Trade deficit serious problem: Donors

The donor community has shown serious concern on rising trade deficit, though, they hailed the effort of the government in mainstreaming trade in development plans and policies.

Speaking at the programme organised by the Ministry of Commerce and Supplied to review Nepal Trade Integration Strategy 2010, they, however, said that the trade deficit has been serious problem.

They also said that the strategy will help reduce trade deficit of the country.

The country has exported merchandise worth Rs 7.20 billion and imported merchandise worth Rs 46.98 billion making it a deficit of Rs 39.78 billion in the first month of the current fiscal year.

The government should facilitate trade, the participants at the review meeting said, adding that the government should also proactively play role to reduce Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), address the concern on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) and help in diversification of the market.

The government has been organising the review meeting regularly on Nepal Trade Integration Strategy 2010 to identify the appropriate resources and to avoid overlapping and duplication in the projects funded by donors.

The meeting is organised by donor community and the ministry in rotation.

In the programme, joint secretary at the ministry Toya Narayan Gyawali highlighted the importance of mainstreaming trade in the development policies and programmes.

Power outage, political instability and corruption are not only the problem of Nepal but of the entire Sough Asian region, said Diep Nguyen Van Houtte of the World Bank (WB).

She also described the cost structure, the country is facing at the time of export of goods, situation of physical infrastructure and regulation and projects being carried out by the World Bank to facilitate the trade activities.

On the occasion, Udo Weber from German Embassy suggested the government to strengthen monitoring of the projects.

Similarly, he also indicated the problem of lack of impact study of completed projects and lack of mainstreaming of the development assistance in trade in the policy of both the government and the aid agencies.

Representatives from the private sector, on the other hand, emphasised that the government should not be focused on remittance for short term benefit rather it should utilise it in productive sector