NPC - the apex policy making body of the government - on Tuesday presented the government´s priority and areas of focus included in the proposed plan before the donor community to seek their inputs before finalizing the plan. [break]
Dr Ganesh Gurung, member of NPC, told myrepublica.com that the donor agencies seemed to be skeptic about the timely implementation and success of the proposed plan due to political instability and absence of local bodies.
“They appreciated our focus on employment generation stating that unemployment is the root cause of instability in the country. However, they expressed concern over the long standing political instability,” Dr Gurung said.
Atma Ram Pandey, joint secretary at the NPC said, member of donor community also expressed concerns over deep-rooted corruption and the absence of local bodies to utilize implement programs at the local level.
“They sought our strategy and focused areas to achieve the target for generating employment specified in the plan,” Pandey, who was present during the meeting, told myrepublica.com.
NPC Vice Chairman Dr Jagadish Chandra Pokharel presented the proposed government plan before the donor agencies. After the presentation, representatives from donor agencies put forward their suggestions to the government.
The NPC recently finalized investment plan for the next three-year plan that aims to achieve 5-6 percent growth rate, lower absolute poverty to less than 21 percent and generate additional 200,000 jobs each year by identifying potential areas for employment and imparting necessary training to youths.
The government will invest around Rs 1,008.8 billion during the next three years beginning mid-July, 2010, according to NPC sources. Private sector is expected to chip in 64 percent of the total investment, while the remaining will come from the public sector.
The size of national economy is estimated to reach Rs 1397.4 billion by the end of the three-year plan at producer price from Rs 1176.56 billion expected to reach by the end of current fiscal year.
The proposed plan targets to mobilize total revenue worth Rs 678 billion in the plan period, which will be 17.4 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). The plan also targets to raise government´s capital expenditure to 9.1 percent of the GDP from current 7.2 percent, while limiting internal loans to 2.1 percent of the GDP.
Of the major sectors of the economy, service sector is estimated to get the highest bulk of the investment. As per the proposal, the service sector will absorb Rs 732.17 billion followed by industrial sector that will receive Rs 153 billion. Likewise, the plan has allocated Rs 133.5 billion for agriculture sector that contributes one-third of the GDP and is the largest employment generator in the country.
Of the 15 sub-sectors of the national account, transport, storage and communication will receive the largest pie of Rs 223 billion, while agriculture and forestry sector is allocated Rs 130 billion.
prabhakar@myrepublica.com
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