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PTI —To attract religious tourists from various countries, including India, Nepal has undertaken several infrastructure development projects with the support of Asian Development Bank (ADB), according to officials.

To improve regional connectivity and trade, ADB last year approved USD 180 million under the South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) programme for widening the East-West Highway connecting India, ADB country-director Nepal Mukhtor Khamudkhanov said.

The project implemented under the SASEC aimed at strengthening road, rail, and air links, as well as developing port infrastructure to match the needs of the regions–Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.

As part of infrastructure development by ADB, an international airport near Lumbini, the birth place of Gautam Buddha, is expected to be operational by March next year.

The USD 70 million airport infrastructure being developed under South Asia Tourism Infrastructure Development Project, Khamudkhanov said.

Gautam Buddha International Airport, Bhairahawa, a place near Lumbini, is expected to attract tourists from Buddha circuit in India and other neighbouring countries like China, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Japan.

More than five countries, including India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Cambodia, have shown interest in starting airline operation from the upcoming airport.

Besides Lumbini, Bivah Panchami in Janakpur is a big attraction for many tourists from India, said Suraj Vaidya National Coordinator Visit Nepal 2020.

According to mythology, Lord Rama married Sita on Bivah Panchami in Janakpur. The festival is observed every year to mark the occasion.

It attracts lot of tourists from various places including India, Vaidya said, adding, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath paid a visit to Janakpur on Bivah Panchami last year.

Ayodhya, the birth place of Lord Rama is in Uttar Pradesh. Last year, India, Nepal started Janakpur-Ayodhya bus service under Ramayan Circuit.

“Both Uttar Pradesh and Nepal are trying to make Bivah Panchami a bigger affair. We are working with other states including Bihar on developing tourism potential which can be win-win for both the countries,” he said.

Vaidya said, Shiv Shakti Parikrama, a visit of holy sites related with Lord Shiva, is also part of Visit Nepal 2020 campaign.

Despite Indian Airline hijack in 1999, Nepal remains one of the important destinations for Indian tourists. The latest number also indicates so.

As per the official data, as many as 11.73 lakh tourists visited Nepal last year. Of this, nearly 2 lakh were Indians and 69,640 from Sri Lanka and 26,355 from another neighbouring country Bangladesh.

PTI— Interacting with journalists at a programme in Kathmandu, the former Nepal Communist Party supremo said, “I believe, the China-India Plus or 2+1 concept does not talk about equal shares between China, Nepal and India, rather, it suggests that the first two countries will have bigger roles and the third one will have fewer roles when it comes to forging such partnership.”

“Nepal cannot become merely a transit point between the two immediate neighbouring countries. Rather, Nepal should also have its equal share when we forge such partnership,” he was quoted as saying by MyRepublica portal.

Prachanda said Nepal being a sovereign and independent country should have equal status and say in the trilateral partnership.

In October, China’s Vice Foreign Minister Luo Zhaohui said his country is interested in furthering India-China Plus formula to develop a common strategy for Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Africa.

“One of the consensus of the Wuhan meeting (held last year between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping) is to carry out China-India Plus cooperation, because China and India are neighbours that cannot move away from each other. Both countries are major countries and their cooperation on international and regional issues is very important,” Luo said in Beijing.

On Friday, Prachanda was speaking as the chief guest at the ‘Nepal-China relations and media’s role to strengthen people-to-people ties’ programme organised by Nepal-China Media Forum in Kathmandu.

“We should understand why Chinese President Xi Jinping last month came to Nepal on a state visit via India after holding meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This showed China’s acceptance of the trilateral partnership,” the former prime minister said.

Prachanda said border issues between Nepal and India should be resolved through diplomatic and political dialogue.

India earlier this month released fresh maps of the newly created Union Territories (UTs) of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh and the map of India depicting these UTs.

In the maps, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is part of the newly created Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, while Gilgit-Baltistan is in the Union Territory of Ladakh.

On November 6, the Nepal government said media reports drew its attention to the Kalapani area being included in the new Indian map.

The issues related to Kalapani and Susta is a long-standing issue between Nepal and India and now is an opportune time to resolve these issues through dialogue, Prachanda told newsmen.

He said the Nepal government must present historical documents supporting Nepal’s claim over Kalapani and Limpiadhura, the border areas in the Himalayan country’s far-West.

