Govt shouldn't run industries: Minister Thapa

Kathmandu, Oct. 10: Minister for Industry Sunil Bahadur Thapa said Tuesday that the government should not run industrial enterprises, instead it should engage in promoting the private entrepreneurs.

“It’s the private sector that helps to industrialise the nation, create jobs and support in economic growth. Therefore, I urge the entrepreneurs to come out of their comfort zones and tap the opportunities in other potential sectors,” he said while addressing a workshop on ‘Enhancing Nepal-US trade by utilising Trade Performance Programme’ (TPP).

He said that without industrialisation, it was difficult to achieve the targets of export enhancement, poverty reduction and economic development.

According to him, poor linkages between the entrepreneurs and funds, lack of reliable infrastructure, including roads and communication, negligence towards research and development, long processes and lack of inter-ministerial coordination were the major challenges faced by Nepal’s export business.

“Only paying lip service to export promotion will not work, those challenges must be addressed at the earliest,” he said.

Ambassador of the United States of America to Nepal Alaina B. Teplitz also listed landlockedness, poor infrastructure, high cost of raw materials, less productive manpower and poor transportation as the reasons for the poor exports.

“Nepal plans to be a middle income country by 2030, therefore, it needs to create more economic opportunities at home and should come out of its dependency on the migrant workers,” she said.

According to her, Nepal should tap the benefits of theTPP which will last till the end of 2025.

She said that as there was a high market prospect of Nepali goods in the US, Nepali entrepreneurs could export many times more than now.

Economic and Commercial Officer at the U.S. Embassy Kevin C. Price said that Nepal performs much below than the other countries having a similar population in terms of trade with the USA.

“Nepal is the 157^th largest goods trading partner to the US, with US$ 129 million total bilateral trade in 2016 while the US trade with Ghana, Uzbekistan and Peru was 1.2 billion, 349 million and 14.3 billion dollars respectively,” he said.

Trade of the USA with Sri Lanka and Cambodia is 3.2 billion dollars each.

“Increasing export is required for Nepal to create sustained economic growth, and the TPP is designed to do just that. Nepal has very powerful branding and goodwill internationally, which is an added advantage for the country,” Price stated.

Secretary for Commerce Chandra Kumar Ghimire said that Nepal needed to fix its capacity and quality-related issues, promote small and medium enterprises, and other producers in order to optimise the US market.

Prof. Dr. Govind Nepal, acting chairman of the Institute for Strategic and Socio-economic Research (ISSR), stressed the need of market information and removing the supply side constraints.

Chairman of the Pavilion Group said that the country should highlight other products in the international market, especially in the USA, than garments.

He said that the entrepreneurs needed support equipment and tools, easy access to exhibition in the USA and discount stalls and technical support.

The programme was organised by the Pavilion Group, American Embassy Kathmandu and ISSR.