Making Waves Over Community Radio

MEDIA IN BANGLADESH

By Kalinga Seneviratne
DHAKA, May 22 (IPS)

For 15 years the Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) campaigned for the introduction of community radio in the country, only to be turned down by successive, democratically-elected governments.

Ironically, in March, it was a military-installed government that announced readiness to issue community radio licenses under a two-year pilot scheme.

After releasing the guidelines for the establishment and licensing of community radio stations on Mar. 12, the government formed three separate committees to process applications from community radio operators.

By the end of April some 178 applications had been received by the information ministry.

BNNRC’s chief executive officer Bazlur Rahman told IPS: ‘’We are now happy that the government is interested in assisting us to establish community radio here. We set up a help desk in our secretariat to assist those interested in applying for community radio licenses and we received a massive response from different organisations and institutions.’’

Rahman was selected this month as the NGO representative on the Central Monitoring Committee which is headed by the director-general of Bangladesh Betar, the state-owned national radio network. This committee will monitor community radio broadcasters once they go on air to see that they adhere to the rules.

While private FM radio has been functioning alongside the national Betar radio network for a while, none of these radio stations was dedicated to serving the grassroots communities and ethnic groups in the way that community radio can.

Community radio is defined as a radio station owned by a particular community, usually through a trust, foundation or association. Political parties and their affiliated organisations, such as student wings or unions, are not allowed to own community radio licenses, nor are international NGOs or foreign channels.

But the policy guidelines allow government research institutions and NGOs with a proven record of community development work for at least five years to own a community radio license. This has set off some debate and doubts about community control of the radio, especially in the countryside.

‘’Government has failed to manage radio. So how can state-run research institutions operating radio in small villages be independent of governments?’’ asks Shameem Reza, a mass communications lecturer at Dhaka University. ‘’The big question is what level of people’s participation would it entail and should we be encouraging the government to set up community radio?’’

Rahman is not overly worried. ‘’Giving community radio licenses to government research institutes or agencies is not a matter of concern for us,’’ he argues. ‘’Community radio can get a new dimension of quality programmes because if they can fulfill the criteria they will have much technical and managerial expertise to offer.’’

Bangladesh has a large number of NGOs operating in development work, including some large international ones like Grameen Bank and BRAC. Some community radio advocates, especially in the academia, fear that these large NGOs could dominate the community radio sector.

But, Rahman says that such fears are unfounded because, under the policy, NGOs, large or small, could have only one community radio license. ‘’So there is no scope for any NGO to monopolise community radio broadcasts,’’ he argues.

Requests from NGOs for large chunks of the licenses with the funds and capacity to run radio stations have not been entertained by the government.

Rahman, who was one of the two NGO representatives in the committee which drafted the community radio policy guidelines of the government, believes that at least 50 organisations will be able to run community radio in the first phase. To assist in this process, the BNNRC has set up a community radio academy and plans to run technical and production training courses soon.

Reza laments the fact that no media academic was involved in this process even though Bangladesh has a long history of media studies being taught at tertiary level. He believes that funding will be a critical issue when it comes to setting up community radio stations and NGOs with international donor support could end up dominating the sector.

‘’Policies are not clearly articulated on how community radio could be funded,’’ noted Reza. ’’Government has only given the monitoring committee guidelines but nothing on how to run a community radio station.’’

While NGOs have done a lot of good development work in the rural areas, ironically this could become a barrier for community control of community radio. Their access to both licenses and funding sources may help to define the community as their own beneficiaries.

‘’There are hundreds of NGOs in the countryside and the people will not be able to set up community radio independent of them,’’ argues Reza. '’NGO involvement will not ensure that community radio is the independent community voice.’’

IFC to finance 25 pc Arun-III, Upper Karnali investment

BY THIRA L BHUSAL--
KATHMANDU, July 22

International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank group, has announced it will finance 25 percent of the total investment for 402 megawatt (MW) Arun-III and 300 MW Upper Karnali hydroelectric projects.

IFC took the decision to finance the two big hydroelectric projects at the request of Indian companies GMR Energy Ltd and Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN), Anita George, Director, Infrastructure of IFC told journalists.

George arrived in Kathmandu to take part in a workshop on "Hydropower Project Financing" jointly organized by Independent Power Producers' Association Nepal (IPPAN), IFC, Nepal Hydropower Association (NHA) and Nepal Bankers' Association (NBA) in the capital on Monday.
The government of Nepal awarded the 300 MW Upper Karnali to GMR last January and the 402-MW Arun-III project to Sutlej in March this year. "IFC will finance 25 percent of the total investment of both projects," George said.

IFC has already invested 10 percent of the total investment in Khimti and Bhotekoshi hydroelectric projects.

