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

Green Climate Fund approves project worth Rs 3 billion

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) has approved a project with grants worth more than 3 billion rupees.

The fund approved a proposal to support a climate change adaptation project in the Gandaki river watershed with a budget of 27.4 million US dollars, according to the Ministry of Forest and Environment.

The project will be implemented in 19 districts in the region with the Forest and Finance ministries jointly working on a modality to mobilize the grant assistance, said chief of the Climate Change Management Division at the Forest Ministry Dr. Maheswar Dhakal.

The project will work in the sectors of water, forest, agriculture and small and micro-enterprises.

Banks remained closed on Thursday

Police on Thursday reportedly barred bank staffers in Kathmandu from going to their offices on the first day of the week-long prohibitory order.

Nepal Bankers’ Association (NBA), meanwhile, instructed its members to shut the services yesterday as a protest to the police action.

According to some bankers, a few chief executive officers (CEO) of the banks were also stopped on the street.

Dahal said the police, in fact, should not have stopped the bank staffers as the bankers had agreed with the Chief District Office to open eight branches of a bank in the valley — five in Kathmandu, two in Lalitpur, and one in Bhaktapur.

COVID-19 impact: 4,00,000 domestic industries on verge of displacement

As many as 4,00,000 domestic and small enterprises across the country have been on the verge of displacement following the lockdown that started on March 24 to contain Covid-19 pandemic.

These industries are likely to be shutdown due to low operating capital, production dependent on human labor and shrinking markets.

According to the Industry and Business Council under the Federation of Nepali Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), 90 percent of the operators have fled due to non-operation of these enterprises.

Council Chairman Kishor Kumar Pradhan says, “Around 90 percent of the industries with working capital of up to Rs 2 million have been shut down.”

According to him, in the last five months, small, home-based, micro-service, food production and innovation industries and businesses have been in crisis.

According to the FNJ study, most of the small and cottage industries have been shut down, the capacity of medium scale industries has dropped to 30 percent and large scale industries are on the verge of crisis.

Technical workforce for post-quake housing rebuild reluctant to continue office

Thirteen technical human resources recruited for the District Project Implementation Unit (Grants Management and Local Infrastructure) Office have resigned  from jobs.

With the project workforce quitting jobs one after another has hampered the project activities mainly the rebuilding of private houses damaged by the 2015 earthquake.

According to the Office, many employees are reluctant to get back to work after the four-month lockdown against COVID-19 as it seems they fear of contracting the virus.

A total of 52 technicians were recruited on the contract-basis for the post-quake private housing reconstruction drive.

Of them, only 33 had returned to work after the lockdown. Now, 13 employees have already resigned and six have informed that they would not be returning to duty and sending the resignation, said project chief Jay Prakash Gupta.

In lack of sufficient technical workforce, monitoring of house rebuilding procedures and payment of installment of housing grants have been affected.

(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.