Opinion

Making history

Making history

By Sudarshan Ananta Nepal

In the 21st century, Nepal is attracting huge foreign direct investment from Asian and other countries. World class hotel brands have stepped into the Nepalese market after the study of its tourism potential. SAARC member countries have helped to make an environment for trade and intra-SAARC investment to deepen the integration process. Nepal’s growth forecast rate was revised to five per cent which was lower than the last fiscal year. Ease of doing business in Nepal has increased compared with last year. Nepal’s human development index is the highest in the low human development group. But we Nepalese are busy underestimating our country saying that we are unable to achieve our plan due to different factors as perceived by every citizen. Weak industrial performance has compelled us to import more products from foreign countries. Power cut is a huge hurdle for industrial and overall development of the country. Human resources have been transferred to other countries since decades. Infrastructure of development is very low and moves are not made by the government. Corruption and its increasing trend further limit development. When listening to the international news channels, I find it strange that every country is a part of the news because of its own issues. Some countries have high officials involved in corruption and others are emerging as hubs of economic transformation. There are countries where terrorist groups have halted the progress process and some countries which are encouraging the entrepreneurs to make numerical changes in their economy. Similar is the case with Nepal where decades of political, economic, cultural activities have led to the present stage and still changes are on the way. In the 30s to the 60s there were very few financial institutions and now the data have changed with 30 commercial banks and various categories of financial institutions.   In the 60s exports to other countries were few and now we export to more countries although we are unable to grab all the benefits from other sectors. In the 90s when the center was converted into Nepal stock exchange, financial instruments were not very popular with the Nepalese market but now financial instruments are enjoyed by people from most parts of Nepal. Like other countries of the world we are also making history and moving forward.