GENEVA, 29 June 2022, (TON): Two senior Libyan officials began two days of talks on constitutional arrangements for elections, the latest UN effort to bridge gaps between the country’s rivals.

Met at the UN headquarters in Geneva “Aguila Saleh, the influential speaker of the country’s east-based parliament, and Khaled Al-Meshri, head of the government’s Supreme Council of State, based in the west, in the capital of Tripoli.”

According to the United Nations, the talks will focus on a draft constitutional framework for elections after Libya’s rival factions failed to reach an agreement in their last round of talks in the Egyptian capital of Cairo.

The criteria for a presidential candidacy were a contentious point in the talks, according to Libyan media.

BOGOTA, 29 June 2022, (TON): Prison authorities reported “a fire at a prison in southwestern Colombia has killed at least 51 people and injured a dozen more.”

The director of the national prison system, Tito Castellanos, told Radio Caracol that it’s not clear if all of the dead were prisoners. He initially said 49 had died, but the Justice Ministry later raised the toll to 51.

He said the fire broke out during what appeared to be an attempted riot early Tuesday at the medium security prison in the city of Tulua.

He said “inmates had set mattresses on fire without considering the consequences.”

MADRID, 29 June 2022, (TON): PM office said “British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will urge his NATO allies at a summit in Madrid to boost their defense spending in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”

After Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, NATO member states pledged to spend at least 2.0 percent of their gross domestic product on defense to ensure the readiness of the alliance by 2024.

Only eight of NATO’s 30 members met or surpassed this target in 2021, but a number of nations such as Germany and Italy have boosted their defense spending this year due to the war in Ukraine.

His office said in a statement “we need allies all allies to dig deep to restore deterrence and ensure defense in the decade ahead.”

He will add “the two percent was always meant to be a floor, not a ceiling and allies must continue to step up in this time of crisis.”

By TON Nepal Desk

As US-China fight escalating since the incumbent Chinese President began challenging US domination in the Asia-Pacific region, the US is trying to connect and engage Nepal in one way or another in a bid to annul China’s growing influence there. Both China and the US are using the financial arrangements as a maneuver to penetrate and influence the system in Nepal. And both are hoping to add a military or a security measurement regarding their relationship with Nepal as quickly as possible.

As India siding with the US in the Asia-Pacific arena, the challenge of China is much greater to cope and wooing Nepal economically is much more necessary. Nepal is caught in a quagmire between US and China. While the US is a worldwide force with an intense interest in preparing its defenses in every area of Asia which has been supposedly endangered by China in this scenario, the Nepalese government wonder if their “strategic location’ is a benefit or a misery”.

Due to the terrestrial contiguity of Nepal, China is certainly the first to create major economic inroads into Nepal. Beijing put in US$188 million in FDI in Nepal in the fiscal year 2020–21, more than any other country. China and Nepal had signed a transportation agreement in 2016.

This gave Nepal an outlet other than the ones on the Nepal-India border, which could be closed to Nepal’s disadvantage if it falls foul of India. In May 2017, Nepal officially became part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), perturbing Washington which sees the BRI as a dominant threat to its monopoly in the indo-specific.

It is also a fact that the Nepalese were against the MCC's US$ 500 million because some of its provisions disrupted Nepal’s independence. According to MCC’s guidelines Clause 7.1, “it will prevail over the domestic laws of Nepal”. Sec.6.8 provided protection for MCC staff in “all courts and trials in Nepal”.

However, the MCC was considered to be part of the anti-China Indo-Pacific Policy by the US government. It is has been also mentioned in the US State Department document titled: “A Free and Open Pacific: Advancing a Shared Vision” by acknowledging the MCC as the economic pillar of the Indo-Pacific Strategy. The MCC Compact was supposed to supersede Nepal’s constitution and laws.

The Nepalese government was fearful that this will irritate China and kept shelving the endorsement of the MCC. Finally, Nepal and the US entered into conciliation and parliament approved the MCC on February 27, 2022. It was decided that Nepal will not be part of the US Indo-Pacific Strategy or any strategic, military, or security alliance between the US, and Nepal.

Encouraged by the success in getting Nepal to yield, notwithstanding after giving concessions, the US invigorated the State Partnership Program (SPP) pending since 2015. The SPP had disaster mitigation overtones but had defense and geostrategic connotations.