Prachanda said in today’s world of advanced information technology the media can play an effective role to bring countries and societies closer.

As the media is a powerful tool for communication we need to use it for creating positive public opinions, he added.

Nepali Congress leader Dr Ram Sharan Mahat stressed on the need for promoting people-to-people contacts between Nepal and China besides enhancing economic and political ties between the two countries.

Also participating in the programme, First Secretary Press of the Chinese Embassy Wang Xialong said the promotion of people-to-people relations is one of the components in the Memorandum of Understanding of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) signed between Nepal and China in 2017.

“President Xi Jinping recently paid a successful visit to Nepal and one of the focuses of the visit was to promote the people-to-people contacts,” he said.

Xinhua, Kathmandu — The first meeting of the working group on investment cooperation between Nepal and China was held in Kathmandu on Friday as officials of two sides discussed issues to facilitate Chinese investment in the Himalayan country, a senior official of Nepal’s Finance Ministry said.

“During the meeting, we discussed on measures taken by Nepal to facilitate foreign investment including policy and legal reforms, procedure reforms and shared each others’ legal provisions to facilitate investment,” Sreekrishna Nepal, joint secretary at the Nepal’s Finance Ministry, who led the Nepali team, told Xinhua on Friday evening.

A delegation led by senior government official of China’s Commerce Ministry represented the meeting, according to Nepal’s Finance Ministry.

Nepal has introduced a number of laws including new Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Act, amended Industrial Enterprises Act, introduced law on Special Economic Zones and the one stop service center recently set up at Nepal’s Department of Industry to provide most of the services at a single location to register an industry.

According to the joint secretary, the Nepali side also notified the Chinese side about major potential areas of investment in Nepal such as energy, tourism, agri business and urban infrastructure.

“We also talked about the need for the establishment of at least a branch of a Chinese bank in Nepal for cross-border payment settlements amid growing trade and investment cooperation between the two countries,” the official said.

According to the joint secretary, the two sides also discussed making coordinated efforts to ensure that more Chinese investment in Nepal could be facilitated.

China is the largest source of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Nepal in recent years as the Chinese investors pledged the highest FDI to Nepal for four years in a row as of last fiscal year 2018-19 that ended in mid-July, according to Nepal’s Department of Industry.

Nepal received FDI commitments of 114 million U.S. dollars from Chinese investors in the last fiscal year against the total FDI pledge of 216 million U.S. dollars.

During the first quarter of the current fiscal year 2019-20, China has pledged nearly 93 percent of total FDI commitments which stood at 95 million U.S. dollars.

Meanwhile, Nepali Finance Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada said on Friday that the Himalayan country has a huge potential for Chinese investment because Nepal witnessed one of the highest economic growth rates in South Asia in the last three years and Nepal’s strategic location as a gateway to South Asia.

Nepal’s average economic growth rate over the last three fiscal years stood at around 7 percent. “We can also provide gateway opportunity to manufactured goods to South Asian countries. We are not just looking for investors who want to invest here just for domestic market but also for external market which is very much in our door step – 1.3 billion population of India,” said Khatiwada, speaking at the at the Nepal-China Investment Corporation and Business Matching seminar in Kathmandu.

Given Nepal’s poor infrastructure, Khatiwada said that the Chinese investors have the opportunity to invest in improving those infrastructure including power, road, metro railway and urban infrastructure.

Abhaya Raj Joshi , Mongabay— Nepal is set to receive its first grant under the Green Climate Fund, an international fund established to help developing countries cope with the impacts of climate change. While authorities in Nepal celebrate the success of the proposal, activists say the project, which focuses on 26 river systems in eastern and central Nepal, faces a host of challenges.

The GCF, which was established as part of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), agreed in November to provide $39.3 million out of an estimated $47.3 million required for a project aimed at increasing the capacity of the people of Nepal’s Churia(also Chure) region cope with and recover from shocks and stresses caused by climate change. According to the proposal, the region, which encompasses the southernmost range of the Himalayan foothills, faces increasing risk of floods, landslides and soil erosion due to intensification of rainfall linked to climate change.

