One book of the Constitution for one Nepali voter

The Federation of Nepal Printers' Association (FNPA) is four years and boasts of more than 2000 members. There are more than 500 Nepalis at the show of which, 55 delegates are "officially" attending PrintPack 2017 on all five days. The leader of the group is Madhav KC, who has been president of the FNPA for two years now.

He says, "The first four-colour press arrived in our country in 1980. In those most of the multicolour jobs work in Nepal was outsourced to India. Now, we have approximately hundred four-colour offset kit of which ten would be brand new." Most of the new machines can be seen on the shopfloor of firms like Janak Education (department of printing), Pashupathi Printing Press, Trigun and Triyuga Printing Press.

Even today a vast majority of the working force in Nepal are engaged in agriculture. Since a large proportion of its area is hilly and mountainous, the arable land is limited to 18%. Which is why, Madhav KC feels, the print industry could be a solid industry in Nepal. Some of the FNPA members epitomise this with operations that require basic machinery in a small space and taskforce of five to ten to help with design, processing and printing.

At the moment, Madhav KC said, most of the printers in Nepal are busy with textbook and educational book printing, plus newspaper printing. This is the season of local elections in Nepal. And so many small printers are busy with printing of pamphlets, party manifestos, promotional posters and ballot papers. Then there is packaging work for sweet boxes, shoe boxes, matchboxes and pharma packaging. But the project that is the pride of Nepal is, the printing of the new Constitution of Nepal. The government is committed that to distribute "one book for one voter."

The PrintPack show has proved to be an eye opener for the entire Nepali delegation, said Madhav. He added,"Such kind of shows will help to promote skill development among our members and boost print technology in Nepal."

Madhav KC hopes that the FNPA is in a position to host a similar show in Kathmandu. This, in his view will ensure Nepali resources are utilised, economic activities are encouraged, plus regional development is promoted." In the long term, he hopes "the Nepal print industry can continue to work in partnership with the Indian print industry and promote print. After all, culturally and even in terms of our language, India and Nepal are so similar."