KATHMANDU: Economic Digest, a daily morning email digest, is basically a relatable summation of important business news from Nepal into easy-to-understand summaries.

Uncertainty looms for Nepalis as Kuwait set to lay off 360,000 migrant workers

The Kuwait government has decided to send back home 360,000 migrant workers from the country. Of them, 120,000 people are illegal migrant workers while 150,000 are unskilled and 90,000 are above the age 60 years.

With the decision, thousands of Nepali people are likely to lose their jobs. Scores of Nepali people are still desperately waiting to return to Nepal after their companies they were working for packed up due to coronavirus pandemic.

Despite the Nepal government’s initiation to rescue stranded Nepalis, there are still many Nepali people stranded in Kuwait. Almost 50,000 Nepali migrant workers are working in Kuwait, currently.

Airlines operators demand favorable atmosphere to operate air service

The Airlines Operators’ Association (AOA) has urged the government and stakeholders to create a conducive atmosphere to resume air service saying that the industry has been hardly hit due to the prolonged lockdown.

Issuing a press statement Wednesday, the Association said thousands of people employed in the air service sector were rendered jobless after the air flights were disrupted since March 24.

The Association urged the government to ensure a favorable atmosphere to resume domestic and international air service from coming September 1.

The recent meeting of the Council of Ministers had decided to suspend the air service till September 1. It also said that the Association will be compelled to resort to protest if the air service is not resumed from September 1.

NTB significantly cuts off budget to cope up with COVID crisis

With all the touristic activities coming to a halt due to coronavirus pandemic, the budget size of Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has shrunk to millions.

The Board has allocated the budget of around Rs 820 million for the current fiscal year 2020-21 while in the previous year, the annual budget figure would be around Rs two billion.

A meeting of the NTB Board of Directors on Monday endorsed the budget focusing on study, research, digital marketing and promotion of domestic tourism.

According to Board CEO Dr. Dhananjay Regmi this year the size of the budget was significantly cut off in a lack of sufficient resources due to the COVID-19 crisis. “We hardly could come with Rs 820 million budget, but it seems challenging to manage resources for it,’’ he said, adding but again new programs could be announced upon analyzing the situation in the future.

Last fiscal year, the Board had brought the budget of Rs 1.63 billion, focusing on the Nepal Visit Year 2020 which has been already suspended owing to the global crisis caused by the virus.

(Compiled and prepared by Nitish Lal Shrestha)

Nepal Economic Digest is a daily morning email digest, basically relatable summations of the most important business news, happenings from Nepal into easy-to-understand summaries.