LALITPUR, July 30: Nepali Congress (NC) President and former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has said that the government should encourage businesspersons and entrepreneurs for investment.
During a program organized by the party's Department of Financial Institution Coordination at its central office in Sanepa on Tuesday, party President Deuba emphasized that one of the key objectives of the seven-point agreement between the NC and the Communist Party of Nepal (UML) is to strengthen the national economy.
He recalled that the policy of privatization and liberalization was introduced by the NC-led government in 2048 BS, a move that, according to him, faced criticism at the time."Girija Prasad Koirala too had to put up with criticism due to the introduction of these policies. Still, we are ready to support the private sector to run enterprises and industries. Business is done by businesspersons and industries are run by industrialists. The government's job is not to run industries and trade," he asserted, pleading utmost support from the government to the private sector.
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Although prolonged armed conflict, devastating earthquake in 2015, COVID-pandemic and Russia-Ukraine conflict had taken their toll on Nepal's economy, the economic foundation laid by the NC-led government since the restoration of democracy had helped maintain economic resilience.
The NC President informed participants about recent significant improvements in the external indicators of the national economy. He noted that the government’s current account and balance of payments surplus are continually increasing, and there has been a notable improvement in foreign exchange reserves.
Remittances have also increased significantly, while inflation has been maintained at around 4 percent. Additionally, credit flow to the private sector has risen by 4.6 percent. He reported a 13.1 percent increase in imports and a remarkable 77.8 percent increase in exports during the last fiscal year compared to the previous year.
Despite these signs of economic growth, driven by sectors such as energy, finance and insurance, and mining and mineral excavation, more efforts are needed to gain the confidence of the private sector and the general public. He urged a stronger focus on improving the real sector of the economy by boosting production, creating jobs, strengthening business activities, and increasing investment.
Moreover, the NC Chief expressed his concern over the failure of the government’s spending of a large portion of its development budget and pressed for urgent reforms at structural, organizational, procedural and legal fronts and the formulation of new legislations for the timely spending of capital expenditure.
Due to the decrease in interest rates among banks and financial institutions (BFIs) following the introduction of the Monetary Policy, a significant amount of money deposited in these institutions is expected to be transformed into credit flow. He expressed hope that this would encourage aspiring entrepreneurs and support existing businesses.
He also pointed out that our reliance on remittances has negatively affected the agriculture and industrial sectors. The NC leader urged the government to create policies that connect remittances to production purposes. Furthermore, he noted the establishment of the Cooperatives Authority by the current government, in which the NC is a coalition partner, to make the cooperative sector more systematic, transparent, and credible.
Deuba called on the government to adopt effective policies to ensure that depositors who have been defrauded by fraudulent cooperatives can retrieve their funds.
