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The step comes after the Federation of Industries in Nepal Industrial Estates (FINIE), the umbrella organization of firms operating in the industrial estates, formally submitted an application requesting the government to hand over 5,128 ropanis of land covered by the country´s 11 industrial estates to the private sector.[break]
Since the Council of Minister´s decision of June 2010 prevents the government from selling its fixed assets to the private sector, it is now mulling over raising the efficiency of the Industrial Estate Management Limited (IEML), a state-owned body that regulates and manages the resources at the estates, so that problems faced by the private sector can be addressed.
"Internal discussions are taking place after we received a formal request from FINIE and a committee will be formed as soon as possible to study the situation," an official at the Ministry of Industry (MoI) told Republica on Tuesday.
Entrepreneurs who have built factories or set up firms in 11 industrial estates have long been urging the government to rethink its operations strategy at industrial estates so as to boost industrial output.
"Our request is that the government should either work efficiently to better-manage the industrial estates or handover the property to firms that are operating there," said Shailendra Lal Pradhan, president of FINIE, who is also a former executive member of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI).
The government is currently operating industrial estates in places such as Balaju, Patan, Hetauda, Dhanusha, Nepalgunj, Pokhara, Butwal, Bhaktapur, Biratnagar, Dhankuta and Saptari. These estates, which have attracted 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 industries set up in the vicinity of one another.
But in reality this is not the case, according to Pradhan.
"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."
Anil Kumar Thakur, joint secretary at the MoI, said that the government was serious about efficient management of the industrial estates.
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