In the event of natural and other disasters, ranging from hurricanes to earthquakes, floods, and fires, the United States seeks to share the best practices and capabilities of its National Guards the first-line responders. SPP can be an effective means of facilitating this type of cooperation.

Although, the “State Partnership Program (SPP) apparently looks like an exchange program between an American State’s National Guard and a partner foreign country with dealing with natural disasters, such as earthquakes, floods, and wildfires but the reality is altogether different practically.

As the SPP is administered by the National Guard Bureau, guided by State Department foreign policy goals, and executed by the state Adjutants General in support of the Department of Defense policy goals.

Through SPP, the National Guard conducts army-to-army engagements in support of defense security goals but also leverages whole-of-society relationships and capabilities to facilitate broader interagency and corollary engagements spanning military, government, and economic and social spheres,” a US government website says.

In other words, the SPP is a multi-purpose vehicle to advance wide-ranging US political and strategic objectives under the overall cover of humanitarian arrangements. Accompanying the push for SPP, there were high-profile US visits which increased the rumors about America’s strategic goals against its giant foe China.

Under Secretary of State for civilian security, democracy, and human rights, and US Special Coordinator for Tibetan issues, visited in May and talked to Tibetan refugees. She took up the refugees’ undocumented status in 1995 and urged documentation. To encourage Nepal towards this end, the undersecretary offered a developmental sop of over US$ 600 million. However, her demand was not accepted by Nepal because China wants Nepal to send the refugees back to Tibet.

As the Nepalese side was worried about the militarization of their county by outside powers in the pretense of helping progress and disaster control. The US wants to turn Nepal into a theatre of conflict and war between its economic fight vis-à-vis China and over the Tibet issue. This made Nepal alert to not join the SPP as it would perturb Nepal’s solidarity. This is the main reason for Nepal that its territory should not be allowed to be used against any friendly nation like China.

DHAKA, 29 June 2022, (TON): State minister for civil aviation and tourism Md Mahbub Ali said “partnerships between Organization of Islamic Cooperation nations would help further flourishing tourism among the member states.”

"OIC nations have to work together to develop the tourism industry along with preserving their traditional culture and heritage.”

A press release said here “he made the call while addressing, as the chair, the opening session of the 11th session of the Islamic Conference of Tourism Ministers of the OIC in Azerbaijani capital Baku.”

KABUL, 29 June 2022, (TON): MoFA announced “in a meeting with the acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Amir Khan Muttaqi, the ambassador of China, Wang Yu, expressed China’s readiness to facilitate visas for Afghan businesspeople in Afghanistan.”

Abdul Qahar Balkhi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said “Muttaqi urged Beijing to address the problems of the Afghan traders in issuing visas.”

Following the outbreak of Pandemic and political changes in Afghanistan, China stopped issuing visas for Afghan traders. 

He said “the two sides agreed to accelerate the transportation of pine nuts.” 

The head of the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Investment, Khairullah Khairkhwa, said “Lack of visas is a big and serious problem for businessmen and the private sector, especially with China because we import goods as well as raw materials for our factories.”

DHAKA, 29 June 2022, (TON): US Ambassador to Bangladesh Peter Haas thinks that many people are over-exaggerating the impact of the sanctions imposed on the elite force Rapid Action Battalion and some officials but acknowledges that it did have an impact on the overall relations.

He told Voice of America Bangla Service in an interview “Yes, the sanctions did have an impact. I think many people are over-exaggerating the impact because the relationship we have is so broad and we deal with so many issues.”

He said “the sanctions are one issue but they continue to work very closely on the security front.”

Ambassador Haas said “the US stopped providing training to the RAB in 2018 because of concerns as they want to see accountability for the past human rights violations and to reform the RAB so that it does not repeat the same.”

DHAKA, 29 June 2022, (TON): The Bangladesh Navy detained eight foreign trawlers while they were fishing illegally in the territorial waters of Bangladesh in the deep sea.

Ships and maritime patrol aircraft of the navy have been conducting regular patrols in the Bay of Bengal since May 20 to enforce the government’s 65-day ban on all types of marine fishing. 

While patrolling, patrol aircraft identified the location of several foreign fishing trawlers in the Paira Fairway Boya area near the Rabnabad Channel adjacent to Kuakata in Patuakhali. 

