--By Sujit Nath

 

It was a day of pledge reckoning and revolution. Newbiz Conclave & Business Excellence Awards Ceremony-2013 was held on August 24 with an aim to double Nepal GDP growth rate to 7 per cent per annum.

 

The event was conceptualised with a mission, hoping for a new sun rise and a dream to give Nepal what it deserve in terms of development and good governance.

 

Amid some of the stalwarts of the industries, chamber of commerce, embassy officials, foreign thinkers and economists, the New Business Age (NBA), The Corporate Weekly and Arthik Abhiyan in association with Asian Paints and other sponsors organized the ceremony and initiated a step toward development under the banner of — ‘Doubling of growth of Nepali economy to 7 per cent GDP: The Roadmap Ahead’.

 

It was a long brain storming session where excuses, logic and ways to achieve were shared, and views were exchanged among the speakers.

 

The conclusion was optimistic — Yes, we can achieve it.

 

All we need, a determination to do anything for this country in bringing FDI’s, training people locally in specialized areas and more focus on Agriculture.

 

Speaking on the occasion, chief guest Shankar Koirala, Minister for Finance, Industry, Commerce and Supplies stressed for 5.5 per cent economic growth in coming 12 months and said, “Achieving 7 per cent in coming years is not an impossible task. We play blame game and that’s hampering the country. Only effort from the government is not sufficient and we need help from the private sectors to make Nepal a developed country 

by 2022”.

 

“Investment is important for higher growth but private sector is shying away due to lack of investment safety. We have already implemented some of the policies on development and are on the process of implementing few more new foreign policies, which will help us in bringing more investment in Nepal. Let me share that the cement industry is booming in Nepal and in coming years Nepal will be self sufficient in cement. The whole idea is to bring more investment through friendly foreign policies for a healthy GDP growth,” 

he said.

 

Many dignitaries on the ocassion felt there was an urgent need for the farmers to shift from traditional farming to scientific way of cultivation. This is only possible by bringing technologies to Nepal and providing trainings to the local youths so that they don’t go to other countries to earn their bread. This will reduce the import as the country will be self sufficient in food. It will also bring a heave of sigh among the middle class in terms of affordability.

To bring a collective effort for the development of Nepal, a book titled — Nepalko Arthik Briddhi Ek Margachitra (Sambriddha Nepal Abhiyan) was launched by the minister for finance, Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank Dr. Yubaraj Khatiwada, NBA chairman Madan Lamsal, country head of Asian Paints Budhaditya Mukherjee, chairman of NewBiz Awards jury Prabhakar SJB Rana, FNCCI president Suraj Vaidya, CNI founder president Binod Chaudhary and president of Nepal Bankers’ Association Rajan Singh Bhandary.

 

Among some of the strong views shared by the speakers, Hari Bhakta Sharma, vice president, confederation of Nepalese industries came out with a practical thought on some the basic thing to achieve the growth in this country.

 

“Nature has a capacity to fulfill all our need but she cannot fulfill our greed. It is sad that the country where I live is 167th poorest in the world because of dollar appreciation. Thanks to the government. We have 2.5 billion people market and still far behind. There is no electricity and water. We only demand with no responsibility,” Sharma said.

 

He said, “New generation of enterprise is emerging in Nepal. We should try to improve our technology to compete with India and China. Once you learnt that, you will compete with rest of the world. I would like to request the government to change their policies at the earliest and would like to request our skilled manpower not to migrate to other countries. We are sending labour to Qatar because we pay less to them in Nepal. We have to utilize these people to reverse that cycle. My perspective to the business leaders that best resources are here and how much we are ready is a different issue”. 

 

Nepal’s economic growth stood at 4.6 per cent last fiscal year due to favorable weather and also the services sector witnessed a healthy growth. However, in the current fiscal year its economic growth rate is slowed down to 3.5 per cent due to lack of investment, incomplete budget, rough weather etc.

 

Sharma stressed that there is a need to generate employment and industrial clusters in Nepal and says, “If Morocco can export garments to Nepal, then why can’t we produce garments. In coming days the competition is global not regional and we need to change our policy. A regular co-ordination with the government is also become very important”.

 

The view of 15 speakers including six foreigners zeroed down to some of the basic areas to achieve 7 per cent GDP includes reducing import, investing whatever resources available in Nepal, utilizing local people, improving Agriculture investor friendly policies, stable government and preventing corruption.

 

Dr. Yubaraj Khatiwada believes that agricultural and service sectors are some of the key drivers of growth and it has a capacity to grow by five and seven per cent respectively. “We need a common economic agenda to grow further,” he said.

 

The business conclave ends with a thundering applaud and left many foot prints behind with a dream to drive Nepal towards development.