Author: Himalaya Post

Kathmandu – The 21st AIRDC Conference 2018 kicked off here from today. “Building Financial Resilience-Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance” is the theme of the two-day conference jointly organized by the Association of Insurers and Reinsurers of Developing Countries ( AIRDC), Beema Samiti and Nepal Insurers’ Association. It is attended by representatives from over 500 insurance companies from various countries including the SAARC. The conference will see the presentations of working papers on different insurance sector-related subjects like leadership building, evaluation and micro insurance. The conference will look at cutting-edge strategies in the insurance business and highlight the areas where brokers can rise to reinforce their role in the value chain of insurance as valued partners to both insurers and risk managers and corporate clients in the dynamic risk landscape, said the organisers. During the inaugural session, Finance Minister Dr Yuba Raj Khatiwada said the health insurance programme remained as one of the top priorities of the government and works were going on to cover all the citizen by this scheme. The responsibility of health insurance of citizen above 70 would be taken by the government. The incumbent government was concentrated on the achievement of economic progress. He was of the view of reducing economic losses in the aftermath of disaster through insurance. As he said, it is essential to expand the coverage of insurance presently limited to certain areas...

Kathmandu, September 23 – Nearly a year after the Sher Bahadur Deuba led government scrapped the contract with China Gezhouba Group Company Ltd for the construction of the 1,200-megawatt Budhigandaki hydropower project, a national pride project, a Cabinet meeting on Friday decided to award the contract for the project to CGGCL again. The Deuba-led government had rescinded the contract with CGGCL on November 13, stating that the bidding process was not competitive and the deal lacked transparency and flouted the Public Procurement Act requirements. Earlier, the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led government had awarded the contract to construct the Budhigandaki project to CGGCL on May 15, 2017, nine days before he was to resign from the PM’s post. Speaking at a press briefing today, Minister of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Barshaman Pun, said the Cabinet meeting had granted the contract to build the project worth Rs 300 billion to CGGCL. However, the Dahal-led government had awarded the contract to CGGCL to build the project at a cost of Rs 260 billion as per a study carried out by a French company, Tractebel Engineering. In a recent development, CGGCL had submitted a proposal and a new memorandum of understanding to build the project to the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers on July 15. “The Chinese firm has proposed to construct Budhigandaki under the engineering procurement construction and...