July 21: Daayitwa, a non-profit, non-governmental organization that envisions an  enterprising Nepal, organized the second policy dialogue of the ECO Talks Series on youth employment on Tuesday.

The second edition of the talk series featuring Member of Parliament and former Labour Minister Gokarna Bista advocated for creating employment opportunities to retain the youth labor force in Nepal.

A panel discussion among prominent figures of the society examined the social challenges and innovative ways of mobilization the human resources, reads a statement issued by Daayitwa.

It also made some recommendations to take parliamentary actions to promote employment opportunities to retain the youth labor force in Nepal.

Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies Jiblal Bhusal; Amun Thapa, president of the Confederation of Nepalese Industries Young Entrepreneurs Forum as well as the founder and CEO of Sasto Deal Pvt Ltd; Moushumi Shrestha, director of Shreenagar Agro Group and Dr Kalpana Khanal, senior research fellow at the Policy Research Institute participated in the panel discussion.

The need to address the gap between planning and implementation of enterprise-based policies and the challenges experienced by the start-up and innovation industry due to lack of proper policies and expertise of the government were some of the major issues discussed during the panel discussion.

Other important issues discussed during the dialogue included the urgency to shift Nepal’s remittance and trade-based economy to production-oriented economy, the importance of decreasing the cost of living in Nepal to retain youth labor force, and the gap between the industry needs and the skills equipped by our academic institution.

During the discussion, former minister Gokarna Bista highlighted the need of addressing the policy issues of Nepal in innovative ways.  “Human resource and capital are the most important factors to be considered while discussing the development of Nepal. Unfortunately, the government does not possess the exact data, however, the average estimate of the labor force that has gone from Nepal in search of foreign employment is over 6 million. Creating sustainable employment opportunities within the nation is the only way to retain the youth labor force in Nepal. But, as long as we don't prioritize production over trade, this problem will not be addressed,” said Bista.

Under Secretary at the Ministry of Finance Nirmal Dhakal was of the view that the high cost of living is the main reason why the youth labor force is going abroad cannot be retained in Nepal. “The young human resource that we’ve lost to foreign countries cannot be brought back and the reason is the cost of living in Nepal is higher than that of the other countries. Unless we resolve this, we cannot retain the youth labor force in the country,”said Dhakal.

Dr Pukar Malla, founder and chairperson of Daayitwa, shared that the youths are resorting to better opportunities abroad while Nepal’s economic situation is rapidly degrading.

According to the organisers, the second policy dialogue of the ECO Talks Series successfully built a strong base for the policy recommendations to achieve the maximum economic growth potential in this demographic window.

The statement said that the event brought together more than 60 policymakers, CSOs, private companies, journalists and other relevant policy stakeholders.

The inaugural dialogue of the series was held in June which focused on women's economic empowerment. Four more similar dialogues will be held under the ECO Talks Series, the statement added.