During discussions on the Approach Paper for the 14th periodic plan, some NPC members have proposed that the plan -- that creates a structure, picks priority areas and sets targets for the country's economic development -- be made a seven-year-long one, according to planning commission vice chair Govind Raj Pokharel.
Historically, NPC issues plans for the next five years after the end of each previous one. The 13th plan comes to an end this year.
"We have started discussions on the approach paper for the 14th plan today [Sunday]," he said, adding that different members had put forward varied opinions.
Nepal has a target for graduating from its current Least Developed Country (LDC) status to a developing country status by 2022.
Since we will have seven years to graduate to developing country status [after the current plan ends], some members proposed that we take this into account, Pokharel added.
Previously, the planning commission had prepared three-year interim plans thrice due to prolonged periods of political transition. The planning commission was forced to bring three-year interim plans as the political transition lengthened also due to the dissolution of the first Constituent Assembly without results.
The third Three-Year Interim plan (2013/14-2015/16) -- also the 13th plan -- aimed at preparing groundwork for Nepal to graduate to developing country status in the next 10 years -- by 2022.
Though Nepal will technically graduate to developing country before 2022 -- as it has already met two of the three criterion set for graduation, its sustainability has been under question, especially after the devastating earthquake of April 25 and its series of aftershocks.
The earthquake floored many buildings -- including world heritage sites, public buildings, schools, police posts and important infrastructure in addition to private buildings -- pushing as many as a million people into poverty, according to the Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) report.
Out of the three criterion set by the United Nations Committee for Development Policy, Nepal has already met two -- Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI) and Human Assets Index (HAI) -- to graduate to developing country. But it cannot meet per capita GNI threshold.
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