Wednesday, April 3, 2019

NPI says concept paper on 15th five-year plan highly ambitious

Nepal Policy Institute (NPI) – an international think tank promoted by NRNA – said that few targets of development set in the periodic plan are overambitious and unrealistic.
Nepal Policy Institute (NPI) — an international think tank — has said that a few targets of development set in the periodic plan are overambitious and unrealistic. "Goals and objectives are set at high levels and are generally without clear, programmes indicators or time lines."
The NPI suggested the National Planning Commission (NPC) that has held a meeting of the National Development Council (NDC) in the capital to finalise the concept paper of the 15th five-year plan (fiscal years 2019-20 to 2023-24) to be realistic in setting of the target.
The NPI has also said that there is no explicit articulation of the external regional and global context and future scenarios in which the vision and plans are set. "The commission has projected income growth of $1,400 by fiscal year 2023-24; $4,100 by fiscal 2030-31 and $12,100 by fiscal 2042-43, which seems rather overambitious or unrealistic to achieve given past performance of the government, including poor capital investment and management," the NPI added.
The whole presentation of the vision and plan is conspicuously silent about migrant workers and remittance, the NPI comment paper on the draft of the 15th five-year plan reads, adding that that the Nepali economy is so heavily dependent on remittance and foreign employment has become the mainstay of income and employment for millions of working age population along with remittance constituting one-third of the nation’s annual budget. "Given the double-digit high economic growth target, there is no explicit recognition or mitigation strategy for the high cost of high growth in terms of unsustainable exploitation and extraction of nature, natural resources, high degree of inequality in the society and deeper socio-political division and unrest,” the NPI statement reads, adding that the concept paper of the periodic plan does not reflect higher-level vision, plan or strategy for gender equality and increased economic participation and leadership of women. "Though Nepal has been suffering from economic dependency with alarming rise in imports of basic food commodities from India, the concept paper of the periodic plan has not emphasised this concern and no remedial mechanism specifically suggested."
The NPI has also suggested the government to give the 15th periodic plan the theme ‘Build, Produce and Manage.'

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