Govt makes yet another attempt to promote local products

Govt’s similar moves in the past one decade yielded no substantial results

KATHMANDU, Dec 19: In yet another attempt, the government has stepped up efforts to make the public entities mandatory to utilize as much as domestic products in office uses. Although this plan was announced a decade ago, it has remained ineffective till date.

Through a cabinet meeting on Friday, the government approved the ‘guideline for using domestic products in public entities—2024’ and made it mandatory for public staff to use national products as much as possible. With the new rules into effect, civil servants must use only the made-in Nepal uniform apart from the office materials as far as possible.

This is not the first time that the government has mulled to implement the provision in government offices. Earlier, a directive enforced in 2015 also sought for optimum utilization of domestic products through effective implementation of the law. Later in February 2023, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (MoICS) through issuing circular asked the government offices under all three-tier governments to use Nepali products as far as possible.

The Public Procurement Regulations 2008 also maintains provision for public offices to give priority to the domestic products. However, as of now, the government rule has remained only on paper as the public authorities themselves are reluctant to abide by the law.

Ramila Bhandari, information officer at the MoICS, told Republica that the recently endorsed guideline has been made compatible with the Public Procurement Act. “The directive enforced a decade ago in contradiction with a number of clauses with the act, which could be the reason behind ineffective implementation of the rule,” said Bhandari.

The new guideline talks about compelling the public entities to procure domestically produced goods in which at least 30 percent value addition is generated inside the country. The products of small and micro enterprises will be considered under high priority to be purchased by the government offices. Bhandari said the ministry in collaboration with private sectors will be developing a separate portal that incorporates specification of the products to facilitate materializing the rules.

With the government directives in place, the authorities should purchase stationeries, furniture and fixtures, machinery tools and daily snacks, among others, produced by the domestic companies. Provided the local products are not available in adequate quantities, the offices should consider at least 50 percent of the local products, while moving into the procurement process.

In a concept paper announced by the government two years ago, it has been envisioned to increase the contribution of the manufacturing sector in the country’s gross domestic product to 15 percent from 5.9 percent by 2032. Although a number of private sector entities have already started drives towards ‘Make in Nepal’ and ‘Make in Nepal—Swadeshi’ campaigns, among others, no tangible progress has been achieved in the last couple of years.

Meanwhile, the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) has welcomed the government’s recent step to promoting local products in government offices. According to the umbrella organization of the private sectors, the move will help support ‘Make in Nepal,’ a campaign launched by the CNI that has aimed for promoting local products through increasing their domestic consumptions and exports.