The report of the commission formed under the leadership of former finance secretary Rameshwar Khanal claims that the concerns of all sectors will be addressed
Experts have suggested to bring a budget to speed up the overall economy when it is slowing down. They emphasized that the recommendations of the report of the High-level Economic Reform Recommendation Commission submitted to the government last March should be included in the next budget.
The speaker of the second session of the 'Economic Summit 2025' organized by Kantipur Media Group in Kathmandu on Wednesday said that the report of the commission formed under the leadership of former Finance Secretary Rameshwar Khanal has been fully implemented.
President of Nepal Industry and Commerce Federation Chandra Prasad Dhakal said that if the suggestions given by the commission are implemented, many problems will be solved as expected. "The suggestions given by the commission are to increase the economic activities of the private sector," he said. He says that even if the issues raised by the private sector are included in the government's policies and programs and budget, there is a problem of non-implementation.
Former Finance Secretary Rameshwar Khanal, who is also the chairman of the commission, said that the government's response to the report of the high-level economic reform recommendations committee submitted to the government is positive compared to the past.
He said that the important reports prepared by the Commission and the Committee were kept for a long time without being made public. "The report of the Public Expenditure Review Commission submitted by Dilliraj Khanal was also made public only after a long time," he said. But it could not be implemented due to the change of government. According to
Khanal, reports in the past were not fully implemented. He recalled that the report of the Public Expenditure Review Commission, which he was active in, was almost fully implemented in 2057. "Based on that, then Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat removed 222 projects, the budget size dropped from 50 billion to 40 billion for the first time," he said.
This time, Khanal believes that it is positive for the government to publish the report of the commission as soon as it is understood and to include it in the policy and program. He said that it is encouraging to use the language of the report in fields like agriculture, education, and health.
"When we started the reforms in 2048, we opened a window of a closed room, but now we are trying to open all the windows," he said, "This is a remarkable departure." This report should be implemented with courage.
He says that Nepal should reconsider the policy of fixing (pegging) the exchange rate of the Nepali currency with the Indian currency. He said that due to this system, domestic production is difficult to become competitive as well as hindering the expansion of Nepal's domestic production capacity. We are establishing relations with India by our own will. But if we want to break away from that and develop competitive ability, we should reconsider the issue of pegging," he said.
Khanal also suggested that Nepali youth should invest abroad to become internationally competitive. Khanal said that internal capital is not enough for the sustainable economic growth of Nepal and opportunities should also be sought through offshore (foreign) investment. He believes that India, Malaysia, Pakistan, China and other countries have gradually opened their doors for foreign investment and Nepal should follow the same path.
Technology and financial sector researcher Amrita Sharma pointed out that there is not enough investment in the digital sector. He says that although there is a lot of potential in the digital sector in Nepal, there is not enough investment in building its base. There is a lot of potential in the IT sector in Nepal. Over 70 percent of businesses will be digitally transformed in the next decade.
But there has not been enough investment in its infrastructure,' she said, 'Digital practices have gone wrong, resources are being wasted.' According to him, migration of skilled manpower is the main challenge of this sector. He suggested that the 'AI Readiness Mission in Nepal' program should be included in the upcoming budget.
In the field of AI, she emphasized the need for a clear policy, competent youth, collaborative thinking, and not only talking about AI, but also taking initiatives to bring in investment. "In the world, AI has started to be considered not only as a digital technology, but as a national strategy, and various countries are also investing for it," she said, "Nepal AI readiness mission should be introduced in the next budget, now if our train misses, it will be missed, the issue of collaboration with the private sector in the mission should be mentioned in the budget." He said that according to the report of the commission, the government has moved forward to cut down, restructure and prioritize investment in unproductive projects that are scattered and repeated in order to promote the productivity of the private sector.
He said that the government has already amended the procurement regulations to increase the capital expenditure and is in the process of revising the procurement act. "The government is working to address the problems in land acquisition and forest sector through the budget, sectoral policies and laws," he said. Upadhyaya claims that the government has moved forward to bring a real and implementable budget.
