Private sector to be included in business plan and policy making

Kathmandu, Jan. 10: Minister for Industry Nabindra Raj Joshi said Tuesday that the government had been planning to include representatives of the private sector in the business plan and policy making.

“The ministry is thinking of formally including the businessmen in the business plan and policy formulation process from the central to the local level,” he said while addressing an interaction on contemporary issues of the industrial sector, organised by the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI).

He remarked that the government was committed to creating a favourable investment environment and urged the business community to come up with plans and suggestions that the government needed to do for them.

“The ministry is ready to facilitate the businesses in every way. There is no alternative to industrialisation for development and economic progress,” he said.

 According to Joshi, a large number of enterprises had been registered in various districts, but in the absence of a proper monitoring mechanism and policies, the government had no updated data about those enterprises, employment created and goods and services produced.

The business community urged the government to reform the business registration and exit policies in order to create a more favourable environment for investment.

They also criticised the government for its process-oriented and slow service delivery.

“Due to such problems, investors are hesitant to make investments in Nepal, which has forced the industrialists to leave the manufacturing sector and make an entry to trading,” FNCCI president Pashupati Murarka said.

According to Murarka, the government process to register a business was slow to the extent that the viability of the business evaporates by the time it gets permission.

Chairman of Hydro Committee at the FNCCI Gyanendra Lal Pradhan said that the government had not provided the facilities, which it had announced in the budget to hydro-entrepreneurs.

He urged the minister to amend the provision that did not allow a businessman to be director in two hydro-electricity projects.

“The hydropower sector is not a banking business where there are chances of conflict of interest. So, it is not necessary to restrict an individual from becoming a director in two different companies,” he said.

 President of Nepal Bottled Water Industries Association (NBWIA) Subash Bhandari said that the private sector was facing challenges from the trade unions, strikes and industrial insecurity.

President of Computer Association of Nepal remarked that the IT industry should be considered as a knowledge-based industry.