Important Initiative

THE multitudes of people in the South Asian region share a lot of common problems. Poverty is a common denominator of the countries in the region. It was to try to fight the common ills affecting the region that South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was launched, binding the seven in a forum from where they could jointly undertake programmes and activities for mutual benefits. Following the founding of SAARC, various regional initiatives have sprung up. While many activities are being undertaken within the ambit of the SAARC forum, civil societies in these countries have also been coming closer. One of such initiatives is South Asia Foundation, set up to extend educational, scientific, social and cultural activities to the rural areas through the medium of information and technology and developing cordial relations between the civil societies and the governments of the SAARC member countries. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba inaugurated the Foundation’s conference in Kathmandu on Tuesday that is participated in by some 80 representatives from the seven countries. Addressing the gathering, he stressed the need to launch regional programmes with a clear policy between the member countries and civil societies to reduce the problems of health, illiteracy and poverty, to identify which, he said, the forthcoming SAARC summit that Nepal is hosting will also give priority to. For meeting these challenges, the activities within the official SAARC purview alone are far from sufficient. Civil societies across the region have to join hands to launch programmes that complement the official SAARC’s agenda.

In this context, SAF can be considered as one of the initiatives that could add to the ongoing regional programmes undertaken at the governments’ level. From the views of the speakers at the inauguration, it seems the Foundation’s priorities are not off the mark. One of the first priorities of SAF is said to extend SAARC activities to the younger generation and to the rural areas, through the medium of modern information technology. Also on the agenda is a programme to disseminate news relating to cultural, scientific and social aspects through 31 languages spoken in this region. While the coming days will show how seriously the planned activities are being undertaken, the emphasis on information technology and information dissemination can only be termed as appropriate. For, this region of one billion people, one fifth of humanity, suffers greatly from backwardness in information dissemination and management. It has not been able to grab opportunities offered by advances in information technology. With important initiatives like those SAF is planning, some of the region’s younger generation, especially those in rural areas, could perhaps join the IT mainstream, and thus begin to reap benefits from it, thereby alleviating poverty.

Boosting Foreign Investment

NEPAL is among the developing countries receiving top priority in foreign direct investment, which has triggered sound growth prospects for the industrial and financial sectors. Ever since Nepal adopted a liberal and open market economic policy after the restoration of democracy in 1990, investors have been attracted towards various promising sectors such as water resources and tourism. The past decade of democratic exercise has been of paramount significance in the line of simplifying the legal framework to woo the investors. The financial sector reforms have come a long way to create a congenial atmosphere for the investors. There is no denying that the efforts on the part of the government to boost external investment has yielded positive results, yet there still remains a lot to be done to optimise the benefits. The government must ensure that the Nepalese industrialists are able to reap the benefits from foreign direct investment. This modest objective could only be fulfilled when the existing hassles in the administrative and the business sectors are removed and the prospects of investment are further explored. Now that the government has formed the high level Board of Investment (BoI) under the Chairmanship of the Prime Minister, there is ample ground to be optimistic that the investment scenario will change for the better. The Board represented by the Minister for Industries Commerce and Supply as the Vice-Chairman has been mandated to chalk out new policies after making a thorough review of the existing investment policy. Other works to be carried out by the Board are forging coordination between various government and non-government organisations for the promotion of investment, identifying areas of priority sector for investment promotion, monitoring the activities related to investment promotion and to give directive to the concerned departments to boost investment. As the Board is the first of its kind having the representation of Ministers from key Ministries and the National Planning Commission, the co-ordination part is expected to be put into place in order to address various issues affecting the investment sector. The formation of the Board could not have come at a more opportune moment when the eleventh SAARC Summit is approaching. Moreover the formation of the Board at a time when the SAARC members are likely to discuss towards moving into a free trade regime carries added eminence. It needs special mentioning here that the Board would be instrumental to address investment related issues, the issue of tariff structure and the necessary prerequisites to be fulfilled in order to acquire the membership of the WTO.