International Finance Corporation
(IFC) – a member of the
World Bank Group – is working with the government to improve food safety standards at hotels and
restaurants and spur tourism spending in the country.
"The Nepali hospitality sector must
focus on quality services to fully realise the country’s great potential in
tourism,” said director at the Department of Commerce and Supply
Management Hari Narayan Belbase. "Improved inspection will help hospitality
entrepreneurs improve standards and become more profitable."
The initiative will help the government reform its
food safety inspection activities, and adopt international best practices and
standards.
The
initiative kicked off with a three-day workshop, that ended yesterday, in which
frontline market inspectors from key government agencies were
trained on market monitoring and inspection techniques.
Inspectors learned that a risk-based
approach to food safety allowed them to focus limited resources on
high-priority high-risk areas.
SouthAsia
Enterprise Development Facility, managed by IFC in partnership with the UK
Government and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, is supporting the initiative.
Experts in
inspection reform from the UK government’s Better Regulation Delivery Office
are working with IFC to study inspection and enforcement techniques for the
tourism industry and build capacity in the concerned government agencies. They will also help develop and support new and
existing citizen empowerment approaches to food safety in the country.
"Due to limited regulations and
standards for tourism services, tourist spending per day is low in Nepal,” said IFC resident representative in Nepal Val S Bagatsing.
"Elevated
safety standards for food in eateries can be a starting point for the
government to improve standards across a range of services that impact tourism
spending.”
IFC in Nepal
is committed to strengthening private sector growth, promoting a supportive
regulatory framework, boosting investment, and creating more jobs in the
country.
A member of the World Bank Group, IFC is the largest global development
institution focused exclusively on the private sector. Working with private enterprises in more than 100
countries, it uses its capital, expertise, and influence to help eliminate
extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity. In the fiscal year 2013,
its investments
climbed to an all-time high of nearly $25 billion, leveraging the power of the
private sector to create jobs and tackle the world’s most pressing development
challenges.
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