She also said IFC is going to invest US$ 38 million in infrastructure sector. Eighty percent of that will be invested in hydro projects, she added.

George suggested that Nepal should give priority to small and medium sized projects. She informed that IFC would also prefer to finance such projects. "We are looking for medium and small-sized projects. But, we will finance both large as well as small projects," she said. She was of the view that Nepal should adopt public-private partnership model for hydroelectric and other infrastructure development. "Around $10 billion is needed for the 10,800MW Karnali Chisapani Multipurpose Project. Public private partnership concept is essential for such projects," she said.

"Hydropower will give Nepal a big say in regional cooperation," she added.

Addressing the program, Minister for Water Resources Gyanendra Bahadur Karki expressed commitment to crafting a modern Nepal by fulfilling energy needs through rapid development of hydropower sector.

Also, Dr Sandip Shah of IPPAN, Balaram Pradhan of NHA, Radhesh Pant of NBA, Sher Singh Bhat of Nepal Electricity Authority, among others, presented their papers at the workshop.
The conference was also attended by AES, which is one of the world's largest global power companies, that generated approximately $13.6 billion revenues in 2007. Sanjeev Aggrawal of AES also presented a paper.

A large number of policy makers, power producers and bankers from in and outside the country participated in the program.

FROM THE KATHMANDU POST

Jha Nepal’s first Vice Prez, Re-polling for Prez on Monday

BY THIRA L BHUSAL
Kathmandu, JULY 19

Parmanand Jha, a candidate of Madhesi People’s Rights Forum (MPRF) has been elected the first Vice President of the federal democratic republic of Nepal.

Former Supreme Court Justice, Jha, received 305 votes while his nearest rival Shanta Shrestha, proposed and Maoist, could garner only 243. The total number of the voters was 294.

However, none of the candidates for President could receive majority of the votes of the constituent assembly (CA) members in today’s polls. Thus, the CA has announced to hold the re-election on Monday for electing the first President of the federal democratic republic of Nepal.

CA Chairperson Kul Bahadur Gurung announced that Dr Ram Baran Yadav garnered 283 while his nearest rival Ram Raja Prasad Singh got 270 votes. One must get at least 298 to get elected the for the coveted post.

Nepali Congress leader Dr Yadav is proposed by the NC and supported by CPN (UML) and MPRF, among other small parties. Maoist proposed Singh and some other parties supported him.

578 CA members took part in the voting Saturday afternoon. 16 CA members including from Nepal Peasants’ and Workers Party, National People’s Front boycotted the election.
If no candidate is able to secure a majority, i.e. 298 votes, a re-election will be carried out between the two candidates securing the highest votes.

Govt, WB restructure Fund

PDF fails to attract hydro projects

BY THIRA L BHUSAL
KATHMANDU, July 19

Following its lackluster performance, the Government of Nepal and World Bank (WB) have restructured the Power Development Fund (PDF).

PDF will no longer exclusively invest in small and medium power projects as it was initially supposed to do. The Fund is currently studying areas in which it can most effectively invest to promote hydropower development.

The government and WB established PDF in 2003 July 9 with the objective of financing small and medium sized hydropower projects. The WB committed an initial amount of US Dollar 35 million for the Fund, which is wholly owned and operated by the PDF Board.

But PDF completely failed to attract small-sized hydro projects. Ridi Hydropower Development Company Limited (Ridi Hydro), the only small-sized project that sought support from PDF, recently withdrew its application.

The 2400 KW Ridi Hydro has instead opted for financing through a commercial bank.
"The PDF has a cumbersome loan accessing process and is not business friendly," Guru Prasad Neupane, Executive Director of Ridi Hydro, told the Post, explaining why it withdrew its application from the Fund.

Neupane also claimed that appointing Nepal Bangladesh Bank Limited (NBBL) as PDF Administrator has only added more hassles. "NBBL has been creating complications instead of facilitating promoters," he charged. Neupane also claimed that the WB procurement guideline is not suitable for Nepali investors. "That needs to be changed as per the Nepali context," he added.

However, Susmita Sharma, official at NBBL who looks after PDF, claimed that Ridi Hydro quit the process despite the fact that the PDF Board and WB tried their best to support the project.
The Ridi episode forced the PDF Board to restructure the Fund. Director General of Department of Electricity Development (DoED) Sriranjan Lacoul, who is also Chairman of the PDF board, said the government and the WB restructured the PDF in view of the changed context.

"When the PDF was established, the banking sector was too weak to invest in the hydropower sector but now they have enough liquidity," said Lacoul.

The board has now decided to select bigger projects. "Our role will be to create favorable environment for investors and encourage them," Lacoul said. "For that we will identify problems faced by investors and try to solve them," he clarified. The Fund may also support constructing transmission lines if that's obstructing any hydropower project.

