-largest Internet user, based on the size of its online population, behind only the U.S. and China.', 'sortorder' => '1586', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1689', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Economic Downturn In India, Indonesia Raise Fears', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> The recent equity sell-down and currency fall in India and Indonesia have raised contagion fears across Asia, similar to the Asian financial crisis in 1997. What started off as a relatively contained sell-down in Indonesia and India is now turning into a confidence crisis. The Indian rupee has lost 12 percent since May 2013, making it the worst performer in the emerging market currency basket, Xinhua said in an analysis Saturday.</div> <div> </div> <div> There is now widespread panic over the rupee, and the short-term measures imposed by the Indian government such as curbing the import of gold are widely seen as ineffective. In Indonesia, the sharp weakening in the rupiah and weak commodity export prices have caused its foreign exchange reserves to fall by a significant 18 percent year-to-date from $112 billion to $92 billion, fuelling investors’ concerns over the defensibility of the currency and the concurrent risks of sharp policy rate hikes.</div> <div> </div> <div> The impact of capital outflows and financial turbulence as a result of India and Indonesia problems will undoubtedly be significant and widespread in other Asian emerging economies such as Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines, where bubbles have been inflated by easy credit and super easy monetary policy. During the 1997 Asian financial turmoil, the currency meltdown in Thailand sent a chain reaction of weaker currencies, falling stock markets and a steep rise in private debt across Southeast Asian economies and South Korea, sinking most of them into deep recession.</div> <div> </div> <div> CIMB research said for the rest of the Asian economies, recent developments in India and Indonesia should have very little negative economic impact. Backed by better regulated financial sector and stable domestic growth drivers, Asian financial markets should also be able to maintain a steady inflow of capital. Credit Suisse research believed that the impact of India and Indonesia sell-down upon North Asian economies such as China and South Korea will also be limited. (news.yahoo.com)</div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <p> <strong><span style="font-size:14px;">‘Crisis unlikely due to currency depreciation’</span></strong></p> </div> <div> Negative spillover effects from India in the Nepali economy have always been pertaining issue for the Nepali economy. Crisis in value of rupee is the latest in the series. With the sharp depreciation of Nepali rupee (NPR) against the US dollar, caused by the devaluation and volatility in Indian rupee (INR), experts have started serious debate over the pegged exchange rate.</div> <div> </div> <div> However, chief economic advisor at Finance Ministry Dr Chiranjivi Nepal ruled out the possibility of revising pegged exchange rate. 'The weakening of Indian and other Asian currencies is unlikely to bring crisis like 1997, now the economies are in better position compare to that period,' said Nepal. According to Nepal, the depreciation of INR will not continue for long time. Indian government has continuously putting effort to control the steep fall of value of rupee against dollar,” he opined, adding that it can be expected that Indian central bank will take aggressive measures to contain INR in a level. </div> <div> </div> <div> The recent massive depreciation of Indian currency has thrown all these logics out of the window and the situation calls for a serious debate on whether Nepali rupee should maintain the peg system. When asked about the review of existing exchange rate, Nepal rejected such calls. 'Nepali economy will encounter many problems if the existing exchange rate is changed,' he said. 'Reviewing the rate will ease the dollar price but cheaper foreign goods will influx the Nepali market and more money will be needed for the import of goods.' He further added that the government to take proper policies aiming to boost the export to take benefit from the strong dollar. </div> <div> </div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-08-26', 'modified' => '0000-00-00', '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 recent equity sell-down and currency fall in India and Indonesia have raised contagion fears across Asia, similar to the Asian financial crisis in 1997.', 'sortorder' => '1550', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1639', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Gold Demand From India, China Could Hit Record 1,000 Tonnes Each In 2013', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> India’s gold demand could reach a record 1,000 tonnes this year as consumers buy for the festival and wedding season in the second half, the World Gold Council said, which may scuttle the country’s efforts to curb its imports and a trade deficit. Demand from China, which is on course to challenge India’s position as the top gold consumer this year, could also soar to a record 1,000 tonnes in 2013, the WGC said. </div> <div> </div> <div> Strong physical buying from the world’s biggest consumers, who account for nearly 60 per cent of global demand, will help prop up prices of the metal that have shed about 20 per cent this year after 12 consecutive annual gains. Consumer demand has however not been enough so far to compensate for a sharp drop in investor appetite this year, the WGC said in its quarterly report on Thursday. India, which wants to keep imports below 850 tonnes in 2013, has raised import taxes three times in eight months. On Wednesday, it banned overseas purchases of gold bars and coins to rein in dollar spending. </div> <div> </div> <div> But the resilience in Indian demand has offset government efforts to curb imports, which revived in July after dropping in June. According to WGC, India’s consumption of gold rose to 310 tonnes in the second quarter ended June, highest in the last 10 years, despite government curbs to restrict imports to rein in burgeoning current account deficit. Much of the demand was met by stocks that had been built up to healthy levels following the April price drop. Imports more than doubled to 338 tonnes in April-June of this calendar year, it said. Gold consumption stood at 181.1 tonnes in the same quarter last year.</div> <div> </div> <div> “We’ve seen that demand is robust,” Somasundaram PR, WGC’s India managing director, told Reuters. “Once the monsoon is over, rural incomes will rise and that will have its own impact on demand.” </div> <div> </div> <div> “There are also a lot more marriage and festival dates in October and November in the fourth quarter,” said Somasundaram, who estimated full-year demand between 900 tonnes to 1,000 tonnes for both India and China. Hitting the upper end of that range would be record annual consumption for both the countries, he said. The rural population accounts for about 60 per cent of gold demand in India, where the precious metal forms an essential part of a bride’s dowry and is considered auspicious as a gift or offering at religious festivals. India’s demand reached 566 tonnes in the first half of the year, a 50 per cent jump but still lower than China’s 600 tonnes, the industry-funded WGC said in its report.</div> <div> </div> <div> Demand this year has been particularly strong as falling prices have prompted consumers across the world to buy bullion in the form of jewellery, bars and coins. Analysts say India’s moves to curb imports have been unable to stifle demand, thus pushing local prices to around $50 an ounce above London spot prices. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Record Buying in China </strong></div> <div> China’s gold-buying spree in the first six months of the year is likely to continue into the second half amid festivals and uncertainty about the economy, which has seen a slowdown in nine out of the past 10 quarters. </div> <div> </div> <div> “The falling gold price is key. But there are also other macroeconomic conditions that are pushing (the Chinese) to gold,” said Albert Cheng, WGC’s managing director for the Far East region. (Agencies)</div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <h2> <strong>Appetite for Gold in Nepal Rising</strong></h2> </div> <div> The consumption of yellow metal among Nepali consumers has been following an increasing trend. According to Ministry of Finance (MoF), gold import in Nepal reached 5,807 kg which is worth Rs 26 billion in the fiscal year 2012-13.</div> <div> </div> <div> However, the import of gold was slightly down in the last FY compared to the whopping 5,900 kg in the FY 2011-12. Traders blame the quota system imposed by the government for the decline in the last fiscal year though their overall gold consumption outlook remains bullish. “Our initial estimation shows that about 26 tonnes of gold will be consumed by the end of current FY in the domestic market,” said Manik Ratna Shakya, general secretary of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers Association (NEGOSIDA). </div> <div> </div> <div> Shakya informed that the average daily gold demand in the domestic market stands at 30 kg on average. “The average daily demand in the marriage season stands around 35 kg. We’ve witnessed the seasonal demand of gold up to 50 kg in the past,” he mentioned. Shakya blamed the restrictions imposed on gold imports for the low quantity trade. “The quota system has actually promoted illegal trade and it has some immediate impacts,” he told The Corporate weekly, “The government’s revenue from gold import will decline and the remittance inflow will also suffer as migrant workers may buy gold abroad and send it here using informal channels due to the restrictions.”</div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-08-19', 'modified' => '2013-08-19', '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' => 'India’s gold demand could reach a record 1,000 tonnes this year as consumers buy for the festival and wedding season', 'sortorder' => '1500', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1594', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Global Ecommerce To Top $1.2 Tn, Driven By Asia-Pacific Growth', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> Independent market research firm eMarketer released a study claiming that business-to-consumer (B2C) ecommerce will increase by 17 percent globally in 2013, with worldwide sales expected to reach $1.2 trillion. The Asia-Pacific region is driving ecommerce growth more than any other, and is expected to outpace the rest of the world at 23 percent growth over last year. China and Indonesia are leading the region’s growth. “Asia-Pacific already accounts for nearly a third of all B2C ecommerce sales in the world, a share of the total just below North America’s. Next year, Asia-Pacific will lead all regions in share of the worldwide total spent online,” the study asserted.</div> <div> </div> <div> Indonesia is expected to see ecommerce growth up 65 percent compared to 2012. China is up 71 percent over last year. Comparatively, the U.S. expects only a 12 percent rise in ecommerce by the end of the year.</div> <div> </div> <div> While the Asia-Pacific leads in growth, North America maintains its lead in actual sales. North America spent $373 billion in 2012, which is expected to rise to $420 billion in 2013. The Asia-Pacific spent $316 billion in 2012 and eMarketer anticipates $389 billion to be spent this year. However, the Asia-Pacific is set to overcome the reigning top spender by the end of next year. While North America is expected to have $469 billion in sales for 2014, the Asia-Pacific will take the lead at $502 billion. The gap will widen even further by 2016 – with the Asia-Pacific expected to spend $708 billion versus North America’s $580 billion.</div> <div> </div> <div> The study also indicated that more web users in the Asia-Pacific are embracing online shopping. “Ecommerce sales growth will be supported by an estimated 1.03 billion digital buyers around the world this year, 44.4% of whom will be in Asia-Pacific. China alone will boast 269.4 million digital buyers this year—a figure that includes internet users ages 14 and older who make at least one purchase via any digital channel during the calendar year. The US remains the country with the second-largest number of digital buyers, at 155.7 million this year,” the study claimed. The study concludes that many web users in the Asia-Pacific who previously weren’t buying online will decrease this year. eMarketer expects penetration to increase in China, from 40 percent last year to a projected 71 percent of internet users by 2017. Current digital buyer penetration in the U.S. is just slightly above that projection currently at 72 percent.</div> <div> </div> <div> “There is still significant room for growth, though, in developing markets where many internet users are still not buying online. Western Europe and North America are the only regions in the world where a majority of the online population is also a digital buyer,” said the study. As countries like China increase its wealth, it becomes inevitable that more of its citizens will be connected to the web. It is logical to assume that many of those Internet users will discover the advantages (and disadvantages) of buying online.</div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <div> <strong><span style="font-size:14px;">E-markets in Nepal on the Rise</span></strong></div> <div> </div> <div> E-commerce market in Nepal emerged about a decade ago. Kick-started through gift-sending and bill payment services through online portals, the market went on to expand due to increasing purchasing power among Nepali consumers. Online shopping revenues have witnessed fast paced growth as the number of internet users in Nepal continues to rise. The domestic e-commerce market has now expanded into various segments such as online shopping, e-banking, mobile commerce, electronic cash transfers and e-ticketing. Time and money saving hassle-free services are seen to be the main factors in attracting internet users to online markets. </div> <div> </div> <div> Annual online transactions in Nepal are estimated to be around Rs 10 billion, although an official figure is not available. Many online shopping websites have emerged since the inception of e-commerce in Nepal. Muncha.com, Thamel.com, Harilo.com, Yeskantipur.com, Metrotarkari.com, Foodmandu.com, Bhatbhatenionline.com and Nepbay.com are some of the popular websites among Nepali online shoppers. Some of these sell their own products whereas others deliver from global sites such as eBay and Amazon. Nepali shoppers have the option to buy products ranging from groceries and fresh vegetables to cars from online portals. </div> <div> </div> <div> However, lack of a clear policy is hindering the growth of online markets here. “The government has not helped the domestic e-commerce market and neither obstructed it,” says Balkrishna Joshi, the CEO of Thamel.com. According to Joshi, the e-commerce market in Nepal is facing problems in the bill payment system. “Establishing a central payment gateway will solve this problem, the central bank and concerned authorities should look into this,” Joshi said. “Similarly, creating a safer online environment for customers will also attract more investments in e-markets here,” he added.</div> <div> </div> </div> <div> </div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-08-12', 'modified' => '2013-08-12', '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' => 'Independent market research firm eMarketer released a study claiming that business-to-consumer (B2C) ecommerce will increase by 17 percent globally in 2013, with worldwide sales expected to reach $1.2 trillion.', 'sortorder' => '1455', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1547', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Global Economy Gains Steam', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> In a apparent sign that global economic recovery is gaining momentum, the manufacturing activities in United States and Europe rose at a faster pace in July. According to various surveys published last week, US manufacturing grew in July at its fastest pace in two years while European factories snapped a two-year run of declining output, suggesting a prolonged euro zone recession may be near its end. Also the output at British factories also surged last month, while an index of China’s massive manufacturing sector suggested the slowdown in the world’s No. 2 economy may be stabilizing. JPMorgan’s Global Manufacturing PMI edged up to 50.8 in July from 50.6 in June, holding above the 50 mark that divides growth from contraction. “Global manufacturing output continues to expand at a modest pace, consistent with a global economy that is held back from considerable fiscal drags in the first half of the year,” said Joe Lupton, senior economist at JPMorgan. </div> <div> </div> <div> A sharp rise in new orders in US helped propel the Institute for Supply Management’s index of national factory activity to a two-year high of 55.4 in July, beating economists’ expectations of 52.0 and June’s reading of 50.9. A separate index from financial data firm Markit rose to 53.7, a four-month high, from 51.9 in June. “It’s obviously good news. Orders have bounced back. If this is happening in the context of a global improvement, that’s a good thing,” said Pierre Ellis, senior global economist at Decision Economics Inc in New York. </div> <div> </div> <div> Meanwhile, Markit’s Eurozone manufacturing PMI showed marginal growth among factories for the first time in two years, with the index at 50.3, up from 48.8 in June. Output rose in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland, France and Austria. </div> <div> </div> <div> The company’s flash composite PMI, based on surveys of thousands of companies across the region, jumped to an 18-month high of 50.4, from 48.7. Readings above 50 signify growth. In China, the official factory PMI was a bit stronger than expected last month, although growth remained modest. The biggest surprise came from the UK, where Markit’s UK manufacturing PMI jumped to 54.6, trumping even the most optimistic forecast in a Reuters poll of economists and triggering a rise in sterling. </div> <div> </div> <div> Overall, the data allayed fears that the global economy’s mid-year lull would deepen. “We’re seeing different trends in different parts of the world, which are to a large extent offsetting each other,” said Andrew Kenningham, senior global economist at Capital Economics in London. </div> <div> <em>(Agencies)</em></div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <div> <strong>‘Nepal likely to benefit from global economic recovery’</strong></div> <div> </div> <div> Nepal has thus far been relatively aloof from the global financial crisis and economic meltdown in the West. The Nepali economy is insulated against such external shocks as risks from inflow of toxic assets remains zero. This is mainly due to the country's financial market not integrated with international market. However, there are signs of strain contributed by indirect impact through trade (reduction of export earnings, and especially contraction of merchandise exports) and spillover effects from India. The steady decline in foreign aid funding is also seen as another impact of the global meltdown. </div> <div> </div> <div> Nepal also saw a marginal rise in tourist arrivals caused by declining disposable income in advanced economies. As India and China are more prone to global risks, negative spillovers from their weakening economies is exerting pressure on Nepal. The sharp depreciation of the Nepali currency (which maintains an exchange rate peg with the Indian Rupee) in recent days is an example of such spillovers. Subdued demand in recession-marred Europe, the major export market of India, is said to be the main cause of the Indian Rupee’s devaluation. </div> <div> </div> <div> But with the global economic recovery gathering pace, experts are hoping that external headwinds faced by the Nepali economy are likely to fade away in the coming days. "Economic revival in the United States and Europe is positive for South Asia, it will eventually create demand in the region," says Dr Chiranjibi Nepal, Ecomomic Advisor to the Nepali Ministry of Finance. According to him, the rise in demand for manufactured goods along with other materials will boost the manufacturing sector, thus generating employment. "Nepal's major exports to Europe and US, such as garments, carpets and handicrafts can benefit from the recovery," he adds. Dr Nepal also mentioned the prospect for rise in tourist arrivals from developed nations as disposable income in western nations is bound to increase following the economic recovery.