Sunday, December 6, 2009

Labor dispute chases away FDI from Nepal!

Exactly the kind of thing the Nepalese economy does not want right now:

Amid worsening business conditions created mainly by Maoist-affiliated workers, Varun Beverage Nepal Ltd -- the bottler of Pepsi in Nepal, has decided to halt its production and also announced that it will not make further investments any other sector in the country including, expansion of Pepsi.

The workers have been agitating since Friday demanding the removal of the newly-appointed shift engineer Shivaraj Bhandari by the management. " The workers started showing their inhumane and illogical behavior just because the management didn´t pay Rs 3,000 in advance payment to one of the workers who in fact had taken the advance amount earlier," added Jaipuriya.

Jaipuriya had earlier announced investing Rs 1 billion in various sectors including Pepsi, housing sector and the newly opened KFC and Pizza Hut outlets. With this ongoing disturbance Jaipuriya has decided to drop the decision. The company was preparing to expand Pepsi plant in the Tarai as well.

Varun Beverages has recruited more than 350 individuals as permanent employees and they draw a minimum of Rs 10,000 as basic salaries.

More here