Economic Reform Process
The Need To Continue

By Gandhi Raj Kafle

At a time when the general trend of Asian economies, after the unprecedented crisis, is looking ahead for growth, the government of Nepal is girding up for emphatic reforms to accelerate the process of economic development. Will Nepal be able to follow the Asian trend in future? That is uncertain. Yet, what is sure is the government reform package has always influenced the macro economic structure of the country significantly.

Means

Reform in this spirit is a means for an end, and that is the well-being of the people. Can we achieve it through reforms? If the government succeeds, it would certainly decided the fate of the nation for prosperity. So, whenever the government puts its focus on reforms, it automatically runs high hopes for speedy development because reform in itself is a catchy word.

But, in the broad sense, all policies, all strategies of development, all packages for economic growth and all programmes for the people designed to help them participate for their socio-economic uplift come high hopes of meeting the set target. But, do they succeed? Performance in practice has been dismal. Though, it’s a universal fact, no programme, economic or social is hundred per cent successful, the gap between policy promises and implementation is quite high.

Planning document always helps make tail talks sharing high promises for benefit in catchy words of economic literature. Nepal also, the government as in the policy maker has always been optimistic. Unlike today’s competitive atmosphere of liberal economy, unrealistic assumption of high development had been a part of economic literature, especially in plan document in both philosophies of mixed and closed economies.

Finally written official documents cannot ensure us a targetted rate of growth because it is just a guideline of development for future. What can ensure the desired level of economic growth is implementation sincerity, which is possible if we have a less corrupt administration manned with competent personnel. So, in Nepal, like other countries in the world, the government’s economic reform package too needs sincerity in implementation. If some concrete efforts are made to infuse fresh blood on the part of the government the impact of reform and quick recovery of the ailing economy will surely be materialised.

However, there are apprehensions too. When the government begins to express its commitments to reform the economy, an employee begins to feel the risk of losing his job. It’s because the government in the past had its eye on it. The apparent cause that prompted the government to do it was that it felt the body of our administration over the years had widened unnecessarily. This case was not typical for civil servants of the country only. The corporation employees also felt the danger of losing jobs more severely than the civil servants.

For long our economy has not been able to create enough jobs. On the contrary, the acute pressure of demand for employment due to rising population continues to grow. Private sector should have been able to check the pressure. But, the major chunk of private sector in our case, despite the government’s promise, is still not capable. In this present economic condition, it reform process tries to cut down the size of the administration through some exclusive acts or regulations, it naturally becomes threat to the job security of the employees.

Then, should the process of reforms be stopped? In fact, reform process has no end in itself because it contains dynamic values for accelerating the rate of growth. So, to be pragmatic, the nation can take up some changes. Some economic programmes, which were not very productive, can be left and some new programmes can be recommended. Only a reform process provides a room for it. So, it must be opted for.

With the emphasis once more on economic reforms, it seems, the government wants to streamline the Nepalese economy on the track for fast growth. This is indeed good. In this fresh phase of reforms, what the government is expected to achieve, are creation of more employment opportunities, optimum utilisation of available manpower and removal of constraints for sharpening our administration system. If efforts are made to create this environment, the size of our bureaucracy does not matter much because it specifically gets enhanced responsibility for serving the people well, which in turn, will also be helpful to meet the economic target set.

Reforms is also related to the total structure of an economy. So, for Nepal, the agenda for economic reforms, if the govt is form to enhance productivity to meet the growth target, must effectively address the key issues of the economy. These issues, however, are not new. For long we have been largely a traditional economy, in which both organised and unorganised sectors exist together. Indigenous savings and investment, which are the key elements for economic advancement are not up to the mark for reforms. This is economically a most uncomfortable situation for us. So, with the emphasis on reforms again, the country needs to make these key elements positive for development.

Process

Actually, the process of economic reforms today is not a new initiative for Nepal. More specifically, liberal thoughts after the political changes of 1990s began the process of economic reforms in the country. In this condition, ongoing process of reforms need to generate a productive atmosphere for the targetted rate of economic growth.

Health For All

By PNK

“HEALTH for all” has been the slogan for many many years and the people  had hoped that things would be fine and well in the number of years that had been earmarked for the purpose. And the earlier talk of reaching health care facilities to all the people by the year 2000, who knows, may materialise.

After all “Around the World in Eighty Days” was not written with nothing in mind. There was a vision that the world had become smaller even a hundred years ago. The case is all the more glaring that eighty days is just too much to go round the world. The planes have made all the difference like in an essay it says that ‘dinner in London and lunch in New York the next day’. And the plus speed of sound has made is all the faster if you have the money and the spirit to travel round the world.

Progress has been made in almost every area of man’s concern. medical advances are being made every day and the fruits have percolated down to the masses. Thanks to the new generation of antibiotics and life-saving drugs more lives are being saved today than ever before.

But all the progress of medical technology falls flat when it comes to the remote and backward regions of Nepal. First of all the lack of trained manpower is a handicap while the supply of essential medicines to the places concerned is a matter of concern.

The people in almost inaccessible regions of the country have to face a lot of hardships. The hostile climate and environment, though beautiful to look at, is home to many people. But when it comes to look after their health needs there is something lacking. Pledges and commitments are made to provide health care facilities to people living in those regions but everything hasn’t gone smoothly according to the plan.

Tell the doctors to work in remote districts, they just simply disappear and notices appear in the dailies telling them to report for duty where they have been posted. Even when doctors report for duty in the headquarters of such districts as Dolpa or Humla, their actual stay there may be not more than two or three months a year as someone concerned has said.

What makes the doctors go missing? Well, some just hang around the Health Ministry trying to get posted to some nearby place or possibly Kathmandu itself while others who go have a lot of work outside the district itself. There are many doctors deputed to remote districts who have to attend works-hops, training programmes and so on at the regional centre. If they don’t go they miss many an opportunities and if they go the district hospital has no doctor.

At other times the absence of a doctor in the district hospital may not be noticed but when a case of postmortem comes up then hues and cries are raised about the unavailability of the doctor. But it’s not the doctor deputed to be blamed all the time. There are places where patients hardly turn up or the doctor has to go and attend a seminar or something of that sort which the government itself organises. Issuing warning alone will not do but incentives will do and who knows health for all will be reality soon enough.