They also underlined the necessity to increase export basket and adopt market diversification policy to boost export.[break]
“Our trade deficit is widening because of factors like prolonged political instability, labor unrest and weak industrial infrastructure, among others. If we are to boost exports, we have no option but to increase the number of exportable items,” Lalmani Joshi, secretary at the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies (MoCS), said at an interaction with business journalists on Tuesday.
The interaction was organized jointly by the Society of Economic Journalists-Nepal (SEJON) and the MoCS in a bid to explore measures for overcoming emerging challenges in country´s international trade.
Expressing dissatisfaction over ineffective use of Aid for Trade (AFT) - an assistance from donor communities to enhance Nepal´s trade capacity, Joshi said the AFT should be linked with export facilitation and development of trade related infrastructure in the country.
Naindra Upadhyaya, joint secretary at the MoCS, also said Nepal failed to take benefits from huge export potentiality of different Nepali products due to weak supply strength. “Besides, we are still facing different non-tariff bearers in bilateral trades with different countries,” said Upadhyaya.
Presenting a snapshot on Nepal´s current trade situation, another joint secretary at MoCS, Toya Narayan Gyawali, said limited export basket, weak market promotion in major destinations, weak coordination among implementing agencies, and limited resources for the promotion of products included in Nepal Trade Integration Strategy (NTIS) are the major challenges facing the country´s export sector.
The government has identified 19 products -- 12 goods and seven services - as production with high export potentials under the NTIS.
Suresh Neupane, a business journalist, also stressed the need to expand export basket to bring down country´s yawning trade deficit.
Nepal suffered trade deficit of Rs 424 billion in fiscal year 2011/12, up by 23 percent compared to the figures recorded in the earlier fiscal.
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