</div> <div> </div> </div> <p> </p>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-08-05', 'modified' => '2013-08-05', '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 a apparent sign that global economic recovery is gaining momentum, the manufacturing activities in United States and Europe rose at a faster pace in July.', 'sortorder' => '1408', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1503', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'India To Be World’s 3rd Largest Auto Market By 2016', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> India will become the third largest automotive market in the world by 2016 ahead of Japan, Germany and Brazil, riding on its domestic automotive sales, according to IHS Automotive, a global market information provider. Although the economic growth vulnerability and lower sentiment resulted in market slowdown in 2012 and 2013, India is expected to regain strong growth trend from 2014 onwards, said the Colorado-based firm. </div> <div> </div> <div> “We expect that by 2016, vehicle sales would surpass Brazil, Germany and Japan making India the third largest market,” IHS Senior Principal Economist Charles Chesbrough said here. </div> <div> </div> <div> In 2012, China, the US and Japan were the top three global automotive markets and India was ranked six after Brazil and Germany in the fourth and fifth positions respectively. Sounding bullish on the Indian market in the mid to long term, IHS said: “Investment reform policy will induce better environment for domestic and foreign enterprises. India light vehicle production (is) expected to reach 7 million by 2020.” </div> <div> </div> <div> The implications for auto demand are huge in India and the country has been moving along the penetration path, it said. “With demand for vehicles declining in most mature markets in the face of the global recession, high fuel costs and urban driving restrictions, the industry is turning its attention more strongly towards the expanding middle classes in the new powerhouse of China, India, Brazil, Russia and other growing nations,” Chesbrough said. </div> <div> </div> <div> The growth of automobile sales will not be restricted only to mass market vehicles, IHS said. “The favorable Indian market conditions are acting as a catalyst for luxury and premium carmakers, which are receiving impetus from new launches. The top-end carmakers have posted double-digit growth for the quarter ended June 30, 2013,” IHS Director James Chao said. </div> <div> </div> <div> According to IHS, in terms of production volume, India would move to fourth position in 2020 ahead of Germany and Brazil from its currently sixth spot. IHS said as India develops, its citizens acquire wealth, demand for automobiles will increase as the need of personal transportation rises. “It may take a little longer in India because they do not have the infrastructure...but we know about the personal behaviour as people gain wealth, they want freedom, ability to go where they want to go and when they want to go,” Chesbrough said. <em>(The Economic Times)</em></div> <div> </div> <table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%"> <tbody> <tr> <td bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <h1> More Vehicles, Less Roads </h1> <div> Nepali auto market has expanded at rapid pace in the recent years. The construction of roads and other related infrastructures have contributed to the rise of vehicles sales. According to Economic Survey published by Nepal government last week, on an average, 61 vehicles are sharing one kilometer of road around the country. The total number of registered vehicles has reached 1.5 million by the end of fiscal year 2069/70. The survey reports that vehicle import has increased by 40 per cent annually. More than 142,000 vehicles were sold in FY 2069/70 compared as to 101,000 in previous FY. Increase in remittance, raised income of middle class families and road expansion activities are seen as the key driving factors for increased vehicle sales. </div> <div> </div> <div> However, the low availability of roads is seen as major problematic factor. Particularly, with the increase of vehicle sales, Kathmandu valley and other major cities are facing huge traffic congestions on a daily basis. The total length of road around the country reached 24,583 kms by the end of last FY which is very less compared to the number of registered vehicles. The sluggishness in road construction and expansion is also seen as another factor hindering the vehicle sales. The official data has showed that 518 km road was constructed in eight months of last FY which is about 58 per cent less compared to FY 2068/69. According to Tulsi Prasad Sitaula, Secretary at Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, the roads are constructed only with government investments, which has not brought the expected speed of infrastructure development. ‘Private sector is pouring its investment only in importing vehicles but the roads constructions are not carried out to equalize the investment,’ he said.</div> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p> </p>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-07-29', 'modified' => '2013-07-29', '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' => 'India will become the third largest automotive market in the world by 2016 ahead of Japan, Germany and Brazil', 'sortorder' => '1364', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1455', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'India Relaxes FDI Norms To Boost Slowing Growth', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> India has relaxed foreign direct investment (FDI) rules across several industries, including telecoms, single brand retail and oil and gas, in a bid to lure capital inflows, prop up a sliding currency and accelerate growth. India’s weakest economic growth in a decade and a record high current account deficit have made the rupee the worst-performing emerging Asian currency so far this year. The changes will have to be approved by India’s cabinet before they become law, although that is seen as a formality. Here are the sectors in which FDI caps will be revised: </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Telecoms </strong></div> <div> The FDI cap on the telecoms sector was raised to 100 percent from 74 percent. While a foreign company can buy up to a 49 percent stake in an Indian phone carrier without seeking approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board(FIPB), any investment beyond that will need the country’s foreign investment regulator’s nod. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Petroleum and Natural Gas </strong></div> <div> The FDI cap for the sector was left unchanged at 49 percent, but foreign investment up to 49 percent will no longer require FIPB approval. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Insurance </strong></div> <div> Foreign investment up to 49 percent in insurers will not require the government’s approval. The foreign investment limit in the sector is currently capped at 26 percent. A bill to raise the cap to 49 percent is stuck in parliament. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Defence Production </strong></div> <div> There was effectively no change in the FDI cap of 26 percent in the defence sector, although trade minister Anand Sharma said a cabinet panel would consider any FDI proposal for investment above 26 percent in state-of-the-art technology. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Retail </strong></div> <div> FDI up to 49 percent in the single-brand retail sector will no longer require the FIPB’s approval. The government also said it will issue clarifications soon on its FDI policy for supermarkets. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Commodity, Power and Stock Exchanges </strong></div> <div> Foreign investment of up to 49 percent will not require the government’s approval. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Asset Reconstruction Companies </strong></div> <div> India will allow FDI up to 49 percent with no government approval, but foreign investors will need FIPB approval to buy a bigger stake in an Indian asset reconstruction company. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Courier Services </strong></div> <div> Foreign investors can now invest up to 100 percent in the courier services sector and will not need government approval. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Credit Information Companies </strong></div> <div> India will allow up to 74 percent FDI in credit information companies, with no need to seek government approval for investments up to that level. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Civil Aviation and Media </strong></div> <div> The government left FDI caps in civil aviation and media unchanged at 49 percent and 26 percent respectively. </div> <div> <em>(Agency)</em></div> <div> </div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-07-22', 'modified' => '0000-00-00', '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' => 'India has relaxed foreign direct investment (FDI) rules across several industries, including telecoms, single brand retail and oil and gas, in a bid to lure capital inflows, prop up a sliding currency and accelerate growth. India’s weakest economic growth in a decade and a record high current account deficit have made the rupee the worst-performing emerging Asian currency so far this year.', 'sortorder' => '1316', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1408', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'World Unprepared For Urban Boom', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> In a world of more than nine billion people by 2050, most of the 6.5 billion urban dwellers will be living in developing countries, says the World Economic and Social Survey 2013, emphasising that new strategies are needed to address the impacts of rapid urbanisation around the world, including increasing demands for energy, water, sanitation, public services, education and health. </div> <div> </div> <div> According to the survey published by the UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs last week, more than 6.25 billion people will be living in cities by 2050. Within the time period of 2000-2050, developing regions could add 3.2 billion new urbanites, a figure larger than the entire world’s population in 1950. The survey found that the vision of sustainable development — promoting economic and social wellbeing while protecting the environment — has not been achieved, despite encouraging progress. Rising inequality and shortfalls in development partnership, rapid population growth, climate change and environmental degradation have hampered efforts. </div> <div> </div> <div> Damage to the global environment is reaching critical levels and threatens to lead to irreversible changes in global ecosystems, the survey said. The overarching environmental damage is anthropogenic, with humans releasing increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which is leading to global warming. If no policy framework is established to address this issue, the survey states, the number of people living in slums lacking access to basic infrastructure and services such as water, sanitation, electricity, health care and education might triple from 1 billion at present to 3 billion by 2050. </div> <div> </div> <div> The survey states that sustainable development of urban areas requires integration, coordination, and investments to tackle issues of land-use, food security, job creation, building new roads, biodiversity conservation, water conservation, renewable energy sourcing, waste and recycling management, and the provision of education, health care and housing. The survey calls for ambitious, action-oriented sustainable development strategies to address the different levels of urban development that are adaptable to different contexts. </div> <div> </div> <div> Estimates indicate that food production will have to increase 70 percent globally to feed an additional 2.3 billion people by 2050. The survey emphasises that economic and financial incentives to create and adopt new technologies will require policy reforms including taxes and subsidies, as well as regulatory reforms. (Agency)</div> <table border="0" cellpadding="20" width="99%"> <tbody> <tr> <td bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <div> <span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>‘Nepal’s push for urbanization is poorly managed’</strong></span></div> <div> </div> <div> Nepal, once viewed as least urbanised country in South Asia, is witnessing a rapid pace of urbanisation. Population increase and migration are considered as significant factors in the growth of cities across the country. Rise in infrastructure development and increased economic opportunities too are fuelling the push for urbanisation. According to government data , Nepal’s urban population grew at 4.45 percent in 2012 compared to the previous year. Some 20 percent of Nepal’s population is currently living in urban areas. The contribution of urban areas to the gross domestic product (GDP) is assumed to be 65 percent. Urban areas in Nepal spread across 3,276 km square of the total area. A report published by The World Bank last year marked Nepal as the fastest urbanising nation in South Asia. </div> <div> </div> <div> However, poorly managed urbanisation in Nepal is ringing alarm bells as many problems have emerged. Particularly, the growth of cities is associated with rise in unemployment, inadequate health service, poor sanitation, urban slums, environmental degradation and crime. The World Bank last year warned that unless the government seriously manages urbanisation better, the country could fail to attain economic efficiency from the process. In March 2013, the bank also published another report entitled ‘Urban Growth and Spatial Transition: An Initial Assessment’ which warns about the consequences of unmanaged urbanisation in Nepal. ‘Nepal’s urban centres, particularly the Kathmandu Valley, are already facing serious challenges due to multiple factors such as inadequate infrastructure, haphazard planning and poor business environment,’ states the report. The report strongly advocates for the government to prioritise on investment in infrastructure, connect cities internally and externally and make growth inclusive in order to foster the growth and sustainability of urban area</div> <div> </div> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p> </p>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-07-15', 'modified' => '2013-09-04', '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 a world of more than nine billion people by 2050, most of the 6.5 billion urban dwellers will be living in developing countries, says the World Economic and Social Survey 2013', 'sortorder' => '1270', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = falsesimplexml_load_file - [internal], line ?? include - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 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
Notice (8): Undefined variable: file [APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 133]Code Context// $file = 'http://aabhiyan:QUVLg8Wzs2F7G9N7@nepalstock.com.np/api/subindexdata.xml';if(!$xml = simplexml_load_file($file)){$viewFile = '/var/www/html/newbusinessage.com/app/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'articles' => array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ) ), 'current_user' => null, 'logged_in' => false ) $articles = array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '2146', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => '‘South Asian Diaspora Investment Bank Could Supplement SAARC Efforts’', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> An investment bank to manage the $1.3-trillion wealth of the South Asian diaspora can help supplement the efforts of SAARC, says an expert. It is felt that the importance of the grouping has been eroded over the years due to political differences across the region, he said.</div> <div> </div> <div> This is part of the ‘trilateralism idea’ mooted by former Bangladesh Foreign Minister Iftekhar Chowdhury at the second South Asian Diaspora Convention (SADC) in Singapore today. Chowdhury said the bank could play a role in guiding South Asian diaspora investment, especially in the infrastructure sector, in the region which is a market of 1.8 billion people. Chowdhury told that the 38-million strong South Asian diaspora has an estimated wealth of $1.3 trillion and was looking at new investment opportunities.</div> <div> </div> <div> The diaspora comprising 20 million Indians, 7 million Bangladeshis, 8 million Pakistanis and 3 million Sri Lankans, is estimated to save about $350 billion from their annual estimated earnings of $1 trillion. Yesterday during his address at the SADC, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram called on the Indian diaspora to invest in India and be part of the country’s prosperity in his speech at the SADC yesterday. Chowdhury said it is the right time to channel that investment to the South Asian region, given the many politically-impeded challenges being faced by these investors in placing their money in this vast region.</div> <div> </div> <div> He is currently a principal fellow at the Institute of South Asia Studies (ISAS), the organiser of the two-day SADC which ended today. The proposed South Asian Diaspora Investment Bank could be located in one of the international financial centres — London, New York or Singapore. Chowdhury said the bank’s role would bring about a change in the politically-weakened SAARC and could give a big impetus to the regional organisation which has made little progress since its inception.</div> <div> <em>(The Hindu Business Line)</em></div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-11-25', 'modified' => '2013-12-03', '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' => 'An investment bank to manage the $1.3-trillion wealth of the South Asian diaspora can help supplement the efforts of SAARC, says an expert. It is felt that the importance of the grouping has been eroded over the years due to political differences across the region, he said.', 'sortorder' => '1993', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '2095', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Nepal Gains In Global Prosperity Ranking', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>--By TC Correspondent</strong></div> <div> </div> <div> D<span style="font-size: 12px;">espite ongoing political uncertainty, Nepal has achieved higher prosperity. According to the Legatum Prosperity Index 2013, Nepal climbed 6 places up this year to reach 102nd position among 142 countries across the world. Nepal was ranked 108th position last year. The index published by the Legatum Institute, a UAE-based investment organisation and think-tank shows Nepal’s progress mainly in the area of personal freedom. Nepal scored 77 points in the personal freedom sub-index which includes sections such as civil liberties and tolerance among ethnic groups. The sub-index highlights more freedom of choice for ordinary Nepalis and ethnic harmony in the country. The Legatum Prosperity Index has been benchmarking 142 countries since 2007 in 8 distinct sub-indices: economy, education, entrepreneurship and opportunity, governance, health, personal freedom, safety and security and social capital. </span></div> <div> </div> <div> Nepal’s economic performance was not seen satisfactory as the country declined 5 places to 92nd position in economy sub-index, mainly because of decline in its gross domestic savings. Nepal also moved down in the safety and security sub-index, by 17 places to 101st due to increase in state violence and the number of refugees. Similarly, Nepal also did not fare well in entrepreneurship and opportunity as the country was placed at 111th position in the sub-index. </div> <div> </div> <div> Nepal ranked 100th in governance, 104th in education, 97th in health and 95th in social capital sub-indices. However, Nepal ranked above India, Bangladesh and Pakistan in the overall index. Bangladesh ranked below Nepal at 103rd position whereas India was placed at 106th in the index. Bangladesh ranks above India in the index for the first time in 2013. Although Bangladesh’s rank has remained constant since last year, India has declined five places in the same period. India has fallen down the Prosperity Index rankings consistently over the last five years. Pakistan was the lowest ranking country in the entire Asia-Pacific region with 132nd position whereas China stood at 51st in the index. </div> <div> </div> <div> Norway ranks first in overall Prosperity, as it has since 2009, confirming its place as the most prosperous country in the world for the fifth consecutive year. The country also ranks first in the economy and social capital sub-index in 2013. Switzerland, Canada, Sweden and New Zealand secured 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th position respectively. Meanwhile, US ranked 11th in the index. US moved down four places to 24th in the Economy sub-index. Countries that have overtaken the US in the economy sub-index include New Zealand (17th) and South Korea (19th), among others. The UK has moved down three places to 16th in overall Prosperity, as a result of decreases in the rankings for six out of eight sub-indices since last year. The UK has been leapfrogged by Austria (15th), Germany (14th), and Iceland (13th).</div> </div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-11-11', 'modified' => '2013-11-25', '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' => 'Despite ongoing political uncertainty, Nepal has achieved higher prosperity. According to the Legatum Prosperity Index 2013, Nepal climbed 6 places up this year to reach 102nd position among 142 countries across the world. Nepal was ranked 108th position last year. The index published by the Legatum Institute, a UAE-based investment organisation and think-tank shows Nepal’s progress mainly in the area of personal freedom.', 'sortorder' => '1990', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '2022', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Nepal’s Gender Gap Narrows', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> <strong>--By Sanjeev Sharma</strong></div> <div> </div> <div> The gender gap in Nepal narrowed in 2013 as more women came to join labour force and participatory policies helped female population grasp various opportunities, a latest global report shows. According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2013, published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on 25th October, Friday, Nepal ranked 121st with a total score of 0.605. Nepal climbed 2 spots up from last year’s 123rd position. In 2011 and 2010 Nepal was ranked at 126th and 115th position respectively. Neighbouring China and India were ranked 69 and 101 respectively. In the South Asia region, Sri Lanka ranked 55th, Bangladesh 75th, Bhutan 93rd, Maldives 97th and Pakistan came at 135th. </div> <div> </div> <div> The index assesses 136 countries, representing more than 93% of the world’s population, on how well resources and opportunities are divided among male and female populations. The report measures the size of the gender inequality gap in four areas: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, political empowerment and health and survival. Nepal ranked 116th place in economic participation and opportunity sub-index. Similarly, Nepal’s female educational attainment was ranked at 130th place and political empowerment was ranked at 41st place. In female health and survival sub-index, Nepal was placed at 112th position. </div> <div> </div> <div> Nepal, placed in the low income group countries (US$1,035 or less) in the report, particularly fared well in labour force participation indicator with a rank of 12th position. Nepal’s female-to-male ratio was 0.94 in the sub-index. Neighbouring China and India were ranked lower in the indicator with 40th and 124th position respectively. Whereas, the world’s largest economy United States stood at 40th position in terms of labour force participation. Similarly, Nepal also did well in terms of female political participation with a rank of 22nd in women in parliament indicator. Germany ranked lower than Nepal in the indicator with 24th position. China along with Bangladesh, Pakistan and India came at 51st, 68th, 69th and 106th places respectively. </div> <div> </div> <div> Nepal however scored lower in wage equality indicator with a rank of 97th position. China and India were ranked at 60th and 86th place respectively in the indicator. Nepal also pared down in legislators, senior officers and managers indicator with 96th position. However, Nepal performed better than South Korea and Japan who were ranked 105th and 106th respectively. Likewise, Nepal’s progress in female literacy was seen sluggish as the country ranked 125th place in the literacy rate indicator. Nepal also didn’t achieve any significant gain in female population’s health life as it ranked 119th out of 136 countries in the health life expectancy sub-indicator. </div> <div> </div> <div> WEF has been publishing the report since 2006. The Philippines ranked highest in Asia-Pacific region (5th place) in the eighth edition of the report primarily due to success in health, education and economic participation. According to the report, Iceland remained at the 1st position for the 5th consecutive year followed by Finland, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, New Zealand, Denmark, Switzerland and Nicaragua. Meanwhile, United States lowered to 23rd from last year’s 22nd in the index and Japan dropping to 105th from 101st of 2012. Yemen was the lowest ranking country in the index (136th).