Focus on reforming startup and entrepreneurship policies

department head Sita Thapalia's team, Industry, Commerce and Supply Minister Damodar Bhandari A 17-point memorandum has been submitted on Monday. The

department has mentioned that increasing the contribution of start-ups and micro, domestic and small industries in the total gross domestic product is inevitable for Nepal, which is going to be upgraded from a least developed country to a developing country.

'Despite the creation of policies aimed at startups and micro, domestic and small industries, policy and legal homework is still necessary in these areas' is in the memorandum.

These are the main points of the memorandum

1. Under the commitment of the Government of Nepal to provide subsidized loans for startups, the 'Startup Enterprise Loan Operation Procedure, 2080' seems to expect a new approach from the loan applicants, but it has not clarified the criteria for such a new approach. "National Startup Enterprise Policy, 2080" also considered "innovative and creative thinking" as a feature of startups, but did not clarify the criteria for innovation. We demand that the startup policy and related procedures be revised by clarifying the innovation criteria .

2. In the case that 183 businesses have been selected and the process for loans has been carried out under the 'Startup Enterprise Loan Operation Procedure, 2080', the basis for qualifying those businesses for loans and especially the details of their innovation have not been disclosed anywhere. In such a situation, since the official selection process itself has been questioned, we strongly demand that the details of the innovations of the selected businesses be clarified through the relevant agencies and a fair investigation be carried out on the selection process.

3. Even if the government operates the 'startupportal.gov.np' portal, it is used only for startup subsidized loan applications . In order to make the process of subsidized loan distribution transparent to the government in the coming days, we request that the opposite loan and its progress details be updated regularly on the same website . We also request to increase the scope of the website and include all the information and process related to the startup in the website.

4. Their development is not possible unless the mainstream financing system is friendly to startups and micro, domestic and small industries. We request the government, in coordination with Nepal Rastra Bank, to arrange that a certain percentage of loans flowing from commercial banks and other financial institutions should be targeted at start-ups and a certain percentage of micro, domestic and small industries through the upcoming monetary policy .

5. Although the government aims to promote startups and entrepreneurship through startup policies and budget programs, it seems to have neglected the role of education in the matter. We request the government to formulate startup and entrepreneurship curriculum from school to university level and implement it effectively in order to institutionalize the knowledge and skills related to startups in the next generation.

6. The government has set a target of exporting IT services worth 3 billion rupees in the next ten years and it is clear that startups will play a role in that. Since formal education as well as capacity development fast track is necessary to achieve this goal, we request that a short-term training and orientation program be started throughout the country within this financial year to prepare the existing manpower for the IT sector.

7. As startups can also provide significant support in public services, we request that the public procurement process be made startup-friendly . Under this, we request that the technical requirements and quality standards of the public plan be flexible and the conditions of experience and income be made flexible so that they are startup-friendly.

8. We draw attention to the formulation of a special program dedicated to attracting the economic capacity, skills and experience of non-resident Nepalese towards the development of start-ups and small, domestic and small industries in Nepal . We request to include activities such as investment facilitation, professional network expansion and training under the program. In order to encourage non-resident Nepalis in such a program, we request to facilitate the export of goods/services produced by start-ups and micro, domestic and small industries of Nepal .

9. To speed up the development of startups and small, domestic and small industries, we demand the establishment of a special agency dedicated to their registration and coordination of operations. We request that such a special body be a 'one-stop' body for startups and small, domestic, small and medium industries and if the role of other government body is involved in any government work, the special body should conduct the process by itself .

10. Respecting the concept of 'bootstrapping' prevalent in the startup culture, we strongly request to adopt a 'zero cost' policy in coordination with the local, state and federal government to ensure that no fees or taxes are charged in the startup registration to operation process for business operations with minimal investment.

11. We demand that the ``Startup Board'' envisioned by the ``National Startup Enterprise Policy, 2080'' be formed immediately to make it more friendly to the startup sector through policy restructuring to represent significant young startup entrepreneurs.

12. It is welcome for the government to announce the creation of an 'incubation center' in every province through the budget. We demand that necessary policy and legal arrangements be made as soon as possible for the establishment and operation of such 'incubation centers'. We also request the development of a multi-year plan to encourage the participation of the private sector in the 'Incubation Center' and to make the program it runs effective.

13. In order to increase the access of startups and small, domestic and small industries to the national and international markets, we demand the formulation of new policies, the creation and amendment of related laws and the development of stable structures. Under this, we would like to draw attention to startups and micro, domestic and small industries to adopt the necessary reform policy as they are facing problems in international payments to export their goods/services.

14. Even though it has been repeated in the ``Ministry, Household and Small Industries Policy, 2080'' for many years, the provision of subsidized loans by securing educational certificates to make self-employment to students who have passed graduation and post-graduation, but its implementation has been found to be very weak. Banks and financial institutions have said that educational certificate loans are risky and due to the weak assurance of related risk management, there is a problem in providing such loans, so we demand to ensure financial risk management for educational certificate loans and loan programs of a similar nature that will be implemented in the future .

15. As small, domestic and small industries cannot do expensive advertising to market their products, we request to arrange a special platform with 'branding' to market those products at the national and international level .

16. Although there are some problems in the cooperative sector of Nepal, it cannot be denied the fact that this sector is playing a significant role in the development of micro, domestic and small industries. Cooperatives should be developed as an effective means of capital mobilization for micro, domestic and small industries. For that, we strongly demand to activate the regulatory body of the state and solve the savings fraud problem currently seen in the cooperative sector and restore the trust in the cooperative sector.

17. Although the government has committed to create a friendly environment for 'private equity' and 'venture capital' to support capital formation for startups and micro, domestic and small industries, it seems necessary to develop a complete roadmap for it. Through a clear policy, we demand that 'Private Equity' and 'Venture Capital' be geared towards startups and micro, domestic and small industries.