Kathmandu, July 14:

The Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) is organising an economic summit on August 14-16 here to start a focused debate on how to start building a prosperous and economically strong Nepal.

“Political stability and writting a new Constitution are not the only challenges that Nepal faces today,” Binod Chaudhary, president of CNI said adding that building a prosperous Nepal is yet another challenge.

The three-day CNI Economic Summit-2008 with the theme of ‘Rs 12,000 per month income for every Nepali — a national commitment’ will see a host of intelligentsia and experts in the field. Six working papers on key and critical issues like rapid economic growth and its associated issues, trends, constraints and impediments in selected sectors; labour relations compatible to global trends; economic vision in the new Constituent will be discussed and practical and workable strategies will be worked out for achieving double digit growth, according to CNI.

“It would be worth recalling that even when the country was passing through a comparatively much worse phase, CNI had in 2004 advocated achieving a double-digit growth as an effective tool for addressing the socio-economic disparity,” Chaudhary said. “This initiative is a continuation in a somewhat remodelled form of the initiative that we had undertaken at that time.”

Double digit growth cannot be achieved solely through the commitment of the government, said Chaudhary adding that each and every section of community must be equally committed and play their roles effectively. “CNI wants to facilitate the growth by actively involving all stakeholders,” he added.

This will be a brainstorming as various members of the Constituent Assembly including sectoral and functional experts and professionals, members of civil society, aid and donor agencies and representatives of the private sector will be actively participate in this summit.

The Prime Minister will inaugurate the summit that will be spread across six participative sessions. CNI thinks that with serious commitment of every stakeholder achieving a double digit growth is not an impossible target. It is also planning a major international investment summit in Kathmandu next year.