</div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-10-28', 'modified' => '2013-10-28', '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 gender gap in Nepal narrowed in 2013 as more women came to join labour force and participatory policies helped female population grasp various opportunities, a latest global report shows. According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2013, published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on 25th October, Friday, Nepal ranked 121st with a total score of 0.605. Nepal climbed 2 spots up from last year’s 123rd position.', 'sortorder' => '1892', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1977', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Fama, Shiller, Hansen Win Nobel Prize For Asset-Price Work', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> </div> <div> The widespread criticism of economists’ failure to predict the banking crash was addressed on Monday, 14th October by the Nobel committee when it awarded the much coveted prize for economics to three academics who try to show how financial markets work.</div> <div> </div> <div> The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the prize to Eugene Fama and Lars Peter Hansen of the ultra-conservative Chicago school alongside Robert Shiller, the liberal Yale economist famous for warning of the US sub-prime housing bubble in 2005. Fama and Hansen, two followers of Milton Friedman’s free-market theories, said they were surprised to win the annual prize which they agreed would turn their lives upside down. The academy said it was honouring the three prizewinners for their work examining the way markets work. They will share the prize of Swedish Kroner 8m (£781,782) equally. The academy said the three economists were at the top of their field “for their empirical analysis of asset prices that greatly improved our understanding of how financial markets work, when they seem to work well and when they seem to work otherwise”.</div> <div> </div> <div> Fama, 74, is notorious in leftwing circles for denying financial bubbles exist and asserting recessions are a largely unexplainable fixture of capitalism that should be allowed to take their course. His research has examined how external factors such as insider trading and government regulation can distort the workings of financial markets. In the years before the crash he joined other disciples of Friedman, including former Federal Reserve boss Alan Greenspan, in defending the efficient-markets hypothesis that underpinned the deregulation of the banking system.</div> <div> </div> <div> In the aftermath of the banking crash, Fama blamed the US government, arguing its policy of loosening laws restricting access to credit was at the heart of the crisis. He said the banking industry acted rationally in response to distorting incentives put in place by an interfering government. The American mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, were encouraged to lower the bar to lending, fuelling the sub-prime boom.</div> <div> </div> <div> “The financial markets were a casualty of the recession, not a cause of it,” he told the New Yorker in 2010. Fama has recently specialised in producing models that show the way stock markets and other asset markets work.</div> <div> </div> <div> Hansen, 60, is best known for his work modelling how economic actors cope with risk and changing environments. Fama and Hansen join 87 other Nobel Prize winners affiliated with Chicago University. Their success means eight Nobel winners will be working at the faculty, including six in economics.</div> <div> </div> <div> Shiller, 67, has risen to prominence following a career that has seen him adapt free-market theories to take on board concepts of exuberance and irrationality. Unlike Fama, who denies it is possible to measure whether assets are overpriced, Shiller has documented how markets can fall victim to bubbles that become unsustainable.</div> <div> </div> <div> In a video interview with the Guardian last year he said finance was not about making money but making money work for the good of communities. His book Irrational Exuberance, published in 2000, debunked the idea that markets always price assets efficiently, without triggering bubbles.</div> <div> </div> <div> The academy said: “While it is hard to predict whether stock or bond prices will go up or down in the short term, it is possible to foresee movements over periods of three years or longer. These findings, which might seem surprising and contradictory, were made and analysed by this year’s laureates.”</div> <div> </div> <div> Americans have dominated the economics awards in recent years; the last time there were no US economists among the winners was in 1999. The Nobel committees have now announced all six of the annual awards for 2013</div> <div> </div> <div> <table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%"> <tbody> <tr> <td bgcolor="#E5E4E2"> <div> <span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Lars Peter Hansen</strong></span></div> <div> In another triumph for Chicago University, Hansen, 60, has been rewarded for his work developing a statistical method to test theories of asset pricing.</div> <div> </div> <div> In 1982 Hansen presented a statistical theory – called the Generalized Method of Moments – then used it to test whether historical share prices were consistent with the best known asset-pricing model at the time. He found the methods being used must be rejected because they failed to explain share movements. As a result, Hansen’s work helped confirm Shiller’s preliminary findings on bubbles and inspired new research.</div> <div> </div> <div> <span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Eugene Fama</strong></span></div> <div> Chicago University states that Fama, 74, “is widely recognized as the father of modern finance”, although that boast is clearly double-edged given the markets’ recent performance.</div> <div> </div> <div> His views are considered to be the direct opposite of Shiller’s, as they are based on the “efficient markets hypothesis”. This is the idea that markets incorporate all known information about an asset’s value, making it pointless trying to predict which way they will move.</div> <div> </div> <div> <span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Robert Shiller</strong></span></div> <div> Shiller, 67, is one of the few economists who can claim to have foreseen both the bursting of the dotcom bubble and the US housing crash.</div> <div> </div> <div> His prescient book Irrational Exuberance was first published in 2000, and he followed it up with a second edition in 2005, which took the then unfashionable view that US housing looked dangerously overvalued.</div> <div> </div> <div> He has given his name – along with colleague Karl Case – to the most closely watched housing market indicator in the US, the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index. His most recent book, Finance and the Good Society, is about the benefits of financial innovation.</div> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <p> </p>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-10-21', 'modified' => '2013-10-28', '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 widespread criticism of economists’ failure to predict the banking crash was addressed on Monday, 14th October by the Nobel committee when it awarded the much coveted prize for economics to three academics who try to show how financial markets work.', 'sortorder' => '1879', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1958', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Economists Fear Debt Ceiling Fight May Bring Recession', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> Forget the current government shutdown. Economists say it’s the upcoming debt ceiling impasse that could plunge the United States into a recession. About half of the 22 economists surveyed by CNN Money say a recession will be unavoidable if Congress fails to raise the nation’s debt ceiling before the Treasury runs out of cash later this month.</div> <div> </div> <div> A couple more say a recession is possible depending on how far past the deadline Congress goes before acting. And even those who aren’t predicting recession say not raising the debt ceiling would be a very bad idea.</div> <div> </div> <div> “Financial markets are already being impacted in the short-run as a result of heightened uncertainty,” said Sean Snaith, director of the Institute for Economic Competitiveness at the University of Central Florida. But he said there would be greater long-term damage due to the spending cuts that would occur.</div> <div> </div> <div> “The fiscal shock treatment of having to eliminate the deficit in one fell swoop would reduce GDP by more than 5% and cause a severe recession,” he said.</div> <div> </div> <div> The Treasury Department has also been sounding the warning bells about the debt ceiling. In a report Thursday, Treasury said failure to raise the limit would have a “catastrophic effect” on the economy, sparking an even deeper recession than the 2008 downturn that accompanied the meltdown in financial markets.</div> <div> </div> <div> The economists agree the threat posed by not raising the debt ceiling is significantly greater than that posed by the federal government shutdown that started Tuesday. None predicted a recession being caused by the shutdown alone.</div> <div> </div> <div> “A short to medium duration partial shutdown is not enough to cause recession,” said Sam Bullard, economist with Wells Fargo Securities.</div> <div> </div> <div> But if the debt ceiling isn’t raised, the economists have many different worries, including disruptions in financial markets, followed closely by a loss of confidence in the dollar and Treasuries and very deep cuts in government spending.</div> <div> </div> <div> “No one can know for sure exactly what would happen in the event of a default, but we can all be sure that it would be bad,” said Russell Price of Ameriprise Financial.</div> <div> </div> <div> Even those economists who aren’t predicting a recession are worried about the risks posed by the debt ceiling.</div> <div> </div> <div> “Merely missing the debt ceiling deadline will not trigger a recession, but the risks will rise rapidly with each week after the deadline passes,” said Patrick O’Keefe, director of economic research at accounting firm Cohn Reznick.</div> <div> </div> <div> Some of the economists believe if Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling then the administration will act unilaterally. That might cause a constitutional crisis but they believe it would avoid a financial crisis.</div> <div> </div> <div> “My expectation in this scenario is that the President finds a sufficiently plausible constitutional rationale to ignore the debt ceiling and keep on meeting all US Federal obligations on time with no exceptions,” said Bill Cheney, chief economist with Manulife Asset Management.</div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <p> <strong style="font-size: 14px;">US Debt Crisis Threatens World Economy: IMF</strong></p> </div> <div> Terming the current debt crisis in America as “mission-critical”, the International Monetary Fund has warned the US that its impending debt crisis could damage not only its domestic economy, but the entire global economy. “The ongoing political uncertainty over the budget and the debt ceiling does not help. The Government shutdown is bad enough, but failure to raise the debt ceiling would be far worse, and could very seriously damage not only the US economy, but the entire global economy,” the IMF Managing Director, Christine Lagarde, said on Thursday. “So it is “mission-critical” that this be resolved as soon as possible,” Lagarde said in her address to the George Washington University. The United States, she said, needs to “slow down and hurry up.” By that she meant less fiscal adjustment today and more tomorrow, she added.“That means replacing the sequester with more back-loaded measures that do not hurt the recovery. At the same time, the US needs to do more to make debt sustainable down the road — by containing the growth of entitlement spending and raising revenues,” Lagarde said.</div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-10-08', 'modified' => '2013-10-21', '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' => 'Forget the current government shutdown. Economists say it’s the upcoming debt ceiling impasse that could plunge the United States into a recession. About half of the 22 economists surveyed by CNN Money say a recession will be unavoidable if Congress fails to raise the nation’s debt ceiling before the Treasury runs out of cash later this month.', 'sortorder' => '1824', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1875', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Economic Freedom: Hong Kong, Singapore On Top, US Falls In Rankings', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> The United States has fallen 15 places since 2000 in the global ranking of economic freedom, while Hong Kong and Singapore maintained their top spots. The ‘Economic Freedom of the World’ report 2013, compiled by Canada’s Fraser Institute, ranks Hong Kong first with an overall Economic Freedom Rating of 8.97, followed by Singapore (8.73). In the area of credit market regulations, both the East Asian City States scored 10 out of 10. The United States is positioned as the world’s 17th freest economy behind nations such as New Zealand, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, Mauritius, Finland, Bahrain, Canada, and Australia, who are in the top ten. Throughout most of the period from 1980 to 2000, the United States was ranked as the world’s third-freest economy, behind Hong Kong and Singapore. </div> <div> </div> <div> The U.S. ratings and rankings have fallen in all five areas of the EFW index. The worst reduction was in the area of Legal System and Property Rights, where the rating had slid to 6.93, placing the United States 38th worldwide, tied with Venezuela. The report blames the slippage of the United States, once considered a bastion of economic freedom, on ‘overspending, weakening rule of law, and regulatory overkill on the part of the U.S. government.’ Major countries that ranked below the United States include Germany, Japan, South Korea, France, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Brazil, and India. China, despite being a major economic power, is ranked as low as 123rd in a list of 152 countries. Eight of the ten lowest-rated countries are located in Africa, with Myanmar and Venezuela ending up in last place.</div> <div> </div> <div> The index published in the report, which was compiled using data and surveys from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and World Economic Forum, measures the degree to which the policies and institutions of countries are supportive of economic freedom. The cornerstones of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom to compete, and security of privately owned property. The degree of economic freedom to rank countries was measured using five criteria: size of government, legal system and property rights, sound money, freedom to trade internationally, and regulation.</div> <div> </div> <div> The average chain-linked economic freedom rating for the countries has increased from 5.34 in 1980 to 6.87 in 2011. Nations that are economically free out-perform non-free nations in indicators of well-being. Nations in the top quartile of economic freedom had an average per-capita GDP of $36,446 in 2011, compared to $4,382 for nations in the bottom quartile in the same period. Life expectancy is 79.2 years in nations in the top quartile compared to 60.2 years in those in the bottom quartile. Political and civil liberties are considerably higher in economically free nations than in less free nations.</div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <div> </div> <div> <strong><span style="font-size:16px;">Nepal Falls among Least Economically Free Countries</span></strong></div> <div> </div> <div> Meanwhile, Nepal remained among the least economically free countries in the report for this year. The report states that the degradations in terms of the legal structures and security of property rights and size of the government weighed down on the economic freedom of the country. Nepal ranked 125th out of 152 countries in the report. According to the report, Nepal scored 6.19 out of 10. This marked the further degradation of economic freedom in Nepal. Last year, the country was placed in 110th position out of 144 nations and scored 6.33 points in the index. </div> <div> </div> <div> The ‘Economic Freedom of the World Report 2013’ further emphasized the Nepal government size to be reduced. Regarding the area of ‘size of government’ in the index, Nepal scored 7.6 in 2013 (31st position in the world) against 8.34 of the previous year. The area of ‘freedom to trade internationally’ also declined to 6.4 (118th in the world) which scored 6.74 in 2012.</div> <div> </div> <div> However, the report also showed that Nepal made little progress regarding areas of ‘legal structures and ensuring property rights to its citizens’ with a score of 4.2 (126th in the world) this year against 3.85 of 2012. Similarly, the country also performed better in the areas of ‘access to sound money’ and ‘regulations on credit, labour and business.’ With the improvements in taming of inflation and money growth in the financial system, the area of access to sound money improved slightly to 6.3 (136th in the world) from last year’s 6.26. Likewise, the area of regulations on credit, labour and business also rose to 6.5 (109th in the world) from 6.47 last year.</div> </div> <p> </p>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-09-30', 'modified' => '0000-00-00', '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 United States has fallen 15 places since 2000 in the global ranking of economic freedom, while Hong Kong and Singapore maintained their top spots. The ‘Economic Freedom of the World’ report 2013, compiled by Canada’s Fraser Institute, ranks Hong Kong first with an overall Economic Freedom Rating of 8.97, followed by Singapore (8.73). In the area of credit market regulations, both the East Asian City States scored 10 out of 10.', 'sortorder' => '1736', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1808', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'China Becomes World’s Third Largest Investor After US, Japan', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> </div> <div> China has emerged as the world’s third largest investor as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from the giant jumped by 17.6 percent last year defying a global pattern. China’s outbound FDI rose 17.6 percent year-on-year in 2012 to a record high of USD 87.8 billion, according to the 2012 Statistical Bulletin of China’s Outward Foreign Direct Investment (ODI) by the Ministry of Commerce. Even as global ODI slid 17 percent last year amid uncertainties facing the world economy, China is now world’s third-largest investor, following the United States and Japan, for the first time since the country began to release the data a decade ago. </div> <div> </div> <div> China currently holds about USD 3.30 trillion foreign exchange reserves. About USD 1.20 trillion is invested in US bonds. China was world’s sixth-largest investor in 2011, with an ODI flow of USD 74.65 billion. Last year’s increase represented an acceleration from 8.5 per cent in 2011, when the global economic recovery was weak in the face of continuing financial turmoil in Europe and the United States. “The Chinese government introduced measures to encourage outbound direct investment in pursuit of the ‘going abroad’ strategy, and the country’s outward FDI maintained robust growth in recent years,” said Zhou Zhencheng, commercial counselor of the department of outward investment and economic cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce. Huo Jianguo, president of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, was quoted by the state-run China Daily as saying that the surge in ODI was mainly driven by domestic enterprises eager to tap overseas markets and profit from using global resources. “Debt crises and slowing growth in developed economies opened up great opportunities for Chinese enterprises to invest abroad, and the renminbi’s appreciation helped the process,” Huo said. </div> <div> </div> <div> China’s non-financial ODI went up 13.3 per cent last year to USD 77.73 billion, accounting for 88.5 per cent of the total. Financial ODI surged 65.9 per cent to USD 10.07 billion, the bulletin said. Investment in US jumped 123.5 per cent to USD 4.05 billion, making it the second-largest destination for China’s ODI, the report said. Total ODI to developed economies was around USD 13.51 billion. Chinese investors have established about 22,000 overseas enterprises in 179 countries and regions, “and about 79.2 per cent of them made profits or maintained a balance”, Zhou said. He warned that Chinese enterprises are facing rising risks and challenges, including political unrest in Africa and Southeast Asia. Other challenges include increasing competition from developed economies and restrictions in those markets.</div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <p> <span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Chinese Investment in Nepal Rising</strong></span></p> </div> <div> The northern neighbour has been gradually increasing its investments in Nepal. According to Nepal government’s latest data, in the fiscal year 2012/13, China committed highest foreign direct investment (FDI) in Nepal surpassing India. In the last FY China alone accounted for 30.89 percent of the total amount of the FDI commitment in Nepal. The data showed that Nepal has received Rs 19.39 billion worth of Chinese FDI against Rs 11.49 billion in the previous FY. In FY 2011/12, China stood second in terms of investments in the country after India. </div> <div> </div> <div> In the last FY, investors from mainland China and Hong Kong registered 96 and four investment projects respectively. The investment projects mainly include medium and small businesses such as hotels, restaurants, travel agencies, handicrafts, fisheries and agricultural industries. However, Chinese investors are also pouring their investments in big infrastructure projects of Nepal. Sinohydro Resources Ltd, a Chinese multinational giant has invested in the 50 megawatts Upper Marsyangdi ‘A’ hydropower project, which is under construction. Similarly, Sinohydro and other Chinese contractors are also developing major Nepali hydel projects such as the 456 MW Upper Tamakoshi, 30 MW Chamelia, 14 MW Kulekhani-3.