“We have intensified our preparations for the Approach Paper that incorporate inputs from stakeholders and donor communities so that coming years will not have to face plan holiday,” Deependra Bahadur Kshetri, vice chairman of NPC, said at a trimester review meeting of the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies (MoCS) on Wednesday.[break]
He stressed the need to forge strong inter-ministry coordination to promote exports of goods with high export potentials as identified by the Nepal Trade Integration Strategy (NTIS). Kshetri also urged ailing public enterprises (PEs) under the MoCS to strengthen their competitive power through innovative business planning.
Speaking on the occasion, Lalmani Joshi, secretary of the MoCS, said PEs are losing competitiveness because of increasing political interference in the appointment of staff members. He also stressed the need to formulate a national guideline to promote exports in an integrated manner.
Presenting a paper on current status of Nepal´s foreign trade, Toya Narayan Gyawali, joint secretary at the MoCS, said country´s trade deficit during the first trimester of the current fiscal year stood at Rs 164.92 billion. Total trade deficit during the same period in the last fiscal was Rs 124.94 billion.
Related story
NPC approves concept paper of 15th plan
