KATHMANDU: Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) and the German technicial agency GTZ today signed two memorandums of understanding (MoU) to collaborate to mitigate conflict issues and provide employment to people of fourteen districts in the Tarai.

The first MoU will work to increase productivity of labourers in order to mitigate conflict.

“The MoU will highlight conflict issues as well as provide a collaborative approach to strengthen capacity building for the labour mission to lessen conflict issues,” said FNCCI president Kush Kumar Joshi.

FNCCI and GTZ will be working for the reinforcement of Youth Self-employment Programme in rural parts of the country.

According to Joshi, 600,000 people have applied for the Youth Self-employment Programme already. “This is our initiative to introduce entrepreneurship in rural areas, and by providing the necessary training we are looking to pull them into mainstream entrepreneurship,” he added.

GTZ Programme Manager Horst Ammann said that working in coordination with FNCCI would help rebuild local capacity building and stress on communication and negotiation.

International Labour Organisation and Nepal Business Initiative( NBI) are also a part of the memorandum, and will be rendering their support and cooperation.

GTZ and FNCCI signed a separate MoU to provide facilities and training to people under Youth Self-employment Programme who will apply for loan from banks. Talking about the initiative, Joshi said, “This collateral-free loan policy of the government is aimed at providing people with vision and entrepreneurship qualities. Only when the proposal and business vision they submit is loan worthy will they be granted the capital from the banks.”

The proposal submitted by a potential candidate would itself be the collateral against the loan.

Under the MoU, GTZ and FNCCI will provide training to individuals interested in applying for loans and setting up small businesses in rural areas.

The proposal will also tap into and train skilled business minds in order to induct them into the mainstream of entrepreneurship.