Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, April 30:

As Nepal has already started to compete in the global market place, following its membership to the World Trade organisation (WTO) and other regional bodies, there is an urgent need on the part of the private sector to make its products’ price ‘competitive’ to survive in the long run. Nepal has been weak in enhancing its capacity due to her weak investment in facilitation through investments in trade infrastructure. On the other, Nepali business sector still lags behind in carrying out its operations with required degree of efficiency. Member of the National Planning Commission (NPC), Dr Yuvaraj Khatiwada today opined that an increased investment in infrastructure is the need of the hour in which the private sector’s participation is needed to be expedited in days ahead.

Giving suggestions to the private sector, Dr Khatiwada said that if the private sector registers profit, it has to pay taxes. Research and development has also been a subject of serious concern for the private sector in today’s context of increased competition, said Dr Khatiwada.

In line with the efforts initiated by the government, the private sector move forward, said Khatiwda who was addressing a programme organised by the World Bank and the Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) jointly on ‘Price Competitiveness and Productivity: Private Sector’s Perspective on Nepal Trade Competitive Study’ held today in the run-up to the NDF meeting, slated for May 5 and 6.

Speaking at the same function, Rajesh Kaji Shrestha, president of NCC also stressed on the need to expedite competitiveness of the Nepali private sector to take advantage of the easy market access. Shrestha showed concerns over Nepali economy’s weak capacity. Presenting the paper, Dr Pushkar Bajracharya said that despite labour being cheap in Nepal, productivity is very low. As per the research, Bajracharya said, “Large firms have better productivity compared to small firms. However, small firms provide more employment than larger firms.”

In Nepal, there are only 10 per cent ‘skilled and trained’ people but in other competitive economies like the European and American economy, trained and productive people are over 35 per cent. In such a situation, how can Nepal be competitive with such markets, Bajracharya questioned.

Dr Dilli Raj Khanal, former member of NPC, said that Nepali products’ price competitiveness is very weak despite the liberalisation process started in early nineties. The subsidy factor has also contributed a lot to the competitiveness of agriculture products in Nepal vis a vis other countries. Prof Bishwambher Pyakuryal, president of Nepal Economic Association also spoke about increasing products, timely delivery and changing consumer tastes. He said that research and development has been an essential factor to keep quality products usable for consumers. If we talk about trade, Nepali entrepreneurs have to pay 15 per cent of the total export value as transaction cost, thanks to the fragile infrastructure, he added.