Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, May 12:

The country needs a pragmatic concept for public-private partnership where joint efforts would be made not only in investment but also in planning, policy making, monitoring and evaluation, said Madhukar SJB Rana, minister for finance. Rana was speaking at a preparatory workshop on industrial investment annual budget plan 2005-06, organised by Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) in Kathmandu today. The workshop has been organised with the objective to provide inputs to the government and concerned authorities while formulating plans and policies for the forthcoming budget incorporating private sector views.

“The country needs consensual modalities of economy to roll over the political and insurgency situation,” Rana said. Neighbouring countries of Nepal have achieved remarkable growth in economy despite having internal conflicts and those practices could be replicated in Nepal for economic enhancement, he said.

Sectors with competitive advantages should be identified and economic planning should be made in such a way that globalisation and economic advancement of neighbouring states would have very little adverse impact on our economy, he said. He said that there should be a balance and linkage between rural and urban economy.

Rana emphasised the need of a leadership role by private sector where government could support with favourable policies in investment and taxation.

Binod Kumar Chaudhary, president of CNI, stressed on the need of finding sectors that have success stories that have been sustained for considerable amounts of time. “If we could address the weakness of such industries, we could march towards sustainable development of industries,” said Chaudhary.

“The economic agenda should focus on one sector and all efforts for boosting it should be made. The country should set its goal first then mobilise resources accordingly. State and private sector should move in conjunction to achieve economic growth,” he said. Lopsided effort will fail in no time, he added.

Chaudhary also underscored the need of competitive and investment friendly policies. The government has been apathetic towards the proposals forwarded by the private sector, he added.

Nepal’s economy is at a critical point, if we could introduce favourable policies and cash on the potential, double-digit growth would not be a dream, said Jagdish Prasad Agrawal, CNI national council member. Borrowers’ right and procurement policies for expanding local markets should be introduced, he added. To increase foreign investment in Nepal, private sector participation is necessary, said Bhanu Acharya, secretary at the ministry of finance.

An unidirectional approach with focus from government and the private sector is the need of the hour, he said. Acharya also said that a procurement law is in offing and the government has also felt the need for a revenue policy for economic up-scaling.