Kathmandu, May 3

Though political parties have unveiled their election manifestos with promises of ambitious programmes targeting economic growth and development of the country, private sector players have expressed doubt over the implementation of poll-centric commitments of political parties.

“History has shown that political parties in Nepal have not implemented even a few per cent of the commitments they make during election time,” Hari Bhakta Sharma, president of the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) said, adding that poll manifestos are ‘dream documents’ of political parties that only introduce popular programmes which are later not implemented or are unrealistic for implementation.

Comparing the parties’ poll-centric manifestos to ‘fantasy’ documents, Sharma said that political parties should first analyse their power to deliver before making such commitments. “Political parties should develop a trend of reviewing progress of their commitments during election every six months,” he said.

In fact, political parties have made ambitious commitment in areas of infrastructure development, energy production, employment generation and industrial growth in their election manifestos.

The major opposition party CPN UML has announced it will work to increase average per capita income of every Nepali to $5,000 within the next decade and plans to graduate Nepal to the league of developing nations within the next five years. Similarly, it has also set a target to generate almost 15,000 megawatts of electricity in the next one decade and sell surplus energy to international market. UML also plans to begin the construction of railway lines along the Mid-Hill Highway and East-West Highway.

The major ruling party Nepali Congress (NC) has also unveiled ambitious plans. Within the next one decade, the NC plans to bring down the poverty level in Nepal to three per cent. Similarly, NC has also said it will transform Nepal into a middle-income country by bringing in at least Rs 100 billion in foreign direct investment in a year and generating job opportunities for 300,000 people in the next one decade. NC has also expressed commitment to operate four international airports in the country and bring at least 3.2 million foreign tourists in the country every year.

Similarly, the ruling party Maoist Centre has also vowed to promote industrial sector of the country and hugely increase export of Nepali products. It has also said it will give industrial recognition to the country’s tourism sector.

Bhawani Rana, president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), said that political parties should start implementing commitments made in their election manifestos as soon as the election concludes.

“Development plans should not be limited to documents. All stakeholders — the government, private sector and political parties — should join hands to execute development plans,” Rana said.