Fourth Jhamsikhel Street Festival on Saturday

Jhamsikhel Youth Club is organising the ‘4th Jhamsikhel Street Festival 2019’ on Saturday to mark the start of Visit Nepal 2020, a government campaign to bring in two million tourists the country next year.
Organising a press meet in Jhamsikhel, spokesperson of the club Kaushal Ghimire said that it will be the fourth time that the club is organising the street festival. “The festival will be inaugurated by home minister Ram Bahadur Thapa,” he said, adding that the club has been organising street festival once every four years. “We did it in 2008, 2012, and 2016, and now we are organising it in the end of 2019. “The timing of this festival is significant as it was being held on the eve of Visit Nepal Year 2020.”
“The street festival will have many attractions including Rock concert featuring Mukti and Revival, Anuprastha, Cobweb and Robin and the New Revolution,” Ghimire informed, adding that the festival will also feature Lok Dohori singers including Member of National Assembly Komal Oli, Prakash Saput and Team, and Prag Purna Nepali. “There will also be standup comedy performance by artists like Raja Rajendra, Purna Thapa, Ravi Dangol, Surendra KC, and Shiva Shankar Rijal.”
The organisers also said that the streets of Jhamsikhel will have food, handicraft, and face painting stalls along with bingo and carnival games for the children. The club will be hoisting flags of various countries to promote Visit Nepal Year 2020 (VNY2020) during the festival. “The festival will be made plastic free as part of the club’s Green Initiative,” he added.

NMB Bank signs MoU to support returnee migrant

NMB Bank has signed a tripartite agreement with National Youth Council and Returnee Migrant Nepal with the objective to promote youth entrepreneurship and to provide subsidised loan to returnee migrants in predominant sectors including agriculture, tourism, forestry, medicinal herbs, minerals, hydro and science and technology.
The three parties shall work to support in implementation of the Finance Ministry – Government of Nepal’s initiative to provide interest subsidy loan to promote entrepreneurship amongst the youth in the productive sector thereby opening avenues to generate employment, self-employment opportunities amongst the youth.
The terms of the MoU dictate that, in accordance with the Integrated Working Procedure for Subsidised Credit 2018, subsidised loan upto maximum of Rs 10 lakhs shall be availed to eligible returnee migrants in coordination of Nepal Youth Council upon recommendation of Returnee Migrant Nepal.
The bank shall also avail loans in sectors apart from the ones listed under the Subsidised Loan scheme. Additionally, the NMB Bank shall also establish an Advisory Service Desk to provide advisory services to prospective customers, support in enhancing technical skills, introduce savings and loan products specifically designed for returnee migrants.
All three signatory institutions believe that this initiative will encourage migrant workers abroad to return home and utilize the skills acquired to generate employment opportunities and support in building a prosperous Nepal.

Government to focus on creating jobs

The government has claimed that no Nepali youths will be flying abroad for employment in next five years.
Presenting the government’s policy and programmes for next fiscal year today, President Bidhya Devi Bhandari also claimed – in the the joint meeting of both the houses – that by 2023 the average earnings of Nepalis will be doubled.
Nepal needs to create some 240,000 new jobs every year, a recent report from the World Bank read, meaning the government has to create some 658 new jobs everyday to retain the youths within the country.
President Bhandari also announced a new programme, 'the Prime Minister’s Employment Programme', to achieve the employment target. However, Prime Minister’s Employment Programme could meet the same fate as the Youth Employment Fund that was set up during the tenure of the then finance minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai. It has failed due to politicisation.
Though, the almost two-third majority left government's policy seems encouraging it has not presented any programme on how to create employment in the country. The 'highly ambitious' target has also claimed to double the per capita income in the next five years, though the policy and programme is brought for a year. Currently, per capita income of the Nepalis stands at $1,004. Though, current trend shows that it took nine years to double the per capita income to $1004, it is possible to double the income in five years, if the annual growth is recorded in an average of 15 per cent. "If the inflation remains same, the government could double the income in five year with an annual growth of 15 per cent," said economist Bishwo Poudel. "However, the government needs to spend $10 billion to $15 billion to achieve 15 per cent growth every year," he said, asking the government on how to manage such huge budget and how does it tame the inflation at the time when the price of petroleum products has been regularly increasing. The incumbent government has increased the price of petroleum products for the fourth time, since it took to power three months ago.
Likewise, the government has also claimed to make the country prosperous and developed nation within a decade.
However, former finance minister Dr Ram Sharan Mahat said that there are hardly any new programmes and projects to translate those targeted figures into reality. "It is the repetition of past programmes,” he said.