Former PMs pledge for common economic agenda

Though, they have never walked the talk, five former prime ministers today again committed, in written, to economic development of the country.

Signing a 12-point Birgunj Declaration ‘The Roadmap of Economic Revolution: Vision 2023’, in the industrial city today, Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Baburam Bhattarai of UCPN-Maoist, Sher Bahadur Deuba of Nepali Congress, and Jhala Nath Khanal and Madhav Kumar Nepal of CPN-UML expressed their commitment to put economic agenda in the front row forging consensus among the political parties on minimum economic agenda, help maintain cordial labour-management relations, boost power generation to meet the rising demand and reduce chronic power outage, and respect and protect the right to property of individuals.

They also pledged to create investment friendly environment, help develop the industrial district of Birgunj as the industrial capital transforming it to ‘Greater Birgunj’.
The former prime ministers, speaking at 2013 Nepal Leadership Summit at an interaction – that has brought the five former premiers on a single platform organised by Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) and Nubiz, on the occasion, they also acknowledged that the country needed political stability for economic development.

Despite huge potential and competitiveness in key sectors, Nepal is fast losing its competitive strength also due to political deadlock, according to the World Economic Forum, which also stated that short-termism and political deadlock have hurt the competitiveness of Nepal. “The factors which range from good governance and macroeconomic stability to the efficiency of markets, education, technological adoption and innovation potential, to name but a few drive the productivity enhancements on which their present and future prosperity is built,” it said, adding, “to get these things right, countries need to take a long-term view on their economic policy goals.”
Understanding the constraints in economic growth of the country, the leaders on the occasion, also committed to a 10-year road map that envisages inclusive economic development of the country.

BCCI president Ashok Kumar Vaidhya asked the leaders to help create investment-friendly environment and encourage private sector to promote investment and create jobs.