The seven-year project, which mainly focuses on agroforestry, aims to establish field schools to teach farmers sustainable agriculture practices and to train local people in agroforestry techniques. It will also aim to work with local schools and media to raise awareness about sustainable management of natural resources, and will provide funds for erosion-reducing check dams, gully stabilization measures and multi-purpose tree nurseries. These programs will be implemented by Nepal’s Ministry of Forests and Environment and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the GCF-accredited agency that prepared the project proposal.

The FAO also initiated the idea for the project, and developed it further by consulting communities living in the project areas, such as community forest user and indigenous groups. For full  article : Click

Jagan Karki, London – Nepali Taekwondo players Raju Nagarkoti and Sanjeev Nepali have bagged Gold medal in the British Taekwondo Open organised on 23^rd and 24th November in Manchaster, United Kingdom.

Nepali and Nagarkoti won gold medals in the Poomsae category.

In the tournament organized by the UK Taekwondo Association, Nepali won the gold in the under-40 category while Nagarkoti won in the age 50 category.

Nagarkoti is the 5^th Dan Taekwondo Black Belt and has bagged a number of prestigious awards nationally and internationally. He was Dojang Champion in 4^th National Game of Nepal in 1994 and was qualified as a Coach and referee from the Taekwondo international masters training from Korea. He has attended as a coach  in Wata Open Taekwando in Japan. Mr. Nagarkoti is currently resides in Macau and is affiliated with the Macau Taekwondo Association. He won Bronze medal in the Canada Open G1 international Taekwondo Championship in September 2018 and also participated in the US open Taekwondo in February 2019.

Another winner, Sanjeev,  had won a bronze medal in the individual Poomsae age category in the tournament organised in Thailand four months ago.

“We had been training for about three months and we prepared very well this time,” said Nepali adding,  “That’s the reason we were successful in bringing good results in this tournament compared to the other international tournament we participated in.”

“This is a fantastic News and a proud moment for all Nepalese living worldwide. To grab the Gold medal in the soil of the United Kingdom for a Nepali player is not an easy job. I don’t know why this kind of  big news that makes us proud to be a Nepali does not get enough space in media and among the NRN community ,” said Siddhartha Bikram Chhetri, President of Nepali National and International Players Association (NNIPA).

NNIPA organised a program to honour  Nagarkoti and Nepali at South Harrow, London. “We are so happy to get an opportunity to honour Nepali players who make it big at the international forum. The NRN Association and the government of Nepal also should take note and honour such talents from Nepal,” said Suraj Karki, Senior Vice President of NNIPA and United Nepali Kekosin Advancement.

 

Geneva — Nepal has made no real progress on questions of justice, truth, and reparations for victims of gross human rights violations and abuses during its 10-year conflict, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch (HRW), and TRIAL International said today. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement to end the war was signed on November 21, 2006.

While two commissions have been set up to address conflict-era atrocities, they have not been effective, and impunity and denial of access to justice to victims remain prevalent. The four human rights organizations are particularly concerned about the recent moves that suggest the government will go forward with the appointing of commissioners without making necessary reforms to the legal framework.

“Last week marked the 13th anniversary of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the conflict in Nepal. It is astonishing that so little progress has been made in responding to the clearly articulated concerns and demands of conflict victims,” said Frederick Rawski, ICJ’s Asia-Pacific Director. “These demands have included a transparent and consultative process for the appointment of commissioners, and a genuine good-faith effort by political leaders and lawmakers to address serious weaknesses in the existing legal framework.”

On November 18, 2019, a five-member committee formed by the government to recommend names for commissioners to be appointed to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission on the Investigation of Enforced Disappearances published a list of candidates. Concerns have been raised by victims and civil society that the government will simply re-appoint past commissioners or make political appointments that will not be adequately impartial and independent.

“It is deeply disappointing that the government has repeatedly attempted to appoint the commissioners without adequate consultation and transparency. The commissions will not gain the trust of the victims and the international community if the political parties continue to interfere in the appointment process,” said Biraj Patnaik, South Asia Director at Amnesty International.

Importantly, the move suggests that the commissions will be re-constituted without amending the legal framework governing the transitional justice process and ensuring its compliance with Nepal’s international human rights law obligations, as directed by Nepal’s Supreme Court and demanded by civil society and victims.

