The prestigious US-India-Nepal joint venture, Kodak Nepal, is packing its bags to leave. The project, which had invested $6 million on its Hetauda plant, decided to quit after it was not issued a "certificate of origin" needed to export colour photographic paper to India duty-free, even though it had got initial approvals from both Nepal and India.

Kodak wrote to the government in late August for permission to leave. Among the high officials senior Kodak officials met in Nepal before reaching coming to a final decision were the Prime Minister, Minister of Commerce and Industry Ram Krishna Tamrakar and Ministry secretary, Mohan Dev Panta But nothing came of this last-ditch effort.

Kodak had lobbied long and hard to get the export permit to India. The matter was even raised by Bill Clinton with the Indian prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, earlier this year. Kodak had hoped for something to emerge out of the scheduled meeting between Koirala and Vajpayee in New York last week.

Eastman Kodak Company of the US owns 80 percent of Kodak Nepal, the rest is held by Kodak India.

Kodak now plans to dismantle the factory and move on.