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October, 2003 |
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Economy & Policy |
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Economic Issues for Consensus by Rajendra Kumar Khetan The six-month long ceasefire in Maoist insurgency had provided a ray of hope for the country's economy, and we, the people belonging to the private sector, had expected that agreements would also be reached eventually on economic, social, and security issues. During the ceasefire, the government had made public the revised and improved 10th Plan document, and the Maoist side had come forward with a 75-point agenda which concerned also the economic issues. The parliamentary parties, on their part, had already made public their economic manifesto. The process of nationwide dialogue on such issues had started. Therefore, immediately after the Maoists came overground following the declaration of a ceasefire, the private sector held an interaction with Krishna Bahadur Mahara, one of the negotiators from the Maoists. Then we decided to draft a white paper on the economy, aiming primarily at preparing a comprehensive policy document for which the country's policy-makers, persons representing various ideologies that were floating in the national politics, and other dignitaries from various walks of the social life were to be brought together to exchange ideas. Our plan was to come up with a common understanding on some minimum points in order to avoid problems in the course of implementing that document. With this idea in mind, we made preparations also for a five-yearly, annual (budget time), and quarterly evaluation system against such human development and economic indicators as those related to the period by which the poverty line was to be brought below 10 percent, the point to which good governance was to be achieved, and the means of turning the situation of unemployment into that of employment. While moving ahead with those ideas, a consensus was reached among all the concerned on making efforts to mould the Nepali private sector into a strong institutional framework capable of leading the country's economy along the proper directions. Now that the ceasefire is broken, we are facing some serious questions such as: Which way should we follow, and where should we aim at? The current situation is such that while the government is on the seat of power harping on its own views, the Maoists have taken to the forests, and the political parties have taken to the streets. The private sector of the country is weak in itself. This is so when our hastened up entry into WTO requires us to hasten up also with the development of our comparative and competitive capacities. An analysis of the situation makes it obvious that the economic condition of the country has become very weak, and fundamental changes are necessary in the social and economic sectors in order to instill vigour in the economy. We had felt that the programs of progressive reforms put forward by the government were a level better than the previous such programs. Accordingly, we had made up our mind to go ahead with those issues and discuss them gradually. However, now everything is in a state of confusion. Efforts need to be made now to find answers to the questions as to how to operate the state system with the available revenue and how to maintain the current level of employment. Indeed, we also need to discuss as to how to maintain the current level of industrial production and business, and, if the situation in the country is going to be different in the days to come, how should we go ahead with that. All industrialists and businessmen need to take this matter seriously, while the government should cooperate with them. There is no disagreement that a state of peace and security is essential not only for foreign investments but also for domestic investments. If there are no such investments, the situation will worsen further. There can be no technological development in the absence of investments. We cannot compete in the world market in the absence of technological development. The private sector, however, is afraid lest a more fearsome situation emerges out of the already adverse situation. United efforts from all sides are essential if the peace process is to make any positive progress. A minimum understanding is essential among the government, the Maoists, and the political parties on such issues as peace and security, industrial promotion, investment-friendly environment, and other economic, social and security related issues. After reaching such an understanding, the existing economic indicators should be analysed and a strategy should be formulated to improve on those indicators within a specified period of time. While formulating such a strategy we need to think about the way we should march ahead by promoting national and international investments and technologies. The private sector, on its part, is ready to perform this task. (Khetan is President of
Nepal Britain Chamber of Commerce and Industry - NBCCI) By Pradeep Kumar Shrestha Following the rivalry in the recent election to the leadership of FNCCI there are concerns being expressed regarding the possible split in this apex body of the entire business community of Nepal. However, it must be remembered that the high degree of public attention received by the recent FNCCI election was because there was no other important election held in the recent past or scheduled for the near future in the country. In that sense it was an interesting election. In a democratic society there may be very few who may oppose the election. It is certainly healthy and productive indicator of popular representation if the election is conducted constructively and sportingly. Of course, couple of elections for FNCCI president-ship during the last decade brought about some degree of division in the business community. Split in the apex chamber results in division in the other district chambers and commodity associations as well. In the present circumstance such a division is going to be very bad for the institution. Today is the time to show the highest sense of unity among us and lobby strongly in the overall interest of the economy. Unfortunately the hangover of the election time rivalry takes its own course to fade out. However, we must try to restore that unity the soonest. This is the first important task of the newly elected FNCCI leadership. As may be recalled I was elected unanimously and served FNCCI for two years in spite of various turmoil and many unexpected events during and immediately before my tenure. I have no regrets about these turmoils and unwanted events, as I could manage to garner support of the majority. With such support I was successful to maintain communal harmony in the private sector and the transition of the FNCCI presidentship after my tenure was smooth. My first vice president Rabi Bhakta Shrestha got elected unanimously as the next president and this displayed a very good unanimity in the business community. Against this background, we had expected similar smooth transition from Rabi Bhakta Shrestha to Binod Bahadur Shrestha, as the latter was the first Vice President in Rabi Bhakta's period and he also served as acting president for some three quarter of a year. Thus he deserved an automatic clearance for the president's chair. But unfortunately, things did not happen the way as we expected. As FNCCI has grown bigger and bigger so as to accommodate the increasing diversity in the business community, it brought about more and more complexity in managing the organization. It started to become difficult to satisfy everybody. To fulfill the vested interest of some members, the media has been misused by such interest groups damaging the image not only of the individual against whom such media campaign is carried out but also of the institution as a whole. The destructive media game damages everybody and creates confusion. In fact there is no issue of communalism in FNCCI, though it may take center stage occasionally. There was factionalism during my time also but I totally discarded such perverted ideas as I considered every member of my board the part and parcel of my little success. I fielded all negative charges, if there were any, by protecting my board members. Now that FNCCI has become a huge institution with commensurate complexity in problems of the business community, the expectations of its members are growing higher. There is no single answer to the problems. And satisfaction to all members will come only from better performance of the new leadership. It is possible only when the new leaders think with more nationalistic than individualistic outlook. Present leadership certainly has a challenging tenure ahead. However, I think it is possible to have a successful tenure if the leadership goes for inclusion of the excluded and asks everybody to lend a supportive hand for the interest of the community and for the sake of the national economy. The security crisis has made things very difficult. For this reason, business community has to play a role to bring the political parties together to develop a consensus for the national economic development. Once the peace is established, lot of problems can be solved easily. Because of the series of unforeseen events and unpredictable environment, our businesses have been badly hit, be it in trade, manufacturing or service. You can easily imagine the condition of tourism sector. Many investors in this sector have become bankrupt. During such period it is the first and foremost duty of the government to provide possible relief to the entrepreneur. The new leadership of business community must lobby for it. (Shrestha was FNCCI
President for 1997-99) |
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