</div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-09-16', 'modified' => '2013-09-23', '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' => 'China has emerged as the world’s third largest investor as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from the giant jumped by 17.6 percent last year defying a global pattern.', 'sortorder' => '1669', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1725', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'India Outpaces Japan To Become World’s 3rd Largest Internet User', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> India surpassed Japan to become the world’s third-largest Internet user, based on the size of its online population, behind only the U.S. and China. The growth highlights the potential of India’s fast-growing e-commerce market, according to a report from global digital measurement and analytics firm ComScore.</div> <div> </div> <div> “Riding on a 31 per cent year-on-year increase, India’s online population grew to 73.9 million. With an extended online universe in excess of 145 million the market is at a tipping point for online businesses. India is the world’s third largest Internet population,” the report said.The country overtook Japan by adding 17.6 million users in 2012, the ComScore report said.Of the total 644 million home and work Internet users in Asia-Pacific as of March 2013, China accounted for a lion’s share of 54 per cent followed by India (11.5 per cent), Japan (11.4 per cent), Southeast Asia (9.6 per cent) and rest of APAC (13.5 per cent).On consumption, ComScore said that media fragmentation is occurring at light speed in today’s multi-platform environment, which features not only computers, but smartphones, tablets, gaming platforms and a ever-increasing number of emerging devices.</div> <div> </div> <div> According to the study, India has the youngest skewing online population among BRIC countries, with 75 percent of its Internet users under the age of 35. “Although the U.S. held 66 percent of the total global Internet audience in 1996, it now accounts for just 13 percent of the global online users, while the Asia-Pacific region accounted for 41 percent and Europe accounted for 27 percent of the global Internet users in 2012,” the report states. </div> <div> </div> <div> However, U.S. users spent the most time on the Internet with North Americans spending 37.2 hours, while users from Asia-Pacific spent just 17.2 hours, on an average, in a month. India’s strong growth in its Internet audience -- at six times the global average growth rate – holds enormous opportunity for the country’s e-marketers, which helps the country’s e-commerce sector, which is estimated to reach $100 billion in size by 2015, according to estimates.</div> <div> </div> <div> “While 60 percent of Web users in India visit online retail sites, time spent on shopping sites still has huge growth potential,” the report said. India’s online retail market grew more than 60 percent in 2012-2013, with the apparels market growing by 21 percent, ComScore said. Indian Internet users spent 25 percent of their online time in social networking websites, with 86 percent of the total audience visiting such sites in the last fiscal year. Facebook dominates the segment with 59.6 million user-visits and a 28 percent increase in the traffic. Entertainment and online video segments also witnessed exponential growth with 54 million users, in 2012-13. “The online video audience in India grew an astounding 27 percent in the past year, and YouTube continues to be the top video property with more than 55 percent share,” according to the report. </div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <h5> ‘Mobile internet fueling internet population growth in Nepal’</h5> <div> In line with the global surge, Nepal is also witnessing a staggering growth of internet population. According to a report published by Nepal Telecom Authority (NTA) in July, over 25 per cent of Nepali citizens have access to internet connection. “As of mid-July (last fiscal year), Nepal’s internet penetration rate reached 26.10 per cent of the total population against the rate of 19 per cent in the same period of last year,” the report states. </div> <div> </div> <div> The report informed that the total number of internet users has reached 6.91 million. </div> <div> The robust use of internet is fueled by mobile internet, sub-broadband and high speed services such as WiMax. However, the high speed 3G wireless mobile network is seen as the main driving factor of internet population growth in Nepal. “Out of total subscribers, 6 million users surf the world wide web through their mobile devices,” reads the NTA report. The sharp rise in the availability of low-cost smartphone handsets and competitive bandwidth prices are seen as factors attracting internet users. Furthermore, the appeal of social media is also considered as another major element which contributes to the rise of internet users. In July, commercial web traffic data provider Alexa Internet Inc, a subsidiary of Amazon.com, ranked Facebook as the most popular website among Nepali internet users. The company also ranked Twitter and Linkedin in 12th and 13th place in Nepal respectively.</div> <div> </div> </div> <p> </p>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-09-02', 'modified' => '2013-09-10', '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' => 'India surpassed Japan to become the world’s third-largest Internet user, based on the size of its online population, behind only the U.S. and China.', 'sortorder' => '1586', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1689', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Economic Downturn In India, Indonesia Raise Fears', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> The recent equity sell-down and currency fall in India and Indonesia have raised contagion fears across Asia, similar to the Asian financial crisis in 1997. What started off as a relatively contained sell-down in Indonesia and India is now turning into a confidence crisis. The Indian rupee has lost 12 percent since May 2013, making it the worst performer in the emerging market currency basket, Xinhua said in an analysis Saturday.</div> <div> </div> <div> There is now widespread panic over the rupee, and the short-term measures imposed by the Indian government such as curbing the import of gold are widely seen as ineffective. In Indonesia, the sharp weakening in the rupiah and weak commodity export prices have caused its foreign exchange reserves to fall by a significant 18 percent year-to-date from $112 billion to $92 billion, fuelling investors’ concerns over the defensibility of the currency and the concurrent risks of sharp policy rate hikes.</div> <div> </div> <div> The impact of capital outflows and financial turbulence as a result of India and Indonesia problems will undoubtedly be significant and widespread in other Asian emerging economies such as Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines, where bubbles have been inflated by easy credit and super easy monetary policy. During the 1997 Asian financial turmoil, the currency meltdown in Thailand sent a chain reaction of weaker currencies, falling stock markets and a steep rise in private debt across Southeast Asian economies and South Korea, sinking most of them into deep recession.</div> <div> </div> <div> CIMB research said for the rest of the Asian economies, recent developments in India and Indonesia should have very little negative economic impact. Backed by better regulated financial sector and stable domestic growth drivers, Asian financial markets should also be able to maintain a steady inflow of capital. Credit Suisse research believed that the impact of India and Indonesia sell-down upon North Asian economies such as China and South Korea will also be limited. (news.yahoo.com)</div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <p> <strong><span style="font-size:14px;">‘Crisis unlikely due to currency depreciation’</span></strong></p> </div> <div> Negative spillover effects from India in the Nepali economy have always been pertaining issue for the Nepali economy. Crisis in value of rupee is the latest in the series. With the sharp depreciation of Nepali rupee (NPR) against the US dollar, caused by the devaluation and volatility in Indian rupee (INR), experts have started serious debate over the pegged exchange rate.</div> <div> </div> <div> However, chief economic advisor at Finance Ministry Dr Chiranjivi Nepal ruled out the possibility of revising pegged exchange rate. 'The weakening of Indian and other Asian currencies is unlikely to bring crisis like 1997, now the economies are in better position compare to that period,' said Nepal. According to Nepal, the depreciation of INR will not continue for long time. Indian government has continuously putting effort to control the steep fall of value of rupee against dollar,” he opined, adding that it can be expected that Indian central bank will take aggressive measures to contain INR in a level. </div> <div> </div> <div> The recent massive depreciation of Indian currency has thrown all these logics out of the window and the situation calls for a serious debate on whether Nepali rupee should maintain the peg system. When asked about the review of existing exchange rate, Nepal rejected such calls. 'Nepali economy will encounter many problems if the existing exchange rate is changed,' he said. 'Reviewing the rate will ease the dollar price but cheaper foreign goods will influx the Nepali market and more money will be needed for the import of goods.' He further added that the government to take proper policies aiming to boost the export to take benefit from the strong dollar. </div> <div> </div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-08-26', 'modified' => '0000-00-00', '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 recent equity sell-down and currency fall in India and Indonesia have raised contagion fears across Asia, similar to the Asian financial crisis in 1997.', 'sortorder' => '1550', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1639', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Gold Demand From India, China Could Hit Record 1,000 Tonnes Each In 2013', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> India’s gold demand could reach a record 1,000 tonnes this year as consumers buy for the festival and wedding season in the second half, the World Gold Council said, which may scuttle the country’s efforts to curb its imports and a trade deficit. Demand from China, which is on course to challenge India’s position as the top gold consumer this year, could also soar to a record 1,000 tonnes in 2013, the WGC said. </div> <div> </div> <div> Strong physical buying from the world’s biggest consumers, who account for nearly 60 per cent of global demand, will help prop up prices of the metal that have shed about 20 per cent this year after 12 consecutive annual gains. Consumer demand has however not been enough so far to compensate for a sharp drop in investor appetite this year, the WGC said in its quarterly report on Thursday. India, which wants to keep imports below 850 tonnes in 2013, has raised import taxes three times in eight months. On Wednesday, it banned overseas purchases of gold bars and coins to rein in dollar spending. </div> <div> </div> <div> But the resilience in Indian demand has offset government efforts to curb imports, which revived in July after dropping in June. According to WGC, India’s consumption of gold rose to 310 tonnes in the second quarter ended June, highest in the last 10 years, despite government curbs to restrict imports to rein in burgeoning current account deficit. Much of the demand was met by stocks that had been built up to healthy levels following the April price drop. Imports more than doubled to 338 tonnes in April-June of this calendar year, it said. Gold consumption stood at 181.1 tonnes in the same quarter last year.</div> <div> </div> <div> “We’ve seen that demand is robust,” Somasundaram PR, WGC’s India managing director, told Reuters. “Once the monsoon is over, rural incomes will rise and that will have its own impact on demand.” </div> <div> </div> <div> “There are also a lot more marriage and festival dates in October and November in the fourth quarter,” said Somasundaram, who estimated full-year demand between 900 tonnes to 1,000 tonnes for both India and China. Hitting the upper end of that range would be record annual consumption for both the countries, he said. The rural population accounts for about 60 per cent of gold demand in India, where the precious metal forms an essential part of a bride’s dowry and is considered auspicious as a gift or offering at religious festivals. India’s demand reached 566 tonnes in the first half of the year, a 50 per cent jump but still lower than China’s 600 tonnes, the industry-funded WGC said in its report.</div> <div> </div> <div> Demand this year has been particularly strong as falling prices have prompted consumers across the world to buy bullion in the form of jewellery, bars and coins. Analysts say India’s moves to curb imports have been unable to stifle demand, thus pushing local prices to around $50 an ounce above London spot prices. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Record Buying in China </strong></div> <div> China’s gold-buying spree in the first six months of the year is likely to continue into the second half amid festivals and uncertainty about the economy, which has seen a slowdown in nine out of the past 10 quarters. </div> <div> </div> <div> “The falling gold price is key. But there are also other macroeconomic conditions that are pushing (the Chinese) to gold,” said Albert Cheng, WGC’s managing director for the Far East region. (Agencies)</div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <h2> <strong>Appetite for Gold in Nepal Rising</strong></h2> </div> <div> The consumption of yellow metal among Nepali consumers has been following an increasing trend. According to Ministry of Finance (MoF), gold import in Nepal reached 5,807 kg which is worth Rs 26 billion in the fiscal year 2012-13.</div> <div> </div> <div> However, the import of gold was slightly down in the last FY compared to the whopping 5,900 kg in the FY 2011-12. Traders blame the quota system imposed by the government for the decline in the last fiscal year though their overall gold consumption outlook remains bullish. “Our initial estimation shows that about 26 tonnes of gold will be consumed by the end of current FY in the domestic market,” said Manik Ratna Shakya, general secretary of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers Association (NEGOSIDA). </div> <div> </div> <div> Shakya informed that the average daily gold demand in the domestic market stands at 30 kg on average. “The average daily demand in the marriage season stands around 35 kg. We’ve witnessed the seasonal demand of gold up to 50 kg in the past,” he mentioned. Shakya blamed the restrictions imposed on gold imports for the low quantity trade. “The quota system has actually promoted illegal trade and it has some immediate impacts,” he told The Corporate weekly, “The government’s revenue from gold import will decline and the remittance inflow will also suffer as migrant workers may buy gold abroad and send it here using informal channels due to the restrictions.”</div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-08-19', 'modified' => '2013-08-19', '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' => 'India’s gold demand could reach a record 1,000 tonnes this year as consumers buy for the festival and wedding season', 'sortorder' => '1500', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1594', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Global Ecommerce To Top $1.2 Tn, Driven By Asia-Pacific Growth', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> Independent market research firm eMarketer released a study claiming that business-to-consumer (B2C) ecommerce will increase by 17 percent globally in 2013, with worldwide sales expected to reach $1.2 trillion. The Asia-Pacific region is driving ecommerce growth more than any other, and is expected to outpace the rest of the world at 23 percent growth over last year. China and Indonesia are leading the region’s growth. “Asia-Pacific already accounts for nearly a third of all B2C ecommerce sales in the world, a share of the total just below North America’s. Next year, Asia-Pacific will lead all regions in share of the worldwide total spent online,” the study asserted.</div> <div> </div> <div> Indonesia is expected to see ecommerce growth up 65 percent compared to 2012. China is up 71 percent over last year. Comparatively, the U.S. expects only a 12 percent rise in ecommerce by the end of the year.</div> <div> </div> <div> While the Asia-Pacific leads in growth, North America maintains its lead in actual sales. North America spent $373 billion in 2012, which is expected to rise to $420 billion in 2013. The Asia-Pacific spent $316 billion in 2012 and eMarketer anticipates $389 billion to be spent this year. However, the Asia-Pacific is set to overcome the reigning top spender by the end of next year. While North America is expected to have $469 billion in sales for 2014, the Asia-Pacific will take the lead at $502 billion. The gap will widen even further by 2016 – with the Asia-Pacific expected to spend $708 billion versus North America’s $580 billion.</div> <div> </div> <div> The study also indicated that more web users in the Asia-Pacific are embracing online shopping. “Ecommerce sales growth will be supported by an estimated 1.03 billion digital buyers around the world this year, 44.4% of whom will be in Asia-Pacific. China alone will boast 269.4 million digital buyers this year—a figure that includes internet users ages 14 and older who make at least one purchase via any digital channel during the calendar year. The US remains the country with the second-largest number of digital buyers, at 155.7 million this year,” the study claimed. The study concludes that many web users in the Asia-Pacific who previously weren’t buying online will decrease this year. eMarketer expects penetration to increase in China, from 40 percent last year to a projected 71 percent of internet users by 2017. Current digital buyer penetration in the U.S. is just slightly above that projection currently at 72 percent.</div> <div> </div> <div> “There is still significant room for growth, though, in developing markets where many internet users are still not buying online. Western Europe and North America are the only regions in the world where a majority of the online population is also a digital buyer,” said the study. As countries like China increase its wealth, it becomes inevitable that more of its citizens will be connected to the web. It is logical to assume that many of those Internet users will discover the advantages (and disadvantages) of buying online.</div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <div> <strong><span style="font-size:14px;">E-markets in Nepal on the Rise</span></strong></div> <div> </div> <div> E-commerce market in Nepal emerged about a decade ago. Kick-started through gift-sending and bill payment services through online portals, the market went on to expand due to increasing purchasing power among Nepali consumers. Online shopping revenues have witnessed fast paced growth as the number of internet users in Nepal continues to rise. The domestic e-commerce market has now expanded into various segments such as online shopping, e-banking, mobile commerce, electronic cash transfers and e-ticketing. Time and money saving hassle-free services are seen to be the main factors in attracting internet users to online markets. </div> <div> </div> <div> Annual online transactions in Nepal are estimated to be around Rs 10 billion, although an official figure is not available. Many online shopping websites have emerged since the inception of e-commerce in Nepal. Muncha.com, Thamel.com, Harilo.com, Yeskantipur.com, Metrotarkari.com, Foodmandu.com, Bhatbhatenionline.com and Nepbay.com are some of the popular websites among Nepali online shoppers. Some of these sell their own products whereas others deliver from global sites such as eBay and Amazon. Nepali shoppers have the option to buy products ranging from groceries and fresh vegetables to cars from online portals. </div> <div> </div> <div> However, lack of a clear policy is hindering the growth of online markets here. “The government has not helped the domestic e-commerce market and neither obstructed it,” says Balkrishna Joshi, the CEO of Thamel.com. According to Joshi, the e-commerce market in Nepal is facing problems in the bill payment system. “Establishing a central payment gateway will solve this problem, the central bank and concerned authorities should look into this,” Joshi said. “Similarly, creating a safer online environment for customers will also attract more investments in e-markets here,” he added.