Government to help create investment friendly environment

Despite the political transition, the government has promised to support Public Private Dialogue as it has been instrumental in bringing reforms to create an investment-friendly environment.

"The political transition will not disturb the investment-friendly environment," said minister for finance, industry, and commerce and supplies Shankar Koirala, inaugurating a Public Private Dialogue meeting here today.

"Joint effort of the government and private sector is crucial to an economic revolution," he said, adding that the government on its part is ready to reform policies that have been raised at the Nepal Business Forum. "Better coordination between the public and private sector is crucial for doing business."

Asking entrepreneurs to be united, Koirala also assured them that their recommendations will be incorporated in next fiscal year's budget that is under preparation.

The meeting also focused on building the capacity of government and private sector stressing on expediting implementation of reforms recommended in various tiers of Nepal Business Forum (NBF) meetings chaired by private sector leaders and high level government officials.

Public Private Dialogue is critical and a must for improving 'Doing Business' in Nepal. Koirala also pledged budgetary support for NBF in the next budget.

"NBF is like a movement to expedite the implementation of reforms," he said, adding that Public Private Dialogue is already fully internalised and it is appreciable that the private sector has owned its process since its inception.

Regular transfer and duplication of programmes need to be streamlined, he commented.

NBF is an excellent platform to work for private sector development bringing both the public and private sector to one table and to expedite the implementation of reforms, said president of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) Suraj Vaidya, on the occasion.

"NBF has already achieved some reforms like customs and online registration," he said, stressing on the need to coordinate with private sector organisations for further effectiveness of Public Private Dialogue.

Likewise, industry secretary Krishna Gyawali said that Public Private Dialogue is a trust building exercise. "We have to invest our resources, time and energy to make it lively," he said, adding that the government is a facilitator and it is not easy as its engagement is focused on investment promotion and improving business environment.

"The government will come up with a draft Industrial Enterprises Act soon," he informed.

NBF has become a good mechanism to minimise disputes between the public and private sector, and between private-private organisations which will ultimately help improve the business environment and industrialisation process, said president of Confederation of Nepalese Industries Narendra Basnyat.

Similarly, president of FWEAN Chhaya Sharma hailed NBF as it has been instrumental in forming women entrepreneurship development fund to support women entrepreneurs.

The two-day capacity building workshop on Public Private Dialogue that has 30 participants from the private sector and the government engaged in NBF is being organised with the support of International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank (WB) Group.