June 12: Experts have suggested the country’s leadership to focus on the national needs and priority while enforcing projects initiated by foreign countries for the economic development of Nepal.
They underscored the need for maintaining a balance between diplomacy and national interest while enforcing the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) project initiated by China and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) project forwarded by the US.
During an interaction organized on 'BRI: International Practice and Its Relevance in Nepal' by News Society Nepal on Saturday, experts on international relations expressed their views that although both projects are not undesirable as such, they must be utilized for Nepal's best interest.
Geja Sharma Wagle said the mega projects in Nepal were unnecessarily geo-politicized. It was worrying to dub some projects for nationalist cause while others against nationalism. "The same BRI and MCC are successful in Mongolia while these failed in Sri Lanka. So, projects cannot be termed good or bad in black and white. Most important is whether the country needs it or not," he underlined.
He made it clear that Nepal could not afford the projects on taking foreign loan. According to him, if the parliamentary endorsement is made for the project of over Rs 50 billion, it could help maintain transparency. Public debates should be held before launching mega projects, Wagle suggested.
On the occasion, another expert Ajay Bhadra Khanal said neither MCC nor BRI would bring challenges. But, major problems around the implementation of these projects are corruption, bad governance, and economic greed, he reminded.
It would be counterproductive to run mega projects on personal interest, he cautioned.
Similarly, Chief Editor of the Annapurna Express weekly, Bishwas Baral, said mega projects are run successfully in democratic countries rather than in authoritarian countries. He reminded that in the African countries with low corruption, mega projects are implemented successfully. -- RSS