However, the board is yet to select and finalize the areas and projects on which it will work and the money the Fund will spend. "We will finalize the areas and projects within a few months," Lacoul informed.

THE KATHMANDU POST

NEA, HBL ink Rs 6b deal

BY THIRA L BHUSAL
KATHMANDU, JULY 17

The 309-megawatt (MW) Upper Tamakoshi hydroelectric project made one more significant step towards materializing after Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) and Himalayan Bank Ltd (HBL) Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in connection with investment in the project.

A consortium of 10 commercial banks of which HBL is to be the lead bank, will mobilize six billion rupees for the project. Arjun Karki, Executive Director of NEA, and Ashok SJB Rana, Chief Executive Officer of HBL, singed the MoU on Wednesday at a program organized at NEA premises.

The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has already decided to invest Rs 12 billion in the project and it also signed a MoU with NEA a few months back.

"Now we need around three to four billion rupees more for the project," said Karki at the signing function, adding, "Also, talks are underway with Rastriya Beema Sansthan and the Citizens' Investment Fund for arranging more funds for the project."

"Hence, we can very confidently arrange the financing arrangement and take the project ahead." The project's total estimated cost is Rs 27 billion.

He said this development has shown that Nepalis can quite efficiently build big hydroelectric projects on their own. "The commercial banks' support has boosted our confidence and indicated ample opportunity in the local markets," he said. Rana of HBL said the prospect of financing such a big project was a great oppertunity for local banks. "This is a good opportunity to prove one’s capacity because it is the first big project to be built with the investment of Nepali banks alone," Rana added.

Upper Tamakoshi located in the northern part of Dolakha district is a run-of-river project.
The project is taken as an ideal one in terms of cost and location.
NEA, which holds the license for the project, plans to complete it by 2013 BS for selling power entirely inside Nepal.

"We are six months behind the scheduled plan," Karki said, adding that NEA is going to call for a tender bid in a month to construct the tunnel.

Karki urged commercial banks to invest in building the transmission lines required in several parts of the country.

From: THE KATHMANDU POST

Govt selects builders for Sikta canal

BY THIRA L BHUSAL
KATHMANDU, July 9

The joint venture of China Tiesiju Civil Engineering Group Company Limited and Kalika Construction Private Limited has been selected for major canal construction works in Sikta Irrigation Project (SIP) in Banke district.

The joint venture of Chinese and Nepali construction companies was selected as it was found to be the lowest bidder in the international competitive bidding called by the government on May 17.

The joint venture of Chinese and Nepali companies submitted their bid of 1 billion 470 million rupees (excluding VAT) for the 11.42 kilometer long canal construction.
The other two -- the second lowest and third lowest bidding -- construction companies proposed costs of over two billion rupees, according to Senior Division Engineer Raghu Nath Shrestha of the Department of Irrigation (DoI), under Ministry of Water Resources. The Sinohydro Corporation of China, which has been constructing the dam of the irrigation project, was second lowest bidder and China Water International Electric Corporation was the third lowest bidder in the international competition. The tender was floated on July 1.

However, DoI will thoroughly verify the companies' documents and their application procedures before formally okaying their bids, according to Shrestha. "If the joint venture of the two Nepali and Chinese companies is disqualified, there will be some difficulty in offering the project to the second lowest bidder as there is huge difference between the lowest and second lowest bid amounts," he clarified.

Sinohydro, a Chinese state-owned construction company, that has been building the dam of the project will complete the construction work up to 614 meters of the dam. Then, China Tiesiju Civil Engineering Group Company Limited and Kalika Construction will undertake the construction of the main canal from 614 to 12,036 meters.

Besides the aforementioned three companies, China Gezhouba Group Company also qualified for bidding. However, it did not bid for the project.

Likewise, other Nepali construction companies have been selected for construction of three other sections of the canal through national bidding competition. The other national companies selected are joint venture of Tamang Construction Company and Rasuwa Construction Company, and joint venture of Waiba Bhairav, and Himdung and Thokar construction company.

The former will construct the canal from 12,036 to 13,000 meters while the latter will construct the remaining two sections - 13,000 to 14,000 meters and from 14,000 up to 15,000 meters, according to Shrestha.

The government had called for re-bid for canal construction works as the lowest proposal in the past bid was more than the estimated cost.

The total cost of the project was estimated at over seven billion rupees some years back. But, in view of rise in the price of construction materials and other factors, the total cost of the entire Sikta Master Plan was estimated at 12 billion rupees when it was updated last December, Shrestha informed.

Around 36,766 hectares land in the mid-western region will be irrigated by the project.

THE KATHMANDU POST