Govt plans to promote 123 Nepal-made products

 Kathmandu, Jan. 13

Secretary of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (MoICS) Dr. Toya Narayan Gyawali has said that the government has been mulling to find ways to promote 123 products that are made in Nepal and have high potential to find their ways in domestic as well as international markets.

“The government is ready to work with the respective industries and production sectors to support them finding their ways to the international markets,” he said while addressing the 8^th Annual General Meeting of the Plast Nepal Foundation, an association of plastic industries in Nepal, the other day in Kathmandu.

He pledged cooperation of government with the plastic industry as well. “We need to reduce the negative aspects of plastics since it has become an indispensable part of our lifestyle. So we need not to hold pessimistic views about the product,” he said.

Suggesting increasing the value addition to the plastic products produced in Nepal, Dr. Gyawali said that the industries should devise innovative ways to reduce cost of production and government is ready to support them when needed.

According to him, growing imports are not the problem for the national economy, however, the government and the private sector should be conscious about what they were importing.

Speaking on the occasion, economist Dr. Bishwas Gauchan said that Nepal should not wait for economic spillover from India or China and should think beyond these two traditional markets.

“The rise of India and China is not an opportunity but a concern. However, in many sectors we need to create policy in accordance with these two neighbours,” he said.

According to him, it is worrisome situation that the state collects Rs. 76 billion revenue from land-related transactions which is higher than the individual income tax collection of Rs. 70 billion.

Dr. Gauchan also predicted that the annual credit growth would be 12.6 per cent in near future down from 20 per cent some years ago.

President of the Confederation of Nepalese Industries Vishnu Kumar Agrawal said that the government has become more sensitive in maintaining liquidity which is a welcome step. According to him, there are about 2000 plastic related enterprises which have employed about 200,000 people directly/indirectly, and there is 30 to 50 per cent value addition.

Likewise, President of Nepal Chamber of Commerce Rajendra Malla, said that the focus of both the government and private sector should be on increasing production and export.

“Meanwhile, the plastic industry should also collaborate with the government and other stakeholders in creating recycling industry in the country,” he said.

Malla also suggested that the private sector should think about opting for the initial public offering (issuing shares to the public) to raise money for the investment if the bank interest rates remained high.

The AGM elected a new working committee of the foundation unanimously in the chairmanship of Deepak Shrestha. He has succeeded Rahul Kumar Agrawal as the president of the organisation. Suyesh Pyakurel and Vivek Tater have been elected vice-presidents.

Members of the new working committee are Bharat Raj Acharya, Sanjaya Agrawal, Venkatesh Mundada, Ashik Shrestha, Pawan Kumar Sancheti, Vineet Agrawal and Arun Piya.

The PNF has also launched its annual journal ‘Plast Insight’ on the occasion. 

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 14 January 2022.