April 21: The private sector has proposed reopening of the businesses and industries closed by the lockdown by categorizing them into three different groups.

The umbrella organisations of the private sector made a formal request to the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies on Monday to reopen the closed industries by categorizing them into green, yellow and red zones depending on the risk of contracting coronavirus.

The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FNCCI), Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) and Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) prepared the joint proposal almost in a months since the lockdown brought all the businesses to a grinding halt in the country.

NCC Vice President Rajendra Malla said that the private sector has prepared a certain criteria for resuming operation of businesses and industries and that can be possible with the support from all three tiers of governments.

He argued that resuming operation of industries while they have stock of raw materials will help ease scarcity of goods in the market in the coming days.

“The industries can be operated by taking into account the safety standard set by the government and categorizing the sectors free from risk of coronavirus as green zones,” said Malla.

Only essential service providers like pharmaceutical companies and few industries involved in food production are currently operational due to the lockdown imposed by the government. Most of the companies have remained closed.