Victims and civil society organizations have issued a public statement making it clear that they oppose any appointments prior to the amendment of the legal framework. Notably, the National Human Rights Commission, in its statement commemorating 13th anniversary of CPA, stated that “…the commission will not support any decision, work or activities that might hurt the sensitivity of the conflict victims…”.

“The government’s move has not only undermined victims’ role in the transitional justice process, but has also once again brought into question its commitment to uphold its international law obligations and ensuring justice for conflict-era crimes,” said Tomás Ananía, TRIAL International’s Nepal Program Manager.

The ICJ, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and TRIAL International have repeatedly expressed concern that effective transitional justice mechanisms require strong legal foundations consistent with international law and good practices, and the political will to address the concerns of victims of the conflict. All four organisations reiterated their calls to amend the the 2014 Transitional Justice Act to make it consistent with the Supreme Court’s rulings and international human rights standards, as well as for the initiation of a genuine consultative and transparent process for the appointment of commissioners.

Concerns raised about the existing, and proposed, legal frameworks include: disparities between the definitions of specific crimes under international law and human rights obligations and violations under national and international law; inadequate provisions to ensure that serious crimes under international law are subject to criminal accountability (including punishment proportionate to the seriousness of the crimes); and a reliance on compensation at the expense of other forms of reparation and remedy for conflict survivors and their families.

Under the principle of universal jurisdiction, states may make it possible for their domestic criminal justice system to investigate and prosecute crimes such as torture, committed by any person, anywhere in the world.

This means that a citizen of any country, including Nepal, suspected of such crimes faces the risk of arrest and prosecution for these crimes in countries that apply universal jurisdiction. This is more likely if the Nepali authorities do not appear able and willing to prosecute those responsible for such crimes, the organizations said.

“After initial pledges to ensure truth, justice, and reparations for conflict victims, it appears that the government is once again determined to protect those responsible for the crimes,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The international community should remind Nepal that whitewashing egregious crimes will not help to dodge universal jurisdiction.”

Background

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed by the government of Nepal and the country’s major political parties, including the then Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), on November 21, 2006, called for a transitional justice process to address the human rights violations committed during the conflict. The agreement ended a decade long armed conflict in which some 13,000 people were killed, including the widespread and systematic practice of enforced disappearance, torture and ill-treatment, and other gross human rights violations and abuses.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission on Investigation of Disappeared Persons, both established in February 2015, have failed to address the many thousands of complaints brought to them by victims and their families, and have yet to publicize their findings. In February 2019. the tenure of the commissions was extended to 2020, though the terms of the commissioners were left to expire on April 13, 2019. On March 25, the government formed a five-member committee to recommend appointments in these two commissions.

In 2015, the Supreme Court had ruled that the 2014 Act creating the legal framework for the Commissions was unconstitutional, due in part to the inclusion of provisions that could be used to grant amnesty to those respected of having criminal responsibility.

London — A group of British Nepali businesspersons has  started Chinese Oriental supermarket at Aldershot.

The business venture called ‘China Oriental Supermarket’ was inaugurated on Sunday evening.

Photo : Meelan Tamu/ Gurkha Media

The total investment of the venture is about £800,000.00 and five British Nepali community members have come together to launch the business.

 

The supermarket is selling  Oriental food from different countries of the Far East.

 

Mayor of Rushmoor Borough Council,  Sue Carter, was the chief guest at the inaugural ceremony.

 

“Customer from our area looking for oriental food were going to  Reading or Croydon or New Malden, so we saw a good opportunity to serve the local community in Aldershot with oriental foods,” said Muchhetra Gurung, one of the Directors of the shop.

 

The supermarket aims to offer Nepali, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Malaysian , Indonesian, Indian and other South and South East Asian food to its customers.

“As Aldershot has turned into a multicultural town, we hope we will have good and warm response from our customers,” said Kamal Gurung, another Director of the shop.

London — Transport for London has decided not to renew Uber’s license to operate, with the transportation authorities citing a “pattern of failures by the company including several breaches that placed passengers and their safety at risk.”

Uber will be allowed to continue operating in London while appealing the decision, CNN notes. London previously decided not to renew the ridesharing service’s license to operate in 2017, though Uber successfully appealed the decision, and it most recently received a two-month license in September, the Week reports.

About 45,000 drivers work for Uber in London, which is one of its top five markets globally.