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Kathmandu,Sunday April 16, 2000 Baishakh 04, 2057.
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Cheer up Nude Economy !
A Nigerian and an Indonesian attended a foreign university together in the
1960S and became friends. After graduation, each return home to join the government.
Several years later, the Nigerian visits his Indonesian friend and finds him living in a
big luxurious house with a Mercedes car parked outside. How can you afford such a nice
house out of a politician’s salary? Asks the Nigerian. Do you see that road? Replies
the Indonesian, pointing to a magnificent highway outside. ‘Ten percent.’ Some
time later, the Indonesian goes to visit his friend in Nigeria and finds him living in a
vast palace with ten Mercedes parked outside. ‘Amazed, he asks where it came from? Do
you see the road?’ asks the Nigerian pointing to a thick tangle of rain forest.
" A hundred percent." I wonder what would be the reply of a subba (non-gazetted
government employee) working in Tribhuban International Airport if asked about his five
story newly constructed building at the heart of Kathmandu. Moreover, what would be the
reply of a rag-to-riches minister (of the present government, which vows to root out
corruption) about his bungalows and pajeros ?
* * *
United States asked India to provide duty-free-access to the products of
Kodak Nepal, an US-Indo joint venture, to Indian market during US President Bill
Clinton’s last visit to India. As the confidence between these two largest
democracies blown off by the Pokharan Nuclear Test is likely to settle after the President
Clinton’s visit, India may lift up its tariff wall for Kodak papers to roll on into
the Indian market. Unfortunately India seems bent on to check the flow of Nepalese
vegetable ghee into the Indian market following an intensive lobbying from the Indian ghee
manufacturers especially in West Bengal and Bihar. Why not invite US joint venture in
vegetable ghee industry and let Hillary Clinton, during her visit to India perhaps as a
New York senator, ask India a duty-free-access for vegetable ghee? Hence the mantra: Allow
multinational investments and settle binational trade disputes.
* * *
Nude Economy ? With the proliferation of the Internet worldwide and its
increasing use in the business, economists have begun to term the new world economy,
propelled by information technology, as Nude Economy. They rightly argue that Internet has
made the world economy more transparent and exposed. A seller in Lalitpur can directly
contact a buyer in London. One of the major contributions of Globalization (Internet is a
part of it) is that it has democratized information, making it accessible for all. Take
for instance, at a time when government was preparing to purchase RJ100 jet plane for army
use at an inflated cost of US$ 33 The Kathmandu Post browsed through the Internet and
found that British Aerospace, the manufacturer of the RJ100 had sold four similar jet
planes at a cost of US$ 25 million each. The government has suspended the purchase plan.
Really the world economy is nude. Cheer up nude economy !
* * *
Caio Koch-Weser, Germany’s Finance Secretary and Germany’s first
Choice for the post of Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund was rejected
by the United States saying he was too junior for the post. The Economist argued
Koch-Weser was unfit for the job also because "he was too willing to say what his
bosses wanted to listen." Dr Tilak Rawal, Nepal Rastra Bank’s governor would
dismiss The Economist’s comment as "rubbish." Otherwise, in one of his
interviews immediately after his appointment as the governor of the central bank he
wouldn’t say that he would do whatever his political bosses said. Why blame Dr Rawal?
Blame the school teacher who failed to teach Dr Rawal from the school text that Central
bank is an independent advisor to the government. |
