Kathmandu, Dec. 28
Top government officials
and private sector experts have said that the failure in forging collaboration among
various government agencies, and among the public and private sector agencies has
barred the country from expanding foreign trade and promotion of Nepali goods
in the international markets.
It is discouraging that
we have been talking about the inter-agency coordination for the past three
decades but the situation has not been improved on any front, they lamented
while speaking at a talk on 'Trade policy and economic diplomacy in Federal
Nepal' organised by the South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment
(SAWTEE) and The Asia Foundation on Wednesday in the Capital.
Secretary of the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), Bharat Raj Poudyal, said that coordination among the
government agencies as well as with the private sector bodies was an original
and recurrent challenge that existed for the last many decades.
He stressed on the
coordination among the government agencies, specific-purpose government bodies
like the Trade and Export Promotion Centre and Investment Board Nepal, and
private sector companies, producers and associations.
"The MoFA has tried
to make some improvements in forging greater cooperations among these agencies
in the past couple of years but there were no encouraging results," he
said.
Paudyal maintained that
the MoFA has been working with concerned government agencies and business
institutions to promote Nepali goods in the major international markets and
facilitate their exports.
"We have tried to
facilitate to promote our products in various countries, Nepali missions have
been activated and mobilsed in this drive. Tea producers have got entry in the
markets which were untapped before," he said while stating that indigenous
Nepali goods with light weight and high value are being promoted and
communications between the missions and private sector business associations
have been intensified of late.
According to Paudyal, Nepal's
international trade is suffering from supply-side constraints, high cost of
doing business, less competitiveness and productivity, and poor branding and
marketing.
"We are at the
primitive stage in terms of the use of technology in branding, marketing and
promotional activities. We failed to upgrade the capacity and technology of
traditional business and lagged behind on multiple fronts," he said.
Likewise, he said that Nepal's missions in foreign countries have very limited
human resources and other capabilities so they are not in the position to
support in economic diplomacy due to poor budget support and lack of skilled
and dedicated manpower.
“We consider creating
documents as the progress but very few care about the execution of the
policies,” he said.
Commerce Secretary at the
Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (MoICS), Toyam Raya, said that only
producing goods is not enough, quality has to be maintained and promotion
campaigns run in national and international markets.
"Our concerns are to
maintain quality in our products, reducing trade and transportation cost and
creating their markets in foreign countries. A truck bound to Birgunj from
Kolkata moves just about 4 km per hour, including the times in congestion and
clearance at various points. We need to improve this situation to reduce the
cost of trade," he said.
“Until we depend on revenue based on imports,
reforms in the economy are less likely,” Raya maintained.
Dr. Posh Raj Pandey,
Executive Director of SAWTEE, expressed concern over the decreased contribution
of export to the economy. Share of export to the Gross Domestic Product is less
than 3 per cent now, it was above 5 per cent some years ago, he said.
"We have for long
failed to quantify our production capacity. Enhancing policy coherence and
coordination among the policy making and executing agencies is necessary to
increase our competitiveness," said Dr. Pandey.
Purushottam Ojha, former
Commerce Secretary, said that the subnational governments in Nepal don't have
an integrated trade promotion policy or export promotion strategy.
"There is low level
of trust and dialogue between the provincial government and private sector. So,
there is a need of a dedicated organisation to look into the issues of trade
and private sector," he said.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 29 December 2022.
No comments:
Post a Comment