Kathmandu, August 7:

In order to promote sustainable industrialisation in the country, industrialists and the government officials today collectively urged to encourage use of domestic products

and services.

The private sector representatives speaking at an interaction on ‘promotion of domestic goods’ organised by the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) pointed out the need that the government should formulate pragmatic policies to promote the domestic products. They also said that the industrialisation process couldn’t sustain unless and until the products and services produced by the domestic industries are consumed or used by the domestic consumers.

Speaking on the occasion, Chandi Raj Dhakal, president of FNCCI said that the country’s industrialisation process has now been slackened dueto lack of market. “Excessive use of the imported goods and weak protection measures for the domestic industries have become a serious challenge to sustain the industrialisation process,” he said, adding that a joint effort is the need of an hour.

Bharat Bahadur Thapa, secretary at the ministry of industry, commerce and supplies also agreed that the industrialisation has been slowed down in recent years. He added that the promotion and publicity is needed to increase the use of domestic goods.

“Enhancement of competitiveness is very crucial aspect of industrial productions, whereas up gradation of technology and quality improvement will lead towards the sustainable industrialisation,” he added.

Thapa also informed that the government is mulling to introduce various laws to provide protection to the domestic industries. The new laws in the offing are competition law, anti-dumping duty law and changes in public procurement laws.

“These laws are being formulated taking into consideration of Nepal’s entry into the global trade body such as WTO and other regional trading arrangements,” he said. Thapa also suggested the private sector to make product catalogue and directory of the domestic products and services.

Presenting a working paper on promotion and utilisation of domestic goods in Nepal, Pradeep Jung Pandey, chairman of Industry Promotion Committee at FNCCI highlighted Nepal’s prospects on industrial development as well as domestic market promotion.

“Although the economy witnessed a boom after economic liberalisation in 1990, the industrialisation process, especially the domestic industries, gradually started sliding. The country increasingly started depending on imports rather than using domestic products,” he said.

Despite having enormous potential, Nepali industrialisation couldn’t grow at a rate it was anticipated due to decline in use of the domestic products. The government continued to lack effective mechanism to implement the commitments made for the promotion of domestic products domestically and internationally, Pandey said.

“Nepal has become a lucrative destination for ‘flock imports’ in recent time and the domestic industries continues to face set back,” said Kush Kumar Joshi, second vice-president FNCCI.