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KATHMANDU: The draft of the 16th five-year plan (2081/82-2085/86) encapsulating the main goal of economic development with good governance, social justice and prosperity has come to a final stage.
In formulating the 16th plan, the National Planning Commission (NPC) has already collected inputs and recommendations from all province and local levels.
As per the NPC sources, the new periodic plan to be made public by February 12, 2024, will go for implementation from mid-July 2024. The plan is being framed in a different style than the previous editions, it is claimed.
The draft has been prepared incorporating interventions with strategies and periodic plans. It includes transformative strategies in 14 themes, main intervention programmes and quantitative targets.
The themes are enabling economic bases and rapid economic growth, enhancement of production, productivity and competitive capacity, productive employment, decent jobs and sustainable social security, among others.
Likewise, the draft has come up with the thematic areas including quality infrastructure and integrated transport management system, modern, sustainable and managed urbanisation and settlement development, gender empowerment, social inclusion and mobilisation, provincial and local economy strengthening and balanced development, poverty and inequality mitigation and building an equitable society.
Among other areas encompassed in the draft are effective public finance management and capital expenditure capacity enhancement, facilitation after Least Developed Country (LDC) graduation, sustainable development goals (SDGs) and green economy.
The plan is being made with some objective and some ambitious goals. NPC has said it is a strong aspect this time to include some transformative strategies and interventional programmes. In the coming five years, the government has aimed at securing a GDP size of some Rs 30 billion.
The inflation is expected to be contained within 6.5% in the coming five years, while federal spending on GDP ratio will reach 32% from the present 26%.
The government has also set lofty ambitions for domestic production and productivity. For increasing domestic products, 17 industrial estates will be brought into operation, 140 industrial villages will be announced and SEZs will be increased to three. The current power generation of 2,800 megawatts (MW) will reach some 11,800MW by the end of the periodic plan.
By the end of the five-year periodic plan, the country has aimed at exporting electricity worth Rs 41 billion per year so that the energy sector will have a 4% contribution to the reduction of the entire trade deficit.
Moreover, the draft has set a target of limiting the maternal mortality rate to 85 per 100,000 live births against the existing 151, with around 10% annual budget in the health sector. It aims to achieve a 100% literacy rate for five years and the above, ensuring that educational institutions with internet access reach 100% and so is in case of access to electricity.
NPC Spokesperson and Joint Secretary Yamlal Bhoosal, however, said the targets may be revised and presently, NPC is integrating submissions it received from various areas and in-depth discussions with experts and specialists from the respective fields are awaited.
The plenary of the NPC held in the first week of August endorsed the Approach Paper of the 16th Five-Year Periodic Plan (2081 /82- 2085/86). It has been drafted with 'Good Governance, Social Justice, and Prosperity,' as its vision. "To establish good governance in the political, administrative, and judicial sectors have been outlined as its objectives."
It has set the strategy of 'identifying, addressing, and eliminating structural barriers seen in development endeavours to achieve good governance, social justice, and prosperity through structural transformation.' A strategy will be adopted to promote the interrelation and operational capacity among all levels and bodies concerned in regard to the implementation of the periodic plan. Similarly, policy formulations and development endeavours will be based on study, research and facts.
Commitment is made to strengthen the primary sector and secondary sectors, and the stability of service sector for the strengthening of overall economic bases.
An accountable financial system will be developed by expanding the scope of revenue, and inclