"The committee formed by the Ministry of Industry (MoI) will basically identify the existing constraints and recommend ways to enhance the performance of those industrial estates," said an MoI official. [break]"Based on its recommendations, the ministry would mull over changes in the management of and operations at the industrial estates aiming to enhance efficiency," the source told Republica.
These estates, which house over Rs 13 billion of private investment and provide employment to 11,109 people, were primarily set up so as to make efficient use of available resources and extend better services and facilities to factories there.
As of now, the Industrial Estates Management Limited (IEML) is responsible for the management, but factories in those estates have been highly criticizing IEML for its "inefficiency and ineffective management".
"The government´s step to rethink over the management of the industrial estates stems from complaints received from the entrepreneurs who operate their firms within the industrial estates," the official said.
The firms operating inside the industrial estates had filed a complaint to the ministry a few weeks back urging the government to change management of the industrial estates. "The government too is not happy with the performance of IEML," the official said.
According to the source, the industrial promotion division at the MoI will conduct studies at different industrial estates mainly concentrating on the ways for better management of the industrial estates which cover 5,128 ropanies of land in different places such as Balaju, Patan, Hetauda, Dhanusha, Nepalgunj, Pokhara, Butwal, Bhaktapur, Biratnagar, Dhankuta and Saptari.
"IEML has largely been inefficient to manage the resources that these estates own," Shailendra Lal Pradahn, president of the Federation of Industries in Nepal Industrial Estates (FINIE), who is also a former executive member of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry said. "We want the government to revisit the past and make changes in the management of estates or hand over the asset to the private sector for better utilization of it."
IEML, which is government entity entrusted to carry out management of the industrial estates, has been criticized by the entrepreneurs who are running their business inside them.
"The industrial estates do not have any load-shedding schedule let alone adequate supply of power to operate machines. So we don´t know when power comes and goes," Pradhan said. "There is also no security of the property."
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