Industrialists’ Woes

DIRE warnings have come from industrialists and businessmen regarding the state of the industrial sector. That Nepal’s economy has been faring poorly in recent times is not news. But what the report from Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FNCCI), submitted to Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Tuesday, points to is that unless some measures are taken on an urgent basis, Nepalese industries and trade could go further downhill. Even with the measures in place right away, some slide in the short term is inevitable. The prognosis from FNCCI is that tourism, aviation, insurance, handicrafts and indeed the overall export trade would possibly witness a crisis in the days to come. On top of that, it is likely to face further downfall in investment as foreign investment is declining internationally. Timely steps are all the more urgent to arrest the continuing downturn in the future. Not surprisingly, the need for general peace and security tops the list of the suggestions put forward. There is a pall of gloom in the industrial and business sector because of the general insecurity engendered by the Maoist problem. Forceful collection of donation from businessmen has been a norm for some time now. This has come as an additional woe for them in these times of general recession. Then there are frequent closures and strikes that directly affect businesses of all kinds.

One issue that industrialists and businessmen seem to take up quite strongly is related to labour problem. They sought the Prime Minister’s assurance that a labour law would be brought in that permits the management to relieve employees. If there is a consensus regarding this, Mr. Deuba assured, the government would amend the existing Labour Act in the next session of the parliament suitably. Indeed, while strikes by labour unions for their legitimate demands are perfectly valid, it has also been seen that some of these unions are used by different political parties to push their agenda with vested interests. The amendment must allow greater flexibility to the management side in industrial dispute while protecting labourers’ rights fully. FNCCI’s proposal for constitution of an industrial security monitoring mechanism represented by government officials and industrialists and tradesmen is also worth considering.

Link Roads’ Role

DEVELOPMENT planners, representatives of the local government and government officials, in a two-day planning workshop on District Roads Support Programme held in the capital city the other day, stressed on the necessity of the construction of district-level link roads for social and economic development of the rural areas. Nepal, due to its geographical configuration, has always been hobbled by its daunting terrain in its national development endeavours. One main reason for this is that the varied terrain always tends to come in the way of building road networks which, as all development experts aver, are most necessary to expedite balanced development efforts throughout the nook and corner of the nation. It is for this very reason that the government has always given top priority in building surface transport infrastructure wherever and whenever it is possible. Though the nation now does boast of road networks stretching from the east to the west—also known as the Mahendra Highway—along the southern part of the country, the hilly and mountainous regions have yet to see such an infrastructure meandering from east to west. It’s not that there are no road networks in the hilly region. There are. However, all of them, at some points, link up with the East-West Highway. As such, the map of the existing road networks gives a truncated picture. While the need to further expand these road networks in the hilly and mountainous regions is always there, it is indeed heartening to note that efforts to build district-level link roads are underway. Needless to point out, most of the districts in the hilly and mountainous regions are devoid of any road network worth the name. This, in turn, has forced the rural people—who make up the vast majority of the nation’s population—to carry their goods to the nearest road-heads to sell them to buy their basic necessities.

Roads are verily the ready conduits for development-related materials to reach their destinations in a faster and more reliable way. More importantly, they are the arteries through which development ideas, messages and programmes flow to reach the people who, in turn, could optimally utilise them to uplift their low socio-economic living standards and status. Hence, more roads, especially those linking the hilly and mountainous districts, mean speedier development of the outlying districts as well as more opportunities for the people there to engage in meaningful economic activities.