</div> <div> </div> </div> <div> </div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-08-12', 'modified' => '2013-08-12', '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' => 'Independent market research firm eMarketer released a study claiming that business-to-consumer (B2C) ecommerce will increase by 17 percent globally in 2013, with worldwide sales expected to reach $1.2 trillion.', 'sortorder' => '1455', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1547', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Global Economy Gains Steam', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> In a apparent sign that global economic recovery is gaining momentum, the manufacturing activities in United States and Europe rose at a faster pace in July. According to various surveys published last week, US manufacturing grew in July at its fastest pace in two years while European factories snapped a two-year run of declining output, suggesting a prolonged euro zone recession may be near its end. Also the output at British factories also surged last month, while an index of China’s massive manufacturing sector suggested the slowdown in the world’s No. 2 economy may be stabilizing. JPMorgan’s Global Manufacturing PMI edged up to 50.8 in July from 50.6 in June, holding above the 50 mark that divides growth from contraction. “Global manufacturing output continues to expand at a modest pace, consistent with a global economy that is held back from considerable fiscal drags in the first half of the year,” said Joe Lupton, senior economist at JPMorgan. </div> <div> </div> <div> A sharp rise in new orders in US helped propel the Institute for Supply Management’s index of national factory activity to a two-year high of 55.4 in July, beating economists’ expectations of 52.0 and June’s reading of 50.9. A separate index from financial data firm Markit rose to 53.7, a four-month high, from 51.9 in June. “It’s obviously good news. Orders have bounced back. If this is happening in the context of a global improvement, that’s a good thing,” said Pierre Ellis, senior global economist at Decision Economics Inc in New York. </div> <div> </div> <div> Meanwhile, Markit’s Eurozone manufacturing PMI showed marginal growth among factories for the first time in two years, with the index at 50.3, up from 48.8 in June. Output rose in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland, France and Austria. </div> <div> </div> <div> The company’s flash composite PMI, based on surveys of thousands of companies across the region, jumped to an 18-month high of 50.4, from 48.7. Readings above 50 signify growth. In China, the official factory PMI was a bit stronger than expected last month, although growth remained modest. The biggest surprise came from the UK, where Markit’s UK manufacturing PMI jumped to 54.6, trumping even the most optimistic forecast in a Reuters poll of economists and triggering a rise in sterling. </div> <div> </div> <div> Overall, the data allayed fears that the global economy’s mid-year lull would deepen. “We’re seeing different trends in different parts of the world, which are to a large extent offsetting each other,” said Andrew Kenningham, senior global economist at Capital Economics in London. </div> <div> <em>(Agencies)</em></div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <div> <strong>‘Nepal likely to benefit from global economic recovery’</strong></div> <div> </div> <div> Nepal has thus far been relatively aloof from the global financial crisis and economic meltdown in the West. The Nepali economy is insulated against such external shocks as risks from inflow of toxic assets remains zero. This is mainly due to the country's financial market not integrated with international market. However, there are signs of strain contributed by indirect impact through trade (reduction of export earnings, and especially contraction of merchandise exports) and spillover effects from India. The steady decline in foreign aid funding is also seen as another impact of the global meltdown. </div> <div> </div> <div> Nepal also saw a marginal rise in tourist arrivals caused by declining disposable income in advanced economies. As India and China are more prone to global risks, negative spillovers from their weakening economies is exerting pressure on Nepal. The sharp depreciation of the Nepali currency (which maintains an exchange rate peg with the Indian Rupee) in recent days is an example of such spillovers. Subdued demand in recession-marred Europe, the major export market of India, is said to be the main cause of the Indian Rupee’s devaluation. </div> <div> </div> <div> But with the global economic recovery gathering pace, experts are hoping that external headwinds faced by the Nepali economy are likely to fade away in the coming days. "Economic revival in the United States and Europe is positive for South Asia, it will eventually create demand in the region," says Dr Chiranjibi Nepal, Ecomomic Advisor to the Nepali Ministry of Finance. According to him, the rise in demand for manufactured goods along with other materials will boost the manufacturing sector, thus generating employment. "Nepal's major exports to Europe and US, such as garments, carpets and handicrafts can benefit from the recovery," he adds. Dr Nepal also mentioned the prospect for rise in tourist arrivals from developed nations as disposable income in western nations is bound to increase following the economic recovery.</div> <div> </div> </div> <p> </p>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-08-05', 'modified' => '2013-08-05', '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 a apparent sign that global economic recovery is gaining momentum, the manufacturing activities in United States and Europe rose at a faster pace in July.', 'sortorder' => '1408', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1503', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'India To Be World’s 3rd Largest Auto Market By 2016', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> India will become the third largest automotive market in the world by 2016 ahead of Japan, Germany and Brazil, riding on its domestic automotive sales, according to IHS Automotive, a global market information provider. Although the economic growth vulnerability and lower sentiment resulted in market slowdown in 2012 and 2013, India is expected to regain strong growth trend from 2014 onwards, said the Colorado-based firm. </div> <div> </div> <div> “We expect that by 2016, vehicle sales would surpass Brazil, Germany and Japan making India the third largest market,” IHS Senior Principal Economist Charles Chesbrough said here. </div> <div> </div> <div> In 2012, China, the US and Japan were the top three global automotive markets and India was ranked six after Brazil and Germany in the fourth and fifth positions respectively. Sounding bullish on the Indian market in the mid to long term, IHS said: “Investment reform policy will induce better environment for domestic and foreign enterprises. India light vehicle production (is) expected to reach 7 million by 2020.” </div> <div> </div> <div> The implications for auto demand are huge in India and the country has been moving along the penetration path, it said. “With demand for vehicles declining in most mature markets in the face of the global recession, high fuel costs and urban driving restrictions, the industry is turning its attention more strongly towards the expanding middle classes in the new powerhouse of China, India, Brazil, Russia and other growing nations,” Chesbrough said. </div> <div> </div> <div> The growth of automobile sales will not be restricted only to mass market vehicles, IHS said. “The favorable Indian market conditions are acting as a catalyst for luxury and premium carmakers, which are receiving impetus from new launches. The top-end carmakers have posted double-digit growth for the quarter ended June 30, 2013,” IHS Director James Chao said. </div> <div> </div> <div> According to IHS, in terms of production volume, India would move to fourth position in 2020 ahead of Germany and Brazil from its currently sixth spot. IHS said as India develops, its citizens acquire wealth, demand for automobiles will increase as the need of personal transportation rises. “It may take a little longer in India because they do not have the infrastructure...but we know about the personal behaviour as people gain wealth, they want freedom, ability to go where they want to go and when they want to go,” Chesbrough said. <em>(The Economic Times)</em></div> <div> </div> <table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%"> <tbody> <tr> <td bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <h1> More Vehicles, Less Roads </h1> <div> Nepali auto market has expanded at rapid pace in the recent years. The construction of roads and other related infrastructures have contributed to the rise of vehicles sales. According to Economic Survey published by Nepal government last week, on an average, 61 vehicles are sharing one kilometer of road around the country. The total number of registered vehicles has reached 1.5 million by the end of fiscal year 2069/70. The survey reports that vehicle import has increased by 40 per cent annually. More than 142,000 vehicles were sold in FY 2069/70 compared as to 101,000 in previous FY. Increase in remittance, raised income of middle class families and road expansion activities are seen as the key driving factors for increased vehicle sales. </div> <div> </div> <div> However, the low availability of roads is seen as major problematic factor. Particularly, with the increase of vehicle sales, Kathmandu valley and other major cities are facing huge traffic congestions on a daily basis. The total length of road around the country reached 24,583 kms by the end of last FY which is very less compared to the number of registered vehicles. The sluggishness in road construction and expansion is also seen as another factor hindering the vehicle sales. The official data has showed that 518 km road was constructed in eight months of last FY which is about 58 per cent less compared to FY 2068/69. According to Tulsi Prasad Sitaula, Secretary at Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, the roads are constructed only with government investments, which has not brought the expected speed of infrastructure development. ‘Private sector is pouring its investment only in importing vehicles but the roads constructions are not carried out to equalize the investment,’ he said.</div> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p> </p>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-07-29', 'modified' => '2013-07-29', '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' => 'India will become the third largest automotive market in the world by 2016 ahead of Japan, Germany and Brazil', 'sortorder' => '1364', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1455', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'India Relaxes FDI Norms To Boost Slowing Growth', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> India has relaxed foreign direct investment (FDI) rules across several industries, including telecoms, single brand retail and oil and gas, in a bid to lure capital inflows, prop up a sliding currency and accelerate growth. India’s weakest economic growth in a decade and a record high current account deficit have made the rupee the worst-performing emerging Asian currency so far this year. The changes will have to be approved by India’s cabinet before they become law, although that is seen as a formality. Here are the sectors in which FDI caps will be revised: </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Telecoms </strong></div> <div> The FDI cap on the telecoms sector was raised to 100 percent from 74 percent. While a foreign company can buy up to a 49 percent stake in an Indian phone carrier without seeking approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board(FIPB), any investment beyond that will need the country’s foreign investment regulator’s nod. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Petroleum and Natural Gas </strong></div> <div> The FDI cap for the sector was left unchanged at 49 percent, but foreign investment up to 49 percent will no longer require FIPB approval. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Insurance </strong></div> <div> Foreign investment up to 49 percent in insurers will not require the government’s approval. The foreign investment limit in the sector is currently capped at 26 percent. A bill to raise the cap to 49 percent is stuck in parliament. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Defence Production </strong></div> <div> There was effectively no change in the FDI cap of 26 percent in the defence sector, although trade minister Anand Sharma said a cabinet panel would consider any FDI proposal for investment above 26 percent in state-of-the-art technology. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Retail </strong></div> <div> FDI up to 49 percent in the single-brand retail sector will no longer require the FIPB’s approval. The government also said it will issue clarifications soon on its FDI policy for supermarkets. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Commodity, Power and Stock Exchanges </strong></div> <div> Foreign investment of up to 49 percent will not require the government’s approval. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Asset Reconstruction Companies </strong></div> <div> India will allow FDI up to 49 percent with no government approval, but foreign investors will need FIPB approval to buy a bigger stake in an Indian asset reconstruction company. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Courier Services </strong></div> <div> Foreign investors can now invest up to 100 percent in the courier services sector and will not need government approval. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Credit Information Companies </strong></div> <div> India will allow up to 74 percent FDI in credit information companies, with no need to seek government approval for investments up to that level. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Civil Aviation and Media </strong></div> <div> The government left FDI caps in civil aviation and media unchanged at 49 percent and 26 percent respectively. </div> <div> <em>(Agency)</em></div> <div> </div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-07-22', 'modified' => '0000-00-00', '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' => 'India has relaxed foreign direct investment (FDI) rules across several industries, including telecoms, single brand retail and oil and gas, in a bid to lure capital inflows, prop up a sliding currency and accelerate growth. India’s weakest economic growth in a decade and a record high current account deficit have made the rupee the worst-performing emerging Asian currency so far this year.', 'sortorder' => '1316', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1408', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'World Unprepared For Urban Boom', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> In a world of more than nine billion people by 2050, most of the 6.5 billion urban dwellers will be living in developing countries, says the World Economic and Social Survey 2013, emphasising that new strategies are needed to address the impacts of rapid urbanisation around the world, including increasing demands for energy, water, sanitation, public services, education and health. </div> <div> </div> <div> According to the survey published by the UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs last week, more than 6.25 billion people will be living in cities by 2050. Within the time period of 2000-2050, developing regions could add 3.2 billion new urbanites, a figure larger than the entire world’s population in 1950. The survey found that the vision of sustainable development — promoting economic and social wellbeing while protecting the environment — has not been achieved, despite encouraging progress. Rising inequality and shortfalls in development partnership, rapid population growth, climate change and environmental degradation have hampered efforts. </div> <div> </div> <div> Damage to the global environment is reaching critical levels and threatens to lead to irreversible changes in global ecosystems, the survey said. The overarching environmental damage is anthropogenic, with humans releasing increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which is leading to global warming. If no policy framework is established to address this issue, the survey states, the number of people living in slums lacking access to basic infrastructure and services such as water, sanitation, electricity, health care and education might triple from 1 billion at present to 3 billion by 2050. </div> <div> </div> <div> The survey states that sustainable development of urban areas requires integration, coordination, and investments to tackle issues of land-use, food security, job creation, building new roads, biodiversity conservation, water conservation, renewable energy sourcing, waste and recycling management, and the provision of education, health care and housing. The survey calls for ambitious, action-oriented sustainable development strategies to address the different levels of urban development that are adaptable to different contexts. </div> <div> </div> <div> Estimates indicate that food production will have to increase 70 percent globally to feed an additional 2.3 billion people by 2050. The survey emphasises that economic and financial incentives to create and adopt new technologies will require policy reforms including taxes and subsidies, as well as regulatory reforms. (Agency)</div> <table border="0" cellpadding="20" width="99%"> <tbody> <tr> <td bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <div> <span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>‘Nepal’s push for urbanization is poorly managed’</strong></span></div> <div> </div> <div> Nepal, once viewed as least urbanised country in South Asia, is witnessing a rapid pace of urbanisation. Population increase and migration are considered as significant factors in the growth of cities across the country. Rise in infrastructure development and increased economic opportunities too are fuelling the push for urbanisation. According to government data , Nepal’s urban population grew at 4.45 percent in 2012 compared to the previous year. Some 20 percent of Nepal’s population is currently living in urban areas. The contribution of urban areas to the gross domestic product (GDP) is assumed to be 65 percent. Urban areas in Nepal spread across 3,276 km square of the total area. A report published by The World Bank last year marked Nepal as the fastest urbanising nation in South Asia. </div> <div> </div> <div> However, poorly managed urbanisation in Nepal is ringing alarm bells as many problems have emerged. Particularly, the growth of cities is associated with rise in unemployment, inadequate health service, poor sanitation, urban slums, environmental degradation and crime. The World Bank last year warned that unless the government seriously manages urbanisation better, the country could fail to attain economic efficiency from the process. In March 2013, the bank also published another report entitled ‘Urban Growth and Spatial Transition: An Initial Assessment’ which warns about the consequences of unmanaged urbanisation in Nepal. ‘Nepal’s urban centres, particularly the Kathmandu Valley, are already facing serious challenges due to multiple factors such as inadequate infrastructure, haphazard planning and poor business environment,’ states the report. The report strongly advocates for the government to prioritise on investment in infrastructure, connect cities internally and externally and make growth inclusive in order to foster the growth and sustainability of urban area</div> <div> </div> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p> </p>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-07-15', 'modified' => '2013-09-04', '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 a world of more than nine billion people by 2050, most of the 6.5 billion urban dwellers will be living in developing countries, says the World Economic and Social Survey 2013', 'sortorder' => '1270', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = false $xml = falseinclude - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 133 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 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
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It is felt that the importance of the grouping has been eroded over the years due to political differences across the region, he said.</div> <div> </div> <div> This is part of the ‘trilateralism idea’ mooted by former Bangladesh Foreign Minister Iftekhar Chowdhury at the second South Asian Diaspora Convention (SADC) in Singapore today. Chowdhury said the bank could play a role in guiding South Asian diaspora investment, especially in the infrastructure sector, in the region which is a market of 1.8 billion people. Chowdhury told that the 38-million strong South Asian diaspora has an estimated wealth of $1.3 trillion and was looking at new investment opportunities.</div> <div> </div> <div> The diaspora comprising 20 million Indians, 7 million Bangladeshis, 8 million Pakistanis and 3 million Sri Lankans, is estimated to save about $350 billion from their annual estimated earnings of $1 trillion. Yesterday during his address at the SADC, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram called on the Indian diaspora to invest in India and be part of the country’s prosperity in his speech at the SADC yesterday. Chowdhury said it is the right time to channel that investment to the South Asian region, given the many politically-impeded challenges being faced by these investors in placing their money in this vast region.</div> <div> </div> <div> He is currently a principal fellow at the Institute of South Asia Studies (ISAS), the organiser of the two-day SADC which ended today. The proposed South Asian Diaspora Investment Bank could be located in one of the international financial centres — London, New York or Singapore. Chowdhury said the bank’s role would bring about a change in the politically-weakened SAARC and could give a big impetus to the regional organisation which has made little progress since its inception.</div> <div> <em>(The Hindu Business Line)</em></div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-11-25', 'modified' => '2013-12-03', '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' => 'An investment bank to manage the $1.3-trillion wealth of the South Asian diaspora can help supplement the efforts of SAARC, says an expert. It is felt that the importance of the grouping has been eroded over the years due to political differences across the region, he said.', 'sortorder' => '1993', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '2095', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Nepal Gains In Global Prosperity Ranking', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>--By TC Correspondent</strong></div> <div> </div> <div> D<span style="font-size: 12px;">espite ongoing political uncertainty, Nepal has achieved higher prosperity. According to the Legatum Prosperity Index 2013, Nepal climbed 6 places up this year to reach 102nd position among 142 countries across the world. Nepal was ranked 108th position last year. The index published by the Legatum Institute, a UAE-based investment organisation and think-tank shows Nepal’s progress mainly in the area of personal freedom. Nepal scored 77 points in the personal freedom sub-index which includes sections such as civil liberties and tolerance among ethnic groups. The sub-index highlights more freedom of choice for ordinary Nepalis and ethnic harmony in the country. The Legatum Prosperity Index has been benchmarking 142 countries since 2007 in 8 distinct sub-indices: economy, education, entrepreneurship and opportunity, governance, health, personal freedom, safety and security and social capital. </span></div> <div> </div> <div> Nepal’s economic performance was not seen satisfactory as the country declined 5 places to 92nd position in economy sub-index, mainly because of decline in its gross domestic savings. Nepal also moved down in the safety and security sub-index, by 17 places to 101st due to increase in state violence and the number of refugees. Similarly, Nepal also did not fare well in entrepreneurship and opportunity as the country was placed at 111th position in the sub-index. </div> <div> </div> <div> Nepal ranked 100th in governance, 104th in education, 97th in health and 95th in social capital sub-indices. However, Nepal ranked above India, Bangladesh and Pakistan in the overall index. Bangladesh ranked below Nepal at 103rd position whereas India was placed at 106th in the index. Bangladesh ranks above India in the index for the first time in 2013. Although Bangladesh’s rank has remained constant since last year, India has declined five places in the same period. India has fallen down the Prosperity Index rankings consistently over the last five years. Pakistan was the lowest ranking country in the entire Asia-Pacific region with 132nd position whereas China stood at 51st in the index. </div> <div> </div> <div> Norway ranks first in overall Prosperity, as it has since 2009, confirming its place as the most prosperous country in the world for the fifth consecutive year. The country also ranks first in the economy and social capital sub-index in 2013. Switzerland, Canada, Sweden and New Zealand secured 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th position respectively. Meanwhile, US ranked 11th in the index. US moved down four places to 24th in the Economy sub-index. Countries that have overtaken the US in the economy sub-index include New Zealand (17th) and South Korea (19th), among others. The UK has moved down three places to 16th in overall Prosperity, as a result of decreases in the rankings for six out of eight sub-indices since last year. The UK has been leapfrogged by Austria (15th), Germany (14th), and Iceland (13th).