Agree on minimum economic agenda

The indifference shown by the government and political parties to the Global Competitiveness Report 2010-2011, which revealed that Nepal slipped by five positions in a year (putting it in [break]the 10th position from the bottom), shows that its leadership is increasingly becoming immune to bad news. Even more disturbing is the revelation in the global report – a well-acclaimed yardstick for gauging a country’s business doing environment – that Nepal is among states where people’s trust toward politicians is the weakest; on this front the country was ranked at the 130th position out of the 139 countries featured in the report. Similarly, Nepal is ranked 131st in organized crime, thanks to continuing poor law and order situation. In terms of corporate ethics among the private sector, Nepal was ranked 134th while in corporate governance, the country was at the 119th position. Moreover, it is quite shameful that Nepal, a country with such a huge hydropower potential, has been placed at the bottom in terms of quality of electricity supply.



The overall impression from the report is that Nepal is the most uncompetitive economy in the South Asian region and the country lacks even the most basic fundamentals for doing business. Who should be blamed for this chaotic business environment prevailing in the country? Without an iota of doubt, the blame has to be shouldered by our unimaginative leadership that is all the time fighting to grasp power by hook or by crook. There is almost unanimity that lengthening political instability is the main reason for bad governance, extortions, strikes, road blockades and trade union militancy.



Of late, the leadership along with the government has become so dysfunctional that it has been unable to discharge even routine duties like announcing a fiscal budget, forget about chalking out economic policies to make the economy vibrant and competitive. The parliament has become so inept that it has not even been able to raise customs rate on gold import to check its illegal outflow to neighboring India. No leader has been heard of talking about urgent reforms needed to change Nepal’s rigid labor laws that have been biting into investors’ confidence for years.



All said, we still believe that most of the ills are curable. Differences in political agendas are obvious in democracy. Our humble request to all the political leaders is that they should agree on a minimum economic agenda. Remember, no one loses when development accelerates. As late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping so neatly put it: “To get rich is glorious.”

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