10th May 2020, Kathmandu
IT Industries with an Investment of up to 150 million will stay open during the lockdown. Domestic and Small scale industries along with essential manufacturing industries received permission to open. The government allowed the opening of these industries from Friday.
Industry Secretary, Chandra Kumar Ghimire explains that all industries falling under the purview of domestic and small scale industries can operate as per the decisions of the Council of Ministers. This means all industries, including IT, with an investment of up to Rs 150 million can operate.
In Nepal, the industries are classified as small, medium, and large scale industries based on the investment. As per the Industrial Enterprise Act, the industries with fixed capital up to Rs 150 million come under small scale industries.
Industries such as gas bottling, domestic and small scale industries will start operating this week according to a cabinet meeting held on Wednesday. Besides, export-oriented and special economic zone industries and construction industries such as cement and poles will also resume operation.
Here are the details of the decisions of the Wednesday meeting.
Telecom and Internet Service Providers, which have an investment of more than 150 million, are an exception. The ways to operate these companies are already managed.
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Management of workers
Giving the green signal for the operations of industries alone is not enough. There should be proper management of workers as well.
The workers and laborers who are involved in the production process should be placed in a separate place by the industry.
If there is no enough space within the establishment, there should be arrangements to run industries and businesses in the concerned ward with coordination with the concerned local body.
It would be better if the workers stay in vacant spaces in the community without any contact with the local people.
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Ease of lockdown
The economy took a great hit when the Nepal Government arranged a nationwide lockdown for the safety of public health.
The government is planning to ease the lockdown in not so affected places and industries.
Banking and Insurance, Telecommunications, and Manufacturing Industries are starting to operate this week.
Similarly, education for students is shifting to an online platform. Recently, the Nepal government also launched an online learning platform for students of grades 1 to 10.
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