Nepal plans to set up a national biotech centre.

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[KATHMANDU] Nepals ministry of science and technology plans to establish by 2013 a national biotechnology centre (NBC) to promote research and development in agriculture, health, environment and industry.

By setting up the new centre estimated to cost US$ 13 million over five years Nepal hopes to follow the success of its neighbours China and India in biotechnology.

"But without a proper government entity in place you cannot do that," Sameer Dixit, country director of the non-profit Centre for Molecular Dynamics, Nepal, and team leader for the NBC project planning, told SciDev.Net.

Nepal has no government agency to oversee biotechnology development and there has been no significant advance since 1982 when the Nepal Academy of Science and Technology, started a biotechnology unit.

It took until 1997 before a second biotechnology unit could be set up at the Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC).

In 2003 Kathmandu University launched the first undergraduate degree in biotechnology and by 2009 Tribhuvan University, Nepals oldest and largest public university, had established a masters programme.

The university programmes produced 50 degree holders per year, but with no industry or job market to assimilate them many had to seek opportunities abroad.

"It seemed like we were teaching biotechnology just to export people to foreign countries en masse," observed Mukunda Ranjit, president of the Nepal Biotechnology Association, who is also involved in planning for the NBC.

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Nepal plans biotechnology centre