Our main objective is to promote trade and industry

-Rajesh Kazi Shrestha

Rajesh Kazi Shrestha, 38, is the newly elected President of Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC), the oldest chamber in Nepal. He is also associated with Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) and other bi-national chambers of commerce and industry. Managing Director of Hotel Rara and Director of Alliance Insurance Company, Shrestha has served the NCC in various capacities for the last ten years. Before being unanimously elected as the President, he was serving as the vice-president of the NCC. He talked to The Independent on various topical issues on Monday. Excerpts:

Q. As the President of the Nepal Chambers of Commerce (NCC), what are your plans and agenda?
A. Before being elected unanimously as the President of the NCC, I had served the NCC in various capacities for almost ten years. My first and the main agenda is to develop unity in the business sector. The most important thing is that we must join hands together to show the unity of this community. If there is unity, then we can solve any problem. I urge all businessmen and business houses to develop unity among them. However, it doesn’t mean that there is no unity as of now.  By unity, I mean to develop inter-relationship between the organizations and the business communities. I don’t mean to bring them all under an umbrella. For example, there are many business organizations like commodity organizations, bi-national chambers and district level chambers active in their specific fields. The main objective of all these associations is to promote trade and industry in the country, and also to protect their rights. Since their main objectives are not different than others, a good inter-relationship between these organizations can smoothly lead the country to the path of development. This will help solve our present problems to a great extent.

The newly elected Chamber executive body has yet to decide on the plans and programmes regarding what we are going to focus on in the coming days. But we are thinking of going directly to all associations individually to develop this relationship. I am of the opinion that this interaction will help us solve a lot of problems in this sector.

Q. What challenges are there for you?
A. Because of the present recession and economic slackness, there are many problems in the business sector. These are the major challenges for us. The main problem we should deal with at the present moment is regarding revival of our economy. 

Q. How can you tackle them?
A. I think, we should first try to find out what are the reasons behind those challenges. We must have all information about it. Only after getting those information, can we think of our next step. We can initiate interaction programmes to know views of different people who are directly dealing with this situation. I, individually, can not do everything. We should try to create an environment for cooperation, and make other people in the business sector know about the present issues and exchange ideas with them to solve those issues. We will do more and more interaction with the entrepreneurs, business community, economists and bureaucrats so that we can unitedly solve the problem.

 My main motto is to take all ideas and suggestions, and give one solid policy. For this we are going to organize more seminars, more interaction programmes and workshops. We will hand the outcomes of those programmes to the government, planning commission and other concerned agencies.

Q. The NCC was established even before the FNCCI, the apex body of the business and industry sector of the country, which is more popular and active in dealing with problems in this sector. In this situation, how is NCC important to the FNCCI?
A.  Actually, the NCC is the founder member of the FNCCI. The NCC along with fourteen other associations established the FNCCI. The FNCCI is governing all the  bi-national, district, commodity chambers and other trade and business organizations, while the NCC is doing the executive work. In that way, we have direct relation with our members. They come directly to us to solve their problems. Beside that, since the NCC is the capital chamber it has its importance. The NCC has maintained relations with each and every district level chambers as well as other business organizations like commodity and bi-national associations. 

Q. Tell us about its organizational strength and activities?
A. We have around ten thousand members at present. We also have almost twenty different organizations as  affiliated members. These organizations are not only from Kathmandu district but also from other districts. We also have signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with foreign chambers and business organizations for mutual cooperation and benefit. As the oldest chamber in the country, we have also initiated signing of MoUs with district level chambers. If there is any problem in any of those district chambers, we are always ready to help them.

To initiate various activities, we have formed different committees each being headed by the executive body members. We had altogether sixteen committees. But, after the recent election we still have to form them again. We will focus on new ideas and technology while forming these committees.

Q. What sort of programmes are you going to initiate to strengthen the NCC?
A. Because of globalization and rapid development of communication and information technology, we shall first develop our entire structure to suit  this and to handle the business in the changed context. We must go for the latest technology to strengthen ourselves. The Chamber should prepare itself to cope with the changes that are taking place due to rapid development of information technology. For this, the chamber should be refurbished with new infrastructure.

Q. When the government tried to implement Value Added Tax (VAT) in the country few years back, the NCC strongly opposed it.  What do you think about the way the Chamber reacted to it then?
A. As you mentioned, we organized various protest programmes against it. At that time we said that because of our geographical structure, education standard and traditional business style, VAT was not suitable for us. That’s why we opposed it. Though the government had already announced rules and regulations associated with it, it kept on amending them. That means they were not ready for its implementation. But, later we agreed on its implementation because the government seemed to be very much committed. The government was also ready to discuss on various aspects of VAT with the business community before it’s implementation. As a result, we also had several interaction with the government. The government also reiterated to simply this system.

However, sound implementation of VAT is still very hard because of many reasons. For example, because of the open boarder, there are  many serious implications to VAT. Beside that, due to the lack of monitoring mechanism, we can also find many places where we get two types of bills - with and without VAT - for the goods we purchase. This shows that consumers are still mentally not prepared for VAT.

Presently, we feel that the rate for VAT should be lowered from 10 percent. Tariff for custom should also be lowered. We suggested to keep this between 0 to 10 percent so that there will be no undervaluation of the goods. Lowering of tariff rate will help increase transparency.  

Q. What problem do you see in the path of economic development of the country?
A. After democracy, we had several unstable governments which resulted in little foreign investment to our country. Nepalese entrepreneur and businessmen were also not enthusiastic then. They were afraid to make investments in business and industry. In many occasions, political parties also didn’t show commitment for economic development. The government should bring about good policy, which should be based on priority and long-term vision. The main problem in the path of economic development is that we should be capable of attracting foreign investments. The government should also understand that Nepalese people have money, but they don’t want to invest it because of government’s commitment. When a bank floats it’s share to general public, there used to be a great rush to invest on it. This shows that they have money to invest.

Q. What should the government as well as the private entrepreneur do to give momentum to economic development?
A. First of all, the government should give good policy. Secondly, it should implement it in a systematic way. In fact, plans and its implementation should go hand-in-hand. Then, the business community will also act accordingly. As I have already mentioned, the government’s plan should be based on priority basis and long-term vision. It should not keep on changing its policies within few years or few months. Both the government as well as private entrepreneur should go together to solve any problems.

Q. What do you feel about the present controversy regarding RNAC?
A. After every political change, there are changes in state-owned companies. RNAC and other state-owned companies should not be politicized. It should be given autonomy. Airlines like Biman Bangladesh and Thai were started at the same time when RNAC was started in Nepal. But, they have left RNAC far behind in many aspects.