Kathmandu, June 8:

Amid a growing critisism that Nepali advertising agencies are slowly turning as translating agencies because of lack of creativity in them, Advertising Association of Nepal (AAN) during its annual general meeting (AGM) today requested the government to bring National Advertising Policy at the earliest.

Speaking on the occasion, Nirmal Raj Poudyal, president of the AAN, laid stressed on urgent need of National Advertising Policy and Advertising Council to check the unhealthy competition among the advertising agencies that are seen in the recent days.

“In recent times, Nepal saw a growth in media, which is good,” he said, “but the growth in media also brought an unhealthy competition as the market could not expand.”

“Five years ago, the growth rate of advertising market was 20 per cent,” said Bhaskar Raj Rajkarnikar, vice-president of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI). “But the growth has been stalled at present,” he said, blaming the political instability for the stagnation of the market. “But now there seems a great potential of the market growth.”

The 2.5-billion advertising sector can play the role of image building of the country, Kush Kumar Joshi, president of FNCCI said, adding that these agencies can promote Nepal as a tourist destination.

However, the agencies need to abide by the code of conduct for healthy competition and growth, he added.

Yubraj Pandey, secretary at the Ministry of Information and Communication informed the meeting that the government has recently formed a committee to draft the National Advertising Policy.