Kathmandu

SARTUC with the support of ILO Nepal Office organised a one-day “consultation workshop on developing trade unions’ strategy for formalising informal economy in Nepal” to discuss on the status of the informal economy in Nepal and to develop strategies for formalising informal economy.

Mr. Bishnu Rimal, President of SARTUC Nepal Committee, chaired the program. Mr. Laxman Basnet, SARTUC General Secretary was also present during the program. Leaders of Nepali trade unions (Mr. Khila Nath Dahal, President of NTUC and Mr. Salikram Jamkattel) and guests from ILO Nepal Office (Mr. Narayan Bhattarai and Mr. Prakash Sharma) spoke during the opening session. All guest speakers hailed the importance of the program to identify informal economy issues and develop a roadmap for the formalising of informal economy.

The program participants were from the three major trade unions of Nepal- ANTUF, GEFONT and NTUC. Ms. Bandita Sijapati from CESLAM, presented a paper on “formalising informal economy in Nepal – issues, challenges and approaches”. The presented paper was able to provide the current status of informal economy in Nepal.

The second session of the program was a workshop to identify strategies for formalising informal economy. The participants actively discussed on the issue and presented their findings.

The identified trade union strategies will provide a framework for trade union leadership of South Asia, which will be meeting in the end of September this year in Colombo, to discuss further on the issues of informality and endorse the action plan for formalization of informal economy.