A meeting was held on Wednesday at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers in Singha Durbar between Prime Minister Balen Shah and representatives of the Federation of Handicraft Associations of Nepal.
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A meeting was held between Prime Minister Balen Shah and representatives of the Federation of Handicraft Associations of Nepal. The meeting took place on Wednesday at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers in Singha Durbar between Prime Minister Shah and the representatives.
On the occasion, Prime Minister Shah stated that the representatives of the Federation are ready to cooperate with the government for the development, expansion, and preservation of the handicraft industry in Nepal. They said that the current government has prioritized the handicraft industry and that they are ready to cooperate with the government in any way.
During the meeting, Prime Minister Shah said that the government is committed to policies related to the handicraft industry, art preservation, job creation, and the transfer of handicraft skills. Similarly, the Prime Minister responded positively to the officials’ demand to establish a Handicraft Development Board under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model.
So far, the Federation has been celebrating Handicraft Day in its own way on the 28th of Mangsir, but now the officials are demanding that it be celebrated at the national level. Prime Minister Shah also instructed the secretariat team to immediately coordinate with the Ministry of Home Affairs regarding the celebration of the day.
Prime Minister Shah assured that, based on the officials’ suggestion that mandatory invoice valuation instead of self-declaration for handicraft exports would help increase revenue, work would proceed accordingly. He also assured that the 5 percent amount due from handicraft exports, which has been withheld for the past three years, would be resumed.
Although a building for the SAARC Handicraft Development Centre has already been constructed at the Department of Industry for the production and development of handicraft items, the officials demanded that the office (Company Registrar) currently located there be relocated.
According to the officials, Prime Minister Shah showed special interest in establishing a Handicraft Village in the Kathmandu Valley and opening skill training centers related to handicrafts in all seven provinces.
During the meeting, the officials also demanded the preservation of traditional skills and arts and the issuance of identity cards to handicraft workers. The discussion was attended by Federation President Rabindra Shakya, Senior Vice President Rajman Bajracharya, Vice President Kiran Kumar Sthapit, Advisor Vikasratna Dhakwa, and top exporter Maheshwar Shrestha.
