KATHMANDU, Oct 18 – At a time when the tourism growth is recording a downward trend, the government is delaying the formation of Nepal Tourism Board’s (NTB) new board of directors (BoD).

Although a three-member selection committee, formed by the government a month back, made a list of recommendations to the government last week, the decision is yet to be taken. The selection committee comprises of Narendra Bajracharya, President of Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN), Bhola Thapa, President of Nepal Association of Travel Agents (NATA) and Kumar Poudel, joint secretary at the Mininstry of Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA).

The 3-year tenure of former board members ended in September, 2000.Tourism entrepreneurs have blamed that the government’s laxity in appointing the Board Members will hit the forthcoming activities of NTB.

According to a source at NTB, the proposed candidates for the board members are Shyam Bahadur Pandey, Yogendra Shakya, Gautam Das Shrestha, Kali Bahadur Adhikari, Rajendra Bantawa, Narendra Bhatta, Rabi Poudel and Tek Chandra Pokhrel.

Out of the proposed name list, the government has to appoint at least five board members from the private sector as per the NTB Act. Five more are appointed from the government side. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NTB will automatically be appointed as the Member Secretary of the Board.

Commenting upon the delay in the appointment of the new board members at NTB, Narendra Bajracharya, President of HAN and a member of the selection committe, said, “We have already completed our job and submitted a list of possible candidates for the board members of NTB on behalf of the private sector. But the government is yet to decide on the matter.”

However, Shanker Koirala, joint secretary at the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation says that the process of declaring the new BoD is underway.

“Certain formalities have to be completed before the BoD is declared by the government. The government is doing its job,” he said.

The outgoing board members from the private sector were Basanta Mishra, R R Pandey, Kali Bahadur Adhikari, Ang Tshering Sherpa and Kishor Pandey. Kali Bahadur Adhikari and Ang Tshering Sherpa were replacements to Karna Shakya and Prabhakar SJB Rana who resigned from the board in February 1999.

The government had formed NTB with an intention to boost the country’s tourism sector, a major source of foreign currency, through the creation of a sound infrastructure. However, existing procedural delays in government offices, indifferent attitudes of the officials and degrading environment in the Kathmandu Valley has hit the tourism sector considerably lately.