</div> </div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-11-11', 'modified' => '2013-11-25', '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' => 'Despite ongoing political uncertainty, Nepal has achieved higher prosperity. According to the Legatum Prosperity Index 2013, Nepal climbed 6 places up this year to reach 102nd position among 142 countries across the world. Nepal was ranked 108th position last year. The index published by the Legatum Institute, a UAE-based investment organisation and think-tank shows Nepal’s progress mainly in the area of personal freedom.', 'sortorder' => '1990', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '2022', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Nepal’s Gender Gap Narrows', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> <strong>--By Sanjeev Sharma</strong></div> <div> </div> <div> The gender gap in Nepal narrowed in 2013 as more women came to join labour force and participatory policies helped female population grasp various opportunities, a latest global report shows. According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2013, published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on 25th October, Friday, Nepal ranked 121st with a total score of 0.605. Nepal climbed 2 spots up from last year’s 123rd position. In 2011 and 2010 Nepal was ranked at 126th and 115th position respectively. Neighbouring China and India were ranked 69 and 101 respectively. In the South Asia region, Sri Lanka ranked 55th, Bangladesh 75th, Bhutan 93rd, Maldives 97th and Pakistan came at 135th. </div> <div> </div> <div> The index assesses 136 countries, representing more than 93% of the world’s population, on how well resources and opportunities are divided among male and female populations. The report measures the size of the gender inequality gap in four areas: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, political empowerment and health and survival. Nepal ranked 116th place in economic participation and opportunity sub-index. Similarly, Nepal’s female educational attainment was ranked at 130th place and political empowerment was ranked at 41st place. In female health and survival sub-index, Nepal was placed at 112th position. </div> <div> </div> <div> Nepal, placed in the low income group countries (US$1,035 or less) in the report, particularly fared well in labour force participation indicator with a rank of 12th position. Nepal’s female-to-male ratio was 0.94 in the sub-index. Neighbouring China and India were ranked lower in the indicator with 40th and 124th position respectively. Whereas, the world’s largest economy United States stood at 40th position in terms of labour force participation. Similarly, Nepal also did well in terms of female political participation with a rank of 22nd in women in parliament indicator. Germany ranked lower than Nepal in the indicator with 24th position. China along with Bangladesh, Pakistan and India came at 51st, 68th, 69th and 106th places respectively. </div> <div> </div> <div> Nepal however scored lower in wage equality indicator with a rank of 97th position. China and India were ranked at 60th and 86th place respectively in the indicator. Nepal also pared down in legislators, senior officers and managers indicator with 96th position. However, Nepal performed better than South Korea and Japan who were ranked 105th and 106th respectively. Likewise, Nepal’s progress in female literacy was seen sluggish as the country ranked 125th place in the literacy rate indicator. Nepal also didn’t achieve any significant gain in female population’s health life as it ranked 119th out of 136 countries in the health life expectancy sub-indicator. </div> <div> </div> <div> WEF has been publishing the report since 2006. The Philippines ranked highest in Asia-Pacific region (5th place) in the eighth edition of the report primarily due to success in health, education and economic participation. According to the report, Iceland remained at the 1st position for the 5th consecutive year followed by Finland, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, New Zealand, Denmark, Switzerland and Nicaragua. Meanwhile, United States lowered to 23rd from last year’s 22nd in the index and Japan dropping to 105th from 101st of 2012. Yemen was the lowest ranking country in the index (136th).</div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-10-28', 'modified' => '2013-10-28', '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 gender gap in Nepal narrowed in 2013 as more women came to join labour force and participatory policies helped female population grasp various opportunities, a latest global report shows. According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2013, published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on 25th October, Friday, Nepal ranked 121st with a total score of 0.605. Nepal climbed 2 spots up from last year’s 123rd position.', 'sortorder' => '1892', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1977', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Fama, Shiller, Hansen Win Nobel Prize For Asset-Price Work', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> </div> <div> The widespread criticism of economists’ failure to predict the banking crash was addressed on Monday, 14th October by the Nobel committee when it awarded the much coveted prize for economics to three academics who try to show how financial markets work.</div> <div> </div> <div> The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the prize to Eugene Fama and Lars Peter Hansen of the ultra-conservative Chicago school alongside Robert Shiller, the liberal Yale economist famous for warning of the US sub-prime housing bubble in 2005. Fama and Hansen, two followers of Milton Friedman’s free-market theories, said they were surprised to win the annual prize which they agreed would turn their lives upside down. The academy said it was honouring the three prizewinners for their work examining the way markets work. They will share the prize of Swedish Kroner 8m (£781,782) equally. The academy said the three economists were at the top of their field “for their empirical analysis of asset prices that greatly improved our understanding of how financial markets work, when they seem to work well and when they seem to work otherwise”.</div> <div> </div> <div> Fama, 74, is notorious in leftwing circles for denying financial bubbles exist and asserting recessions are a largely unexplainable fixture of capitalism that should be allowed to take their course. His research has examined how external factors such as insider trading and government regulation can distort the workings of financial markets. In the years before the crash he joined other disciples of Friedman, including former Federal Reserve boss Alan Greenspan, in defending the efficient-markets hypothesis that underpinned the deregulation of the banking system.</div> <div> </div> <div> In the aftermath of the banking crash, Fama blamed the US government, arguing its policy of loosening laws restricting access to credit was at the heart of the crisis. He said the banking industry acted rationally in response to distorting incentives put in place by an interfering government. The American mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, were encouraged to lower the bar to lending, fuelling the sub-prime boom.</div> <div> </div> <div> “The financial markets were a casualty of the recession, not a cause of it,” he told the New Yorker in 2010. Fama has recently specialised in producing models that show the way stock markets and other asset markets work.</div> <div> </div> <div> Hansen, 60, is best known for his work modelling how economic actors cope with risk and changing environments. Fama and Hansen join 87 other Nobel Prize winners affiliated with Chicago University. Their success means eight Nobel winners will be working at the faculty, including six in economics.</div> <div> </div> <div> Shiller, 67, has risen to prominence following a career that has seen him adapt free-market theories to take on board concepts of exuberance and irrationality. Unlike Fama, who denies it is possible to measure whether assets are overpriced, Shiller has documented how markets can fall victim to bubbles that become unsustainable.</div> <div> </div> <div> In a video interview with the Guardian last year he said finance was not about making money but making money work for the good of communities. His book Irrational Exuberance, published in 2000, debunked the idea that markets always price assets efficiently, without triggering bubbles.</div> <div> </div> <div> The academy said: “While it is hard to predict whether stock or bond prices will go up or down in the short term, it is possible to foresee movements over periods of three years or longer. These findings, which might seem surprising and contradictory, were made and analysed by this year’s laureates.”</div> <div> </div> <div> Americans have dominated the economics awards in recent years; the last time there were no US economists among the winners was in 1999. The Nobel committees have now announced all six of the annual awards for 2013</div> <div> </div> <div> <table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%"> <tbody> <tr> <td bgcolor="#E5E4E2"> <div> <span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Lars Peter Hansen</strong></span></div> <div> In another triumph for Chicago University, Hansen, 60, has been rewarded for his work developing a statistical method to test theories of asset pricing.</div> <div> </div> <div> In 1982 Hansen presented a statistical theory – called the Generalized Method of Moments – then used it to test whether historical share prices were consistent with the best known asset-pricing model at the time. He found the methods being used must be rejected because they failed to explain share movements. As a result, Hansen’s work helped confirm Shiller’s preliminary findings on bubbles and inspired new research.</div> <div> </div> <div> <span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Eugene Fama</strong></span></div> <div> Chicago University states that Fama, 74, “is widely recognized as the father of modern finance”, although that boast is clearly double-edged given the markets’ recent performance.</div> <div> </div> <div> His views are considered to be the direct opposite of Shiller’s, as they are based on the “efficient markets hypothesis”. This is the idea that markets incorporate all known information about an asset’s value, making it pointless trying to predict which way they will move.</div> <div> </div> <div> <span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>Robert Shiller</strong></span></div> <div> Shiller, 67, is one of the few economists who can claim to have foreseen both the bursting of the dotcom bubble and the US housing crash.</div> <div> </div> <div> His prescient book Irrational Exuberance was first published in 2000, and he followed it up with a second edition in 2005, which took the then unfashionable view that US housing looked dangerously overvalued.</div> <div> </div> <div> He has given his name – along with colleague Karl Case – to the most closely watched housing market indicator in the US, the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index. His most recent book, Finance and the Good Society, is about the benefits of financial innovation.</div> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <p> </p>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-10-21', 'modified' => '2013-10-28', '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 widespread criticism of economists’ failure to predict the banking crash was addressed on Monday, 14th October by the Nobel committee when it awarded the much coveted prize for economics to three academics who try to show how financial markets work.', 'sortorder' => '1879', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1958', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Economists Fear Debt Ceiling Fight May Bring Recession', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> Forget the current government shutdown. Economists say it’s the upcoming debt ceiling impasse that could plunge the United States into a recession. About half of the 22 economists surveyed by CNN Money say a recession will be unavoidable if Congress fails to raise the nation’s debt ceiling before the Treasury runs out of cash later this month.</div> <div> </div> <div> A couple more say a recession is possible depending on how far past the deadline Congress goes before acting. And even those who aren’t predicting recession say not raising the debt ceiling would be a very bad idea.</div> <div> </div> <div> “Financial markets are already being impacted in the short-run as a result of heightened uncertainty,” said Sean Snaith, director of the Institute for Economic Competitiveness at the University of Central Florida. But he said there would be greater long-term damage due to the spending cuts that would occur.</div> <div> </div> <div> “The fiscal shock treatment of having to eliminate the deficit in one fell swoop would reduce GDP by more than 5% and cause a severe recession,” he said.</div> <div> </div> <div> The Treasury Department has also been sounding the warning bells about the debt ceiling. In a report Thursday, Treasury said failure to raise the limit would have a “catastrophic effect” on the economy, sparking an even deeper recession than the 2008 downturn that accompanied the meltdown in financial markets.</div> <div> </div> <div> The economists agree the threat posed by not raising the debt ceiling is significantly greater than that posed by the federal government shutdown that started Tuesday. None predicted a recession being caused by the shutdown alone.</div> <div> </div> <div> “A short to medium duration partial shutdown is not enough to cause recession,” said Sam Bullard, economist with Wells Fargo Securities.</div> <div> </div> <div> But if the debt ceiling isn’t raised, the economists have many different worries, including disruptions in financial markets, followed closely by a loss of confidence in the dollar and Treasuries and very deep cuts in government spending.</div> <div> </div> <div> “No one can know for sure exactly what would happen in the event of a default, but we can all be sure that it would be bad,” said Russell Price of Ameriprise Financial.</div> <div> </div> <div> Even those economists who aren’t predicting a recession are worried about the risks posed by the debt ceiling.</div> <div> </div> <div> “Merely missing the debt ceiling deadline will not trigger a recession, but the risks will rise rapidly with each week after the deadline passes,” said Patrick O’Keefe, director of economic research at accounting firm Cohn Reznick.</div> <div> </div> <div> Some of the economists believe if Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling then the administration will act unilaterally. That might cause a constitutional crisis but they believe it would avoid a financial crisis.</div> <div> </div> <div> “My expectation in this scenario is that the President finds a sufficiently plausible constitutional rationale to ignore the debt ceiling and keep on meeting all US Federal obligations on time with no exceptions,” said Bill Cheney, chief economist with Manulife Asset Management.</div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <p> <strong style="font-size: 14px;">US Debt Crisis Threatens World Economy: IMF</strong></p> </div> <div> Terming the current debt crisis in America as “mission-critical”, the International Monetary Fund has warned the US that its impending debt crisis could damage not only its domestic economy, but the entire global economy. “The ongoing political uncertainty over the budget and the debt ceiling does not help. The Government shutdown is bad enough, but failure to raise the debt ceiling would be far worse, and could very seriously damage not only the US economy, but the entire global economy,” the IMF Managing Director, Christine Lagarde, said on Thursday. “So it is “mission-critical” that this be resolved as soon as possible,” Lagarde said in her address to the George Washington University. The United States, she said, needs to “slow down and hurry up.” By that she meant less fiscal adjustment today and more tomorrow, she added.“That means replacing the sequester with more back-loaded measures that do not hurt the recovery. At the same time, the US needs to do more to make debt sustainable down the road — by containing the growth of entitlement spending and raising revenues,” Lagarde said.</div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-10-08', 'modified' => '2013-10-21', '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' => 'Forget the current government shutdown. Economists say it’s the upcoming debt ceiling impasse that could plunge the United States into a recession. About half of the 22 economists surveyed by CNN Money say a recession will be unavoidable if Congress fails to raise the nation’s debt ceiling before the Treasury runs out of cash later this month.', 'sortorder' => '1824', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1875', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Economic Freedom: Hong Kong, Singapore On Top, US Falls In Rankings', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> The United States has fallen 15 places since 2000 in the global ranking of economic freedom, while Hong Kong and Singapore maintained their top spots. The ‘Economic Freedom of the World’ report 2013, compiled by Canada’s Fraser Institute, ranks Hong Kong first with an overall Economic Freedom Rating of 8.97, followed by Singapore (8.73). In the area of credit market regulations, both the East Asian City States scored 10 out of 10. The United States is positioned as the world’s 17th freest economy behind nations such as New Zealand, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, Mauritius, Finland, Bahrain, Canada, and Australia, who are in the top ten. Throughout most of the period from 1980 to 2000, the United States was ranked as the world’s third-freest economy, behind Hong Kong and Singapore. </div> <div> </div> <div> The U.S. ratings and rankings have fallen in all five areas of the EFW index. The worst reduction was in the area of Legal System and Property Rights, where the rating had slid to 6.93, placing the United States 38th worldwide, tied with Venezuela. The report blames the slippage of the United States, once considered a bastion of economic freedom, on ‘overspending, weakening rule of law, and regulatory overkill on the part of the U.S. government.’ Major countries that ranked below the United States include Germany, Japan, South Korea, France, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Brazil, and India. China, despite being a major economic power, is ranked as low as 123rd in a list of 152 countries. Eight of the ten lowest-rated countries are located in Africa, with Myanmar and Venezuela ending up in last place.</div> <div> </div> <div> The index published in the report, which was compiled using data and surveys from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and World Economic Forum, measures the degree to which the policies and institutions of countries are supportive of economic freedom. The cornerstones of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom to compete, and security of privately owned property. The degree of economic freedom to rank countries was measured using five criteria: size of government, legal system and property rights, sound money, freedom to trade internationally, and regulation.</div> <div> </div> <div> The average chain-linked economic freedom rating for the countries has increased from 5.34 in 1980 to 6.87 in 2011. Nations that are economically free out-perform non-free nations in indicators of well-being. Nations in the top quartile of economic freedom had an average per-capita GDP of $36,446 in 2011, compared to $4,382 for nations in the bottom quartile in the same period. Life expectancy is 79.2 years in nations in the top quartile compared to 60.2 years in those in the bottom quartile. Political and civil liberties are considerably higher in economically free nations than in less free nations.</div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <div> </div> <div> <strong><span style="font-size:16px;">Nepal Falls among Least Economically Free Countries</span></strong></div> <div> </div> <div> Meanwhile, Nepal remained among the least economically free countries in the report for this year. The report states that the degradations in terms of the legal structures and security of property rights and size of the government weighed down on the economic freedom of the country. Nepal ranked 125th out of 152 countries in the report. According to the report, Nepal scored 6.19 out of 10. This marked the further degradation of economic freedom in Nepal. Last year, the country was placed in 110th position out of 144 nations and scored 6.33 points in the index. </div> <div> </div> <div> The ‘Economic Freedom of the World Report 2013’ further emphasized the Nepal government size to be reduced. Regarding the area of ‘size of government’ in the index, Nepal scored 7.6 in 2013 (31st position in the world) against 8.34 of the previous year. The area of ‘freedom to trade internationally’ also declined to 6.4 (118th in the world) which scored 6.74 in 2012.</div> <div> </div> <div> However, the report also showed that Nepal made little progress regarding areas of ‘legal structures and ensuring property rights to its citizens’ with a score of 4.2 (126th in the world) this year against 3.85 of 2012. Similarly, the country also performed better in the areas of ‘access to sound money’ and ‘regulations on credit, labour and business.’ With the improvements in taming of inflation and money growth in the financial system, the area of access to sound money improved slightly to 6.3 (136th in the world) from last year’s 6.26. Likewise, the area of regulations on credit, labour and business also rose to 6.5 (109th in the world) from 6.47 last year.