The overall impression of the report is that Nepal is one of the most uncompetitive economies in South Asia and the country lags behind even in most basic requirements for doing business. Who is to be blamed for this chaotic business environment in the country? Without any doubt, the blame has to be shouldered by our leadership that only pays a lip service to country´s development. No doubt, the lengthening political instability is brewing toxic evils of bad governance, extortions, strikes, road blockades, among others, that are worsening Nepal´s business climate each day.
Needless to say, country’s capacity to lure investors relies heavily on its ability to end bureaucratic red-tapism and come up with investor-friendly pre-and post establishment procedures and costs. However in Nepal, investors need to spend precious 424 days to gain construction permits, 338 hours per year to pay taxes and 735 days to enforce contracts. Furthermore, investors need to wait painfully for 5 years to close a business and to recover just around 24.5 percent of their total investment. These are horrible pictures that easily distract entrepreneurs wishing to do business in the country.
Above all, the fragile law and order condition top the list’s concerns and is one of the biggest obstacles in smooth functioning of market-oriented economic policy that Nepal has adopted since the nineties. The impact of political instability has become so frustrating that the government is even unable to discharge routine duties like announcing a fiscal budget, forget chalking out economic policies to make the economy vibrant and competitive. As a result, the country is without any new program and policy for the current fiscal year, let alone a set of concrete policies and programs to improve the overall economic and business environment.
In the past too, many global reports highlighted Nepal´s gloomy scenario, but interestingly no leader has been heard talking about urgent actions needed to change its image internationally. Our humble request to all leaders is that they should agree on a set of basic economic program to address the pressing needs, so that Nepal becomes an investor-friendly country.
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