Infrastructure First
OF the numerous challenges facing a
resource-poor Least Developed Country like Nepal, lack of infrastructure is a major one.
Development does not even begin to crawl when the most crucial condition for it does not
exist. When infrastructure is non-existent, other interventions, however intense, do not
produce the intended results. Nepal has made some strides over the past 10 years in
building infrastructure as was pointed out by Minister for Physical Planning and Works
Chiranjibi Wagle in his address to a ministerial conference on infrastructure organised by
UNESCAP in Seoul last week. For instance, the length of roads over the 1990s more than
doubled from about 700 kilometres. Scores of planes now fly to many rural destinations in
Nepal, thanks to the ‘open-sky’ policy adopted since mid-1990s and the expanding
airport network. For another example, the total supply of electricity also increased by
100 per cent. The telecommunications services has also been one of the high-growth areas.
The successive governments since 1990 have realised that public sector investment alone
was not going to transform the infrastructural status of the country. In order to create
favourable environment for the private sector to chip in its contribution, appropriate
legal and regulatory framework has also been enacted. Thus we have over the past years
seen a visible increase in the private sector participation in different infrastructural
works. Hydro-power development certainly is one field where the private parties have come
in with investment with good results.
As noticeable as the private sector’s
participation has been in all these infrastructural fields, they add only to a modest
contribution, set against the enormous needs that Nepal, particularly the rural areas,
have for infrastructure. Despite, for example, the visible improvement in road network,
the fact remains that the road in Nepal is less than 93 kilometres per 1000 square
kilometres, which is among the lowest in the world. There are still many hilly rural
settlements that are days’ walk away from the nearest road heads which often end at
the district headquarters. The denial of quick and convenient access to markets because of
lack of roads hamper income-generation activities in the hills. The budding private sector
participation alone will not transform the infrastructure status of the country. On the
other hand, for the public sector in Nepal to do what it wants, it needs external
assistance. Mr. Wagle rightly emphasised that official development assistance must be
increased to LDCs like Nepal for them to build infrastructure and thus help them to attain
a sustainable growth and alleviate poverty. Multi-lateral and bilateral donors must
realise that support to infrastructure must be considered as one of the first priorities.
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