Re-focus on economic agenda, experts say

February 28, 2006
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Leading donors, development workers and experts have said Nepal needs to re-focus on economic agenda so as not to lag farther behind than its South Asian neighbours.

Taking part in the day-long interaction on the theme, “Does Nepal Risk being left behind: National Interaction” in the capital, Kathmandu, on Tuesday organized by the Ganesh Man Singh Academy in cooperation with the Department for International Development (DFID), World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the participants said Nepalis must pressurize the warring sides to resume peace negotiations and kickstart stalled pro-poor development process.

The interaction, a prelude to the “Asia 2015: Promoting Growth, Ending Poverty” that is taking place in London from March 6-7 in London, discussed experiences of Bangladesh and Pakistan in achieving economic growth despite political problems. Making a presentation on the political economy of development in Bangladesh, Sadiq Ahmed of the World Bank said Bangladesh has achieved relatively good performance on macroeconomic management.

He said successive governments in Bangladesh have laid emphasis on social spending in fiscal expenditure with special focus on female education. He said the population control programme in Bangladesh was exemplary and that public/private partnership in supply of basic services could be termed successful.

Mr. Ahmed, however, said per capita income of USD 440 of Bangladesh was low even by regional standards. 53 percent of rural and 50 percent of total 145 million population of Bangladesh lived below poverty line. “Weak governance is the most important constraint on future development in Bangladesh while adverse politics of reform is the biggest contributor to governance problems,” he said.

Similarly, sharing the Pakistani experience, Dr. Naved Hamid of the Asian Development Bank said poverty grew in Pakistan from around 26 percent in 1991 to over 32 percent in 2001. Pakistan faced acute political instability, large fiscal and current account deficits and excessive centralization and weak accountability during the period.

He, however, said thanks to fiscal and governance, Pakistan has achieved an average over 6 percent growth in the last three years. There have been threefold increase in the foreign direct investment between 2000 and 2005 and foreign exchange reserves grew from USD 1 billion in 2000 to USD 10 billion in 2005.

According to Dr. Hamid, Pakistan has increased its pro-poor expenditure over the last three years, unemployment has slightly declined and there have been some progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The development assistance has helped reduce debt burden through bilateral debt restructuring and made available additional resources.

 

Ken Ohashi (File photo)
Addressing the interaction, country director of the World Bank in Nepal, Ken Ohashi, warned that Nepal was at the risk of becoming a marginalized country. “Nepal is too small. Global forces are too strong. We can’t change the course of large forces around this country,’ he said.

Unless Nepal refocuses its economic agenda quickly, it may not be able to solve the Maoist and political conflict, said Ohashi. “I hope we collectively wake up and bring the country back now on strong growth path. Promoting growth and development will help mitigate some of the underlying issues that have fuelled the conflict,” he added.

Head of the DFID in Nepal, Mark Mallalieu, recalled his experience of how scholarships to dalit children in rural Nepal had helped the excluded community to claim their rightful place in the society. He said DFID and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) had recently launched the Rights, Democracy and Inclusion Fund (RDIF) to support Nepali initiatives to promote social inclusion and bring about reforms within democratic parties, among others.

Mrs. Sarita Giri, a leader of the Nepal Sadbhavana Party (Anandi Devi), said is always a political process. We can’t separate development from politics. She said people need power to develop themselves. After 1990, people were not given that power that’s why this breakdown occurred. We now have to have a new kind of social contract, she added.

Durga Soba of the Feminist Dalit Organisation (FEDO), who is also a delegate for Asia 2015 conference, said the caste system was a very big problem in Nepal. She said the issue of discrimination on the basis of caste was raised in Nepal only after the restoration of democracy in 1990. She said a large number of population was excluded from the development process since the polity in the country was not inclusive in nature.

President of the Ganesh Man Singh Academy, Nabindra Raj Joshi, said sustainable development could not take place without the participation of the people. Referring to development activities that took place after the political changes of 1990, Joshi said democratic political parties have always helped in the development process in the country. He alleged that those who wanted an absolute rule had created obstacles in the country’s development.

Delegates from Nepal to Asia 2015, former member of National Planning Commission Dr. Jagdish Pokhrel, senior journalist Kishore Nepal, Sujeev Shakya and Sashin Joshi from the private sector also expressed their views regarding development challenges facing Nepal.

Journalists duo Kunda Dixit and Narayan Wagle co-chaired the interaction organized at the Nepal Administrative Staff College, Jawalakhel.