</div> </div> <p> </p>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-09-30', 'modified' => '0000-00-00', '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 United States has fallen 15 places since 2000 in the global ranking of economic freedom, while Hong Kong and Singapore maintained their top spots. The ‘Economic Freedom of the World’ report 2013, compiled by Canada’s Fraser Institute, ranks Hong Kong first with an overall Economic Freedom Rating of 8.97, followed by Singapore (8.73). In the area of credit market regulations, both the East Asian City States scored 10 out of 10.', 'sortorder' => '1736', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1808', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'China Becomes World’s Third Largest Investor After US, Japan', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> </div> <div> China has emerged as the world’s third largest investor as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from the giant jumped by 17.6 percent last year defying a global pattern. China’s outbound FDI rose 17.6 percent year-on-year in 2012 to a record high of USD 87.8 billion, according to the 2012 Statistical Bulletin of China’s Outward Foreign Direct Investment (ODI) by the Ministry of Commerce. Even as global ODI slid 17 percent last year amid uncertainties facing the world economy, China is now world’s third-largest investor, following the United States and Japan, for the first time since the country began to release the data a decade ago. </div> <div> </div> <div> China currently holds about USD 3.30 trillion foreign exchange reserves. About USD 1.20 trillion is invested in US bonds. China was world’s sixth-largest investor in 2011, with an ODI flow of USD 74.65 billion. Last year’s increase represented an acceleration from 8.5 per cent in 2011, when the global economic recovery was weak in the face of continuing financial turmoil in Europe and the United States. “The Chinese government introduced measures to encourage outbound direct investment in pursuit of the ‘going abroad’ strategy, and the country’s outward FDI maintained robust growth in recent years,” said Zhou Zhencheng, commercial counselor of the department of outward investment and economic cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce. Huo Jianguo, president of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, was quoted by the state-run China Daily as saying that the surge in ODI was mainly driven by domestic enterprises eager to tap overseas markets and profit from using global resources. “Debt crises and slowing growth in developed economies opened up great opportunities for Chinese enterprises to invest abroad, and the renminbi’s appreciation helped the process,” Huo said. </div> <div> </div> <div> China’s non-financial ODI went up 13.3 per cent last year to USD 77.73 billion, accounting for 88.5 per cent of the total. Financial ODI surged 65.9 per cent to USD 10.07 billion, the bulletin said. Investment in US jumped 123.5 per cent to USD 4.05 billion, making it the second-largest destination for China’s ODI, the report said. Total ODI to developed economies was around USD 13.51 billion. Chinese investors have established about 22,000 overseas enterprises in 179 countries and regions, “and about 79.2 per cent of them made profits or maintained a balance”, Zhou said. He warned that Chinese enterprises are facing rising risks and challenges, including political unrest in Africa and Southeast Asia. Other challenges include increasing competition from developed economies and restrictions in those markets.</div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <p> <span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Chinese Investment in Nepal Rising</strong></span></p> </div> <div> The northern neighbour has been gradually increasing its investments in Nepal. According to Nepal government’s latest data, in the fiscal year 2012/13, China committed highest foreign direct investment (FDI) in Nepal surpassing India. In the last FY China alone accounted for 30.89 percent of the total amount of the FDI commitment in Nepal. The data showed that Nepal has received Rs 19.39 billion worth of Chinese FDI against Rs 11.49 billion in the previous FY. In FY 2011/12, China stood second in terms of investments in the country after India. </div> <div> </div> <div> In the last FY, investors from mainland China and Hong Kong registered 96 and four investment projects respectively. The investment projects mainly include medium and small businesses such as hotels, restaurants, travel agencies, handicrafts, fisheries and agricultural industries. However, Chinese investors are also pouring their investments in big infrastructure projects of Nepal. Sinohydro Resources Ltd, a Chinese multinational giant has invested in the 50 megawatts Upper Marsyangdi ‘A’ hydropower project, which is under construction. Similarly, Sinohydro and other Chinese contractors are also developing major Nepali hydel projects such as the 456 MW Upper Tamakoshi, 30 MW Chamelia, 14 MW Kulekhani-3.</div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-09-16', 'modified' => '2013-09-23', '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' => 'China has emerged as the world’s third largest investor as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from the giant jumped by 17.6 percent last year defying a global pattern.', 'sortorder' => '1669', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1725', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'India Outpaces Japan To Become World’s 3rd Largest Internet User', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> India surpassed Japan to become the world’s third-largest Internet user, based on the size of its online population, behind only the U.S. and China. The growth highlights the potential of India’s fast-growing e-commerce market, according to a report from global digital measurement and analytics firm ComScore.</div> <div> </div> <div> “Riding on a 31 per cent year-on-year increase, India’s online population grew to 73.9 million. With an extended online universe in excess of 145 million the market is at a tipping point for online businesses. India is the world’s third largest Internet population,” the report said.The country overtook Japan by adding 17.6 million users in 2012, the ComScore report said.Of the total 644 million home and work Internet users in Asia-Pacific as of March 2013, China accounted for a lion’s share of 54 per cent followed by India (11.5 per cent), Japan (11.4 per cent), Southeast Asia (9.6 per cent) and rest of APAC (13.5 per cent).On consumption, ComScore said that media fragmentation is occurring at light speed in today’s multi-platform environment, which features not only computers, but smartphones, tablets, gaming platforms and a ever-increasing number of emerging devices.</div> <div> </div> <div> According to the study, India has the youngest skewing online population among BRIC countries, with 75 percent of its Internet users under the age of 35. “Although the U.S. held 66 percent of the total global Internet audience in 1996, it now accounts for just 13 percent of the global online users, while the Asia-Pacific region accounted for 41 percent and Europe accounted for 27 percent of the global Internet users in 2012,” the report states. </div> <div> </div> <div> However, U.S. users spent the most time on the Internet with North Americans spending 37.2 hours, while users from Asia-Pacific spent just 17.2 hours, on an average, in a month. India’s strong growth in its Internet audience -- at six times the global average growth rate – holds enormous opportunity for the country’s e-marketers, which helps the country’s e-commerce sector, which is estimated to reach $100 billion in size by 2015, according to estimates.</div> <div> </div> <div> “While 60 percent of Web users in India visit online retail sites, time spent on shopping sites still has huge growth potential,” the report said. India’s online retail market grew more than 60 percent in 2012-2013, with the apparels market growing by 21 percent, ComScore said. Indian Internet users spent 25 percent of their online time in social networking websites, with 86 percent of the total audience visiting such sites in the last fiscal year. Facebook dominates the segment with 59.6 million user-visits and a 28 percent increase in the traffic. Entertainment and online video segments also witnessed exponential growth with 54 million users, in 2012-13. “The online video audience in India grew an astounding 27 percent in the past year, and YouTube continues to be the top video property with more than 55 percent share,” according to the report. </div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <h5> ‘Mobile internet fueling internet population growth in Nepal’</h5> <div> In line with the global surge, Nepal is also witnessing a staggering growth of internet population. According to a report published by Nepal Telecom Authority (NTA) in July, over 25 per cent of Nepali citizens have access to internet connection. “As of mid-July (last fiscal year), Nepal’s internet penetration rate reached 26.10 per cent of the total population against the rate of 19 per cent in the same period of last year,” the report states. </div> <div> </div> <div> The report informed that the total number of internet users has reached 6.91 million. </div> <div> The robust use of internet is fueled by mobile internet, sub-broadband and high speed services such as WiMax. However, the high speed 3G wireless mobile network is seen as the main driving factor of internet population growth in Nepal. “Out of total subscribers, 6 million users surf the world wide web through their mobile devices,” reads the NTA report. The sharp rise in the availability of low-cost smartphone handsets and competitive bandwidth prices are seen as factors attracting internet users. Furthermore, the appeal of social media is also considered as another major element which contributes to the rise of internet users. In July, commercial web traffic data provider Alexa Internet Inc, a subsidiary of Amazon.com, ranked Facebook as the most popular website among Nepali internet users. The company also ranked Twitter and Linkedin in 12th and 13th place in Nepal respectively.</div> <div> </div> </div> <p> </p>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-09-02', 'modified' => '2013-09-10', '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' => 'India surpassed Japan to become the world’s third-largest Internet user, based on the size of its online population, behind only the U.S. and China.', 'sortorder' => '1586', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1689', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Economic Downturn In India, Indonesia Raise Fears', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> The recent equity sell-down and currency fall in India and Indonesia have raised contagion fears across Asia, similar to the Asian financial crisis in 1997. What started off as a relatively contained sell-down in Indonesia and India is now turning into a confidence crisis. The Indian rupee has lost 12 percent since May 2013, making it the worst performer in the emerging market currency basket, Xinhua said in an analysis Saturday.</div> <div> </div> <div> There is now widespread panic over the rupee, and the short-term measures imposed by the Indian government such as curbing the import of gold are widely seen as ineffective. In Indonesia, the sharp weakening in the rupiah and weak commodity export prices have caused its foreign exchange reserves to fall by a significant 18 percent year-to-date from $112 billion to $92 billion, fuelling investors’ concerns over the defensibility of the currency and the concurrent risks of sharp policy rate hikes.</div> <div> </div> <div> The impact of capital outflows and financial turbulence as a result of India and Indonesia problems will undoubtedly be significant and widespread in other Asian emerging economies such as Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines, where bubbles have been inflated by easy credit and super easy monetary policy. During the 1997 Asian financial turmoil, the currency meltdown in Thailand sent a chain reaction of weaker currencies, falling stock markets and a steep rise in private debt across Southeast Asian economies and South Korea, sinking most of them into deep recession.</div> <div> </div> <div> CIMB research said for the rest of the Asian economies, recent developments in India and Indonesia should have very little negative economic impact. Backed by better regulated financial sector and stable domestic growth drivers, Asian financial markets should also be able to maintain a steady inflow of capital. Credit Suisse research believed that the impact of India and Indonesia sell-down upon North Asian economies such as China and South Korea will also be limited. (news.yahoo.com)</div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <p> <strong><span style="font-size:14px;">‘Crisis unlikely due to currency depreciation’</span></strong></p> </div> <div> Negative spillover effects from India in the Nepali economy have always been pertaining issue for the Nepali economy. Crisis in value of rupee is the latest in the series. With the sharp depreciation of Nepali rupee (NPR) against the US dollar, caused by the devaluation and volatility in Indian rupee (INR), experts have started serious debate over the pegged exchange rate.</div> <div> </div> <div> However, chief economic advisor at Finance Ministry Dr Chiranjivi Nepal ruled out the possibility of revising pegged exchange rate. 'The weakening of Indian and other Asian currencies is unlikely to bring crisis like 1997, now the economies are in better position compare to that period,' said Nepal. According to Nepal, the depreciation of INR will not continue for long time. Indian government has continuously putting effort to control the steep fall of value of rupee against dollar,” he opined, adding that it can be expected that Indian central bank will take aggressive measures to contain INR in a level. </div> <div> </div> <div> The recent massive depreciation of Indian currency has thrown all these logics out of the window and the situation calls for a serious debate on whether Nepali rupee should maintain the peg system. When asked about the review of existing exchange rate, Nepal rejected such calls. 'Nepali economy will encounter many problems if the existing exchange rate is changed,' he said. 'Reviewing the rate will ease the dollar price but cheaper foreign goods will influx the Nepali market and more money will be needed for the import of goods.' He further added that the government to take proper policies aiming to boost the export to take benefit from the strong dollar. </div> <div> </div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-08-26', 'modified' => '0000-00-00', '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 recent equity sell-down and currency fall in India and Indonesia have raised contagion fears across Asia, similar to the Asian financial crisis in 1997.', 'sortorder' => '1550', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1639', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Gold Demand From India, China Could Hit Record 1,000 Tonnes Each In 2013', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> India’s gold demand could reach a record 1,000 tonnes this year as consumers buy for the festival and wedding season in the second half, the World Gold Council said, which may scuttle the country’s efforts to curb its imports and a trade deficit. Demand from China, which is on course to challenge India’s position as the top gold consumer this year, could also soar to a record 1,000 tonnes in 2013, the WGC said. </div> <div> </div> <div> Strong physical buying from the world’s biggest consumers, who account for nearly 60 per cent of global demand, will help prop up prices of the metal that have shed about 20 per cent this year after 12 consecutive annual gains. Consumer demand has however not been enough so far to compensate for a sharp drop in investor appetite this year, the WGC said in its quarterly report on Thursday. India, which wants to keep imports below 850 tonnes in 2013, has raised import taxes three times in eight months. On Wednesday, it banned overseas purchases of gold bars and coins to rein in dollar spending. </div> <div> </div> <div> But the resilience in Indian demand has offset government efforts to curb imports, which revived in July after dropping in June. According to WGC, India’s consumption of gold rose to 310 tonnes in the second quarter ended June, highest in the last 10 years, despite government curbs to restrict imports to rein in burgeoning current account deficit. Much of the demand was met by stocks that had been built up to healthy levels following the April price drop. Imports more than doubled to 338 tonnes in April-June of this calendar year, it said. Gold consumption stood at 181.1 tonnes in the same quarter last year.</div> <div> </div> <div> “We’ve seen that demand is robust,” Somasundaram PR, WGC’s India managing director, told Reuters. “Once the monsoon is over, rural incomes will rise and that will have its own impact on demand.” </div> <div> </div> <div> “There are also a lot more marriage and festival dates in October and November in the fourth quarter,” said Somasundaram, who estimated full-year demand between 900 tonnes to 1,000 tonnes for both India and China. Hitting the upper end of that range would be record annual consumption for both the countries, he said. The rural population accounts for about 60 per cent of gold demand in India, where the precious metal forms an essential part of a bride’s dowry and is considered auspicious as a gift or offering at religious festivals. India’s demand reached 566 tonnes in the first half of the year, a 50 per cent jump but still lower than China’s 600 tonnes, the industry-funded WGC said in its report.</div> <div> </div> <div> Demand this year has been particularly strong as falling prices have prompted consumers across the world to buy bullion in the form of jewellery, bars and coins. Analysts say India’s moves to curb imports have been unable to stifle demand, thus pushing local prices to around $50 an ounce above London spot prices. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Record Buying in China </strong></div> <div> China’s gold-buying spree in the first six months of the year is likely to continue into the second half amid festivals and uncertainty about the economy, which has seen a slowdown in nine out of the past 10 quarters. </div> <div> </div> <div> “The falling gold price is key. But there are also other macroeconomic conditions that are pushing (the Chinese) to gold,” said Albert Cheng, WGC’s managing director for the Far East region. (Agencies)</div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <h2> <strong>Appetite for Gold in Nepal Rising</strong></h2> </div> <div> The consumption of yellow metal among Nepali consumers has been following an increasing trend. According to Ministry of Finance (MoF), gold import in Nepal reached 5,807 kg which is worth Rs 26 billion in the fiscal year 2012-13.</div> <div> </div> <div> However, the import of gold was slightly down in the last FY compared to the whopping 5,900 kg in the FY 2011-12. Traders blame the quota system imposed by the government for the decline in the last fiscal year though their overall gold consumption outlook remains bullish. “Our initial estimation shows that about 26 tonnes of gold will be consumed by the end of current FY in the domestic market,” said Manik Ratna Shakya, general secretary of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers Association (NEGOSIDA). </div> <div> </div> <div> Shakya informed that the average daily gold demand in the domestic market stands at 30 kg on average. “The average daily demand in the marriage season stands around 35 kg. We’ve witnessed the seasonal demand of gold up to 50 kg in the past,” he mentioned. Shakya blamed the restrictions imposed on gold imports for the low quantity trade. “The quota system has actually promoted illegal trade and it has some immediate impacts,” he told The Corporate weekly, “The government’s revenue from gold import will decline and the remittance inflow will also suffer as migrant workers may buy gold abroad and send it here using informal channels due to the restrictions.”</div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-08-19', 'modified' => '2013-08-19', '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' => 'India’s gold demand could reach a record 1,000 tonnes this year as consumers buy for the festival and wedding season', 'sortorder' => '1500', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1594', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Global Ecommerce To Top $1.2 Tn, Driven By Asia-Pacific Growth', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> Independent market research firm eMarketer released a study claiming that business-to-consumer (B2C) ecommerce will increase by 17 percent globally in 2013, with worldwide sales expected to reach $1.2 trillion. The Asia-Pacific region is driving ecommerce growth more than any other, and is expected to outpace the rest of the world at 23 percent growth over last year. China and Indonesia are leading the region’s growth. “Asia-Pacific already accounts for nearly a third of all B2C ecommerce sales in the world, a share of the total just below North America’s. Next year, Asia-Pacific will lead all regions in share of the worldwide total spent online,” the study asserted.</div> <div> </div> <div> Indonesia is expected to see ecommerce growth up 65 percent compared to 2012. China is up 71 percent over last year. Comparatively, the U.S. expects only a 12 percent rise in ecommerce by the end of the year.</div> <div> </div> <div> While the Asia-Pacific leads in growth, North America maintains its lead in actual sales. North America spent $373 billion in 2012, which is expected to rise to $420 billion in 2013. The Asia-Pacific spent $316 billion in 2012 and eMarketer anticipates $389 billion to be spent this year. However, the Asia-Pacific is set to overcome the reigning top spender by the end of next year. While North America is expected to have $469 billion in sales for 2014, the Asia-Pacific will take the lead at $502 billion. The gap will widen even further by 2016 – with the Asia-Pacific expected to spend $708 billion versus North America’s $580 billion.</div> <div> </div> <div> The study also indicated that more web users in the Asia-Pacific are embracing online shopping. “Ecommerce sales growth will be supported by an estimated 1.03 billion digital buyers around the world this year, 44.4% of whom will be in Asia-Pacific. China alone will boast 269.4 million digital buyers this year—a figure that includes internet users ages 14 and older who make at least one purchase via any digital channel during the calendar year. The US remains the country with the second-largest number of digital buyers, at 155.7 million this year,” the study claimed. The study concludes that many web users in the Asia-Pacific who previously weren’t buying online will decrease this year. eMarketer expects penetration to increase in China, from 40 percent last year to a projected 71 percent of internet users by 2017. Current digital buyer penetration in the U.S. is just slightly above that projection currently at 72 percent.</div> <div> </div> <div> “There is still significant room for growth, though, in developing markets where many internet users are still not buying online. Western Europe and North America are the only regions in the world where a majority of the online population is also a digital buyer,” said the study. As countries like China increase its wealth, it becomes inevitable that more of its citizens will be connected to the web. It is logical to assume that many of those Internet users will discover the advantages (and disadvantages) of buying online.</div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <div> <strong><span style="font-size:14px;">E-markets in Nepal on the Rise</span></strong></div> <div> </div> <div> E-commerce market in Nepal emerged about a decade ago. Kick-started through gift-sending and bill payment services through online portals, the market went on to expand due to increasing purchasing power among Nepali consumers. Online shopping revenues have witnessed fast paced growth as the number of internet users in Nepal continues to rise. The domestic e-commerce market has now expanded into various segments such as online shopping, e-banking, mobile commerce, electronic cash transfers and e-ticketing. Time and money saving hassle-free services are seen to be the main factors in attracting internet users to online markets. </div> <div> </div> <div> Annual online transactions in Nepal are estimated to be around Rs 10 billion, although an official figure is not available. Many online shopping websites have emerged since the inception of e-commerce in Nepal. Muncha.com, Thamel.com, Harilo.com, Yeskantipur.com, Metrotarkari.com, Foodmandu.com, Bhatbhatenionline.com and Nepbay.com are some of the popular websites among Nepali online shoppers. Some of these sell their own products whereas others deliver from global sites such as eBay and Amazon. Nepali shoppers have the option to buy products ranging from groceries and fresh vegetables to cars from online portals. </div> <div> </div> <div> However, lack of a clear policy is hindering the growth of online markets here. “The government has not helped the domestic e-commerce market and neither obstructed it,” says Balkrishna Joshi, the CEO of Thamel.com. According to Joshi, the e-commerce market in Nepal is facing problems in the bill payment system. “Establishing a central payment gateway will solve this problem, the central bank and concerned authorities should look into this,” Joshi said. “Similarly, creating a safer online environment for customers will also attract more investments in e-markets here,” he added.</div> <div> </div> </div> <div> </div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-08-12', 'modified' => '2013-08-12', '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' => 'Independent market research firm eMarketer released a study claiming that business-to-consumer (B2C) ecommerce will increase by 17 percent globally in 2013, with worldwide sales expected to reach $1.2 trillion.', 'sortorder' => '1455', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1547', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'Global Economy Gains Steam', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> In a apparent sign that global economic recovery is gaining momentum, the manufacturing activities in United States and Europe rose at a faster pace in July. According to various surveys published last week, US manufacturing grew in July at its fastest pace in two years while European factories snapped a two-year run of declining output, suggesting a prolonged euro zone recession may be near its end. Also the output at British factories also surged last month, while an index of China’s massive manufacturing sector suggested the slowdown in the world’s No. 2 economy may be stabilizing. JPMorgan’s Global Manufacturing PMI edged up to 50.8 in July from 50.6 in June, holding above the 50 mark that divides growth from contraction. “Global manufacturing output continues to expand at a modest pace, consistent with a global economy that is held back from considerable fiscal drags in the first half of the year,” said Joe Lupton, senior economist at JPMorgan. </div> <div> </div> <div> A sharp rise in new orders in US helped propel the Institute for Supply Management’s index of national factory activity to a two-year high of 55.4 in July, beating economists’ expectations of 52.0 and June’s reading of 50.9. A separate index from financial data firm Markit rose to 53.7, a four-month high, from 51.9 in June. “It’s obviously good news. Orders have bounced back. If this is happening in the context of a global improvement, that’s a good thing,” said Pierre Ellis, senior global economist at Decision Economics Inc in New York. </div> <div> </div> <div> Meanwhile, Markit’s Eurozone manufacturing PMI showed marginal growth among factories for the first time in two years, with the index at 50.3, up from 48.8 in June. Output rose in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland, France and Austria. </div> <div> </div> <div> The company’s flash composite PMI, based on surveys of thousands of companies across the region, jumped to an 18-month high of 50.4, from 48.7. Readings above 50 signify growth. In China, the official factory PMI was a bit stronger than expected last month, although growth remained modest. The biggest surprise came from the UK, where Markit’s UK manufacturing PMI jumped to 54.6, trumping even the most optimistic forecast in a Reuters poll of economists and triggering a rise in sterling. </div> <div> </div> <div> Overall, the data allayed fears that the global economy’s mid-year lull would deepen. “We’re seeing different trends in different parts of the world, which are to a large extent offsetting each other,” said Andrew Kenningham, senior global economist at Capital Economics in London. </div> <div> <em>(Agencies)</em></div> <div> </div> <div> <hr /> <div> <strong>‘Nepal likely to benefit from global economic recovery’</strong></div> <div> </div> <div> Nepal has thus far been relatively aloof from the global financial crisis and economic meltdown in the West. The Nepali economy is insulated against such external shocks as risks from inflow of toxic assets remains zero. This is mainly due to the country's financial market not integrated with international market. However, there are signs of strain contributed by indirect impact through trade (reduction of export earnings, and especially contraction of merchandise exports) and spillover effects from India. The steady decline in foreign aid funding is also seen as another impact of the global meltdown. </div> <div> </div> <div> Nepal also saw a marginal rise in tourist arrivals caused by declining disposable income in advanced economies. As India and China are more prone to global risks, negative spillovers from their weakening economies is exerting pressure on Nepal. The sharp depreciation of the Nepali currency (which maintains an exchange rate peg with the Indian Rupee) in recent days is an example of such spillovers. Subdued demand in recession-marred Europe, the major export market of India, is said to be the main cause of the Indian Rupee’s devaluation. </div> <div> </div> <div> But with the global economic recovery gathering pace, experts are hoping that external headwinds faced by the Nepali economy are likely to fade away in the coming days. "Economic revival in the United States and Europe is positive for South Asia, it will eventually create demand in the region," says Dr Chiranjibi Nepal, Ecomomic Advisor to the Nepali Ministry of Finance. According to him, the rise in demand for manufactured goods along with other materials will boost the manufacturing sector, thus generating employment. "Nepal's major exports to Europe and US, such as garments, carpets and handicrafts can benefit from the recovery," he adds. Dr Nepal also mentioned the prospect for rise in tourist arrivals from developed nations as disposable income in western nations is bound to increase following the economic recovery.</div> <div> </div> </div> <p> </p>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-08-05', 'modified' => '2013-08-05', '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 a apparent sign that global economic recovery is gaining momentum, the manufacturing activities in United States and Europe rose at a faster pace in July.', 'sortorder' => '1408', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1503', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'India To Be World’s 3rd Largest Auto Market By 2016', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> India will become the third largest automotive market in the world by 2016 ahead of Japan, Germany and Brazil, riding on its domestic automotive sales, according to IHS Automotive, a global market information provider. Although the economic growth vulnerability and lower sentiment resulted in market slowdown in 2012 and 2013, India is expected to regain strong growth trend from 2014 onwards, said the Colorado-based firm. </div> <div> </div> <div> “We expect that by 2016, vehicle sales would surpass Brazil, Germany and Japan making India the third largest market,” IHS Senior Principal Economist Charles Chesbrough said here. </div> <div> </div> <div> In 2012, China, the US and Japan were the top three global automotive markets and India was ranked six after Brazil and Germany in the fourth and fifth positions respectively. Sounding bullish on the Indian market in the mid to long term, IHS said: “Investment reform policy will induce better environment for domestic and foreign enterprises. India light vehicle production (is) expected to reach 7 million by 2020.” </div> <div> </div> <div> The implications for auto demand are huge in India and the country has been moving along the penetration path, it said. “With demand for vehicles declining in most mature markets in the face of the global recession, high fuel costs and urban driving restrictions, the industry is turning its attention more strongly towards the expanding middle classes in the new powerhouse of China, India, Brazil, Russia and other growing nations,” Chesbrough said. </div> <div> </div> <div> The growth of automobile sales will not be restricted only to mass market vehicles, IHS said. “The favorable Indian market conditions are acting as a catalyst for luxury and premium carmakers, which are receiving impetus from new launches. The top-end carmakers have posted double-digit growth for the quarter ended June 30, 2013,” IHS Director James Chao said. </div> <div> </div> <div> According to IHS, in terms of production volume, India would move to fourth position in 2020 ahead of Germany and Brazil from its currently sixth spot. IHS said as India develops, its citizens acquire wealth, demand for automobiles will increase as the need of personal transportation rises. “It may take a little longer in India because they do not have the infrastructure...but we know about the personal behaviour as people gain wealth, they want freedom, ability to go where they want to go and when they want to go,” Chesbrough said. <em>(The Economic Times)</em></div> <div> </div> <table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%"> <tbody> <tr> <td bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <h1> More Vehicles, Less Roads </h1> <div> Nepali auto market has expanded at rapid pace in the recent years. The construction of roads and other related infrastructures have contributed to the rise of vehicles sales. According to Economic Survey published by Nepal government last week, on an average, 61 vehicles are sharing one kilometer of road around the country. The total number of registered vehicles has reached 1.5 million by the end of fiscal year 2069/70. The survey reports that vehicle import has increased by 40 per cent annually. More than 142,000 vehicles were sold in FY 2069/70 compared as to 101,000 in previous FY. Increase in remittance, raised income of middle class families and road expansion activities are seen as the key driving factors for increased vehicle sales. </div> <div> </div> <div> However, the low availability of roads is seen as major problematic factor. Particularly, with the increase of vehicle sales, Kathmandu valley and other major cities are facing huge traffic congestions on a daily basis. The total length of road around the country reached 24,583 kms by the end of last FY which is very less compared to the number of registered vehicles. The sluggishness in road construction and expansion is also seen as another factor hindering the vehicle sales. The official data has showed that 518 km road was constructed in eight months of last FY which is about 58 per cent less compared to FY 2068/69. According to Tulsi Prasad Sitaula, Secretary at Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, the roads are constructed only with government investments, which has not brought the expected speed of infrastructure development. ‘Private sector is pouring its investment only in importing vehicles but the roads constructions are not carried out to equalize the investment,’ he said.</div> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p> </p>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-07-29', 'modified' => '2013-07-29', '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' => 'India will become the third largest automotive market in the world by 2016 ahead of Japan, Germany and Brazil', 'sortorder' => '1364', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1455', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'India Relaxes FDI Norms To Boost Slowing Growth', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> India has relaxed foreign direct investment (FDI) rules across several industries, including telecoms, single brand retail and oil and gas, in a bid to lure capital inflows, prop up a sliding currency and accelerate growth. India’s weakest economic growth in a decade and a record high current account deficit have made the rupee the worst-performing emerging Asian currency so far this year. The changes will have to be approved by India’s cabinet before they become law, although that is seen as a formality. Here are the sectors in which FDI caps will be revised: </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Telecoms </strong></div> <div> The FDI cap on the telecoms sector was raised to 100 percent from 74 percent. While a foreign company can buy up to a 49 percent stake in an Indian phone carrier without seeking approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board(FIPB), any investment beyond that will need the country’s foreign investment regulator’s nod. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Petroleum and Natural Gas </strong></div> <div> The FDI cap for the sector was left unchanged at 49 percent, but foreign investment up to 49 percent will no longer require FIPB approval. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Insurance </strong></div> <div> Foreign investment up to 49 percent in insurers will not require the government’s approval. The foreign investment limit in the sector is currently capped at 26 percent. A bill to raise the cap to 49 percent is stuck in parliament. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Defence Production </strong></div> <div> There was effectively no change in the FDI cap of 26 percent in the defence sector, although trade minister Anand Sharma said a cabinet panel would consider any FDI proposal for investment above 26 percent in state-of-the-art technology. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Retail </strong></div> <div> FDI up to 49 percent in the single-brand retail sector will no longer require the FIPB’s approval. The government also said it will issue clarifications soon on its FDI policy for supermarkets. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Commodity, Power and Stock Exchanges </strong></div> <div> Foreign investment of up to 49 percent will not require the government’s approval. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Asset Reconstruction Companies </strong></div> <div> India will allow FDI up to 49 percent with no government approval, but foreign investors will need FIPB approval to buy a bigger stake in an Indian asset reconstruction company. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Courier Services </strong></div> <div> Foreign investors can now invest up to 100 percent in the courier services sector and will not need government approval. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Credit Information Companies </strong></div> <div> India will allow up to 74 percent FDI in credit information companies, with no need to seek government approval for investments up to that level. </div> <div> </div> <div> <strong>Civil Aviation and Media </strong></div> <div> The government left FDI caps in civil aviation and media unchanged at 49 percent and 26 percent respectively. </div> <div> <em>(Agency)</em></div> <div> </div>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-07-22', 'modified' => '0000-00-00', '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' => 'India has relaxed foreign direct investment (FDI) rules across several industries, including telecoms, single brand retail and oil and gas, in a bid to lure capital inflows, prop up a sliding currency and accelerate growth. India’s weakest economic growth in a decade and a record high current account deficit have made the rupee the worst-performing emerging Asian currency so far this year.', 'sortorder' => '1316', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '1408', 'article_category_id' => '137', 'title' => 'World Unprepared For Urban Boom', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => null, 'content' => '<div> </div> <div> In a world of more than nine billion people by 2050, most of the 6.5 billion urban dwellers will be living in developing countries, says the World Economic and Social Survey 2013, emphasising that new strategies are needed to address the impacts of rapid urbanisation around the world, including increasing demands for energy, water, sanitation, public services, education and health. </div> <div> </div> <div> According to the survey published by the UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs last week, more than 6.25 billion people will be living in cities by 2050. Within the time period of 2000-2050, developing regions could add 3.2 billion new urbanites, a figure larger than the entire world’s population in 1950. The survey found that the vision of sustainable development — promoting economic and social wellbeing while protecting the environment — has not been achieved, despite encouraging progress. Rising inequality and shortfalls in development partnership, rapid population growth, climate change and environmental degradation have hampered efforts. </div> <div> </div> <div> Damage to the global environment is reaching critical levels and threatens to lead to irreversible changes in global ecosystems, the survey said. The overarching environmental damage is anthropogenic, with humans releasing increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which is leading to global warming. If no policy framework is established to address this issue, the survey states, the number of people living in slums lacking access to basic infrastructure and services such as water, sanitation, electricity, health care and education might triple from 1 billion at present to 3 billion by 2050. </div> <div> </div> <div> The survey states that sustainable development of urban areas requires integration, coordination, and investments to tackle issues of land-use, food security, job creation, building new roads, biodiversity conservation, water conservation, renewable energy sourcing, waste and recycling management, and the provision of education, health care and housing. The survey calls for ambitious, action-oriented sustainable development strategies to address the different levels of urban development that are adaptable to different contexts. </div> <div> </div> <div> Estimates indicate that food production will have to increase 70 percent globally to feed an additional 2.3 billion people by 2050. The survey emphasises that economic and financial incentives to create and adopt new technologies will require policy reforms including taxes and subsidies, as well as regulatory reforms. (Agency)</div> <table border="0" cellpadding="20" width="99%"> <tbody> <tr> <td bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <div> <span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>‘Nepal’s push for urbanization is poorly managed’</strong></span></div> <div> </div> <div> Nepal, once viewed as least urbanised country in South Asia, is witnessing a rapid pace of urbanisation. Population increase and migration are considered as significant factors in the growth of cities across the country. Rise in infrastructure development and increased economic opportunities too are fuelling the push for urbanisation. According to government data , Nepal’s urban population grew at 4.45 percent in 2012 compared to the previous year. Some 20 percent of Nepal’s population is currently living in urban areas. The contribution of urban areas to the gross domestic product (GDP) is assumed to be 65 percent. Urban areas in Nepal spread across 3,276 km square of the total area. A report published by The World Bank last year marked Nepal as the fastest urbanising nation in South Asia. </div> <div> </div> <div> However, poorly managed urbanisation in Nepal is ringing alarm bells as many problems have emerged. Particularly, the growth of cities is associated with rise in unemployment, inadequate health service, poor sanitation, urban slums, environmental degradation and crime. The World Bank last year warned that unless the government seriously manages urbanisation better, the country could fail to attain economic efficiency from the process. In March 2013, the bank also published another report entitled ‘Urban Growth and Spatial Transition: An Initial Assessment’ which warns about the consequences of unmanaged urbanisation in Nepal. ‘Nepal’s urban centres, particularly the Kathmandu Valley, are already facing serious challenges due to multiple factors such as inadequate infrastructure, haphazard planning and poor business environment,’ states the report. The report strongly advocates for the government to prioritise on investment in infrastructure, connect cities internally and externally and make growth inclusive in order to foster the growth and sustainability of urban area</div> <div> </div> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p> </p>', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2013-07-15', 'modified' => '2013-09-04', '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 a world of more than nine billion people by 2050, most of the 6.5 billion urban dwellers will be living in developing countries, says the World Economic and Social Survey 2013', 'sortorder' => '1270', 'image' => null, 'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '0' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = false $xml = falsesimplexml_load_file - [internal], line ?? include - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 133 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 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
| Currency | Unit |
Buy | Sell |
| U.S. Dollar | 1 | 121.23 | 121.83 |
| European Euro | 1 | 131.65 | 132.31 |
| UK Pound Sterling | 1 | 142.47 | 143.18 |
| Swiss Franc | 1 | 124.29 | 124.90 |
| Australian Dollar | 1 | 71.69 | 72.05 |
| Canadian Dollar | 1 | 83.90 | 84.32 |
| Japanese Yen | 10 | 10.94 | 11.00 |
| Chinese Yuan | 1 | 17.17 | 17.26 |
| Saudi Arabian Riyal | 1 | 32.27 | 32.43 |
| UAE Dirham | 1 | 33.01 | 33.17 |
| Malaysian Ringgit | 1 | 27.36 | 27.50 |
| South Korean Won | 100 | 9.77 | 9.82 |
Update: 2020-03-25 | Source: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB)
| Fine Gold | 1 tola | 77000.00 |
| Tejabi Gold | 1 tola | 76700.00 |
| Silver | 1 tola | 720.00 |
Update : 2020-03-25
Source: Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers' Association
| Petrol | 1 Liter | 106.00 |
| Diesel | 1 Liter | 95.00 |
| Kerosene | 1 Liter | 95.00 |
| LP Gas | 1 Cylinder | 1375.00 |
Update : 2020-03-25