Later, a naval ship patrolling the deep sea intercepted eight Indian fishing trawlers along with 135 crew members within 36-60 nautical miles (67-111 km) of Bangladesh-India international waters during illegal fishing, said a media release of the Inter-Services Public Relations directorate.

DHAKA, 29 June 2022, (TON): The Japanese government is providing a loan of Tk11,400 crore ($ 1.4 billion) to Bangladesh for the construction of a subway in Dhaka.

The two sides signed the loan agreement.

Fatima Yasmin, secretary, Economic Relations Division, and Ito Naoki, ambassador of Japan, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective sides.

The total cost of the Metrorail Line-5 project is Tk41,238 crore. Under the project, a 13.50-km underground metro rail and a 6.50-km fly metro rail will be constructed.

The new metro rail, 14 km, will be the subway of the 20-km line from Gabtali to Bhatara.

By Usman Khan

Advertising helps customers to select products and services from manifold sellers, and it allows new contestants in the market to increase grip if the product is superior in quality to that of the incumbent. When the free flow of information is blocked, then it gives an unnecessary advantage to the established companies in stifling competition, which eventually lower the quality of products and services

Most Nepalese have been watching TV, that is, international channels without commercials and advertisements for nearly two years now. Article 6 of the Advertisement (Regulations) Act, 2019 specifies that foreign channels will have to broadcast without advertisements (clean feed) in Nepal

Nepal is a country that depends on importation for a maximum of its commodities as well as extra goods, mainly from neighboring countries. Nepal is deprived of the essential worth offer of the product, which is the basic function of advertisement and a subcategory of marketing.

Nepal imports shampoos, toilet paper, face wash, over-the-counter drugs and a host of other daily essential items, but the government does not want to let the Nepalese vendors know what the manufacturer is offering in exchange for the money. In principle, they are deprived of the basic prerogative of being a consumer.

It is a right of consumers in a free-market capitalist system to have access to information regarding products and services in a transparent way in order to make impartial and good decisions. One of the ways in which manufacturers provide valuable and necessary information to a target consumer is through TV advertisements. All other social media sources of ahead of it.

As such, when the government blocks access to valuable information in a market economy, then it means that it is pushing the system to a state of downfall and failure. First, the consumer does not know what products are there in the market. One of the hallmarks of modern entrepreneurship is the fast stride at which innovation happens and equally the speedy pace at which these advanced products come to the market and in the hands of the consumer.

This is facilitated not only by state-of-the-art supply chain management but also by an intense understanding of the products by the consumers. Advertising and publicity play a critical role in enlightening the possible customers concerning the principal advantage of the product and services.

Publicity helps customers to select products and services from multiple vendors, and it allows new entrants in the market to gain traction if the product is superior in quality to that of the incumbent.

When the unrestricted stream of information is blocked, then it gives an unjustifiable advantage to the recognized companies amid stuffy rivalry, which lastly lowers the eminence of products and services which hurt the consumers. Moreover, due to the current law, consumers are put through the agonizing pain of watching the repeated and monotonous programmed advertisements from the channels themselves.

The whole idea behind watching a television program is to get a sense of opportune experience, which transfers as a form of entertainment, and this law seems to deliberately squash the quintessential feature of watching a manufactured entertainment.

Watching a TV ad is in itself a form of entertainment. Imagine the kind of creativity that goes into conveying a value of a product in an entertaining manner. We are deprived of this aesthetic endeavor, which is the spirit and lifeblood of modern free-market capitalism. The purported benefit of the law is to provide impetus to Nepal's advertising market.

Accordingly, this law is to grant employment opportunities to a multitude of Nepali actors, content writers, graphic designers and a host of other creative talents. Even so, the law was executed in a quick manner without adequate foresight and planning as it need to have enough infrastructure in place to create engaging marketable content for international brands.

Without gaining sufficient insight from the consumers, who are directly affected by the Act, the government seems to have hastily enacted a law that has huge repercussions on the future of the free market in Nepal. Cynics of the law might say that television is an outdated form of media, and digital media is the future.

A developing country like Nepal cannot afford weak consumer protection laws to subdue the vitality of the free market with oppressive laws. In this regard, the clean feed policy of Nepal’s government seems to undermine this rudimentary spirit of joining the free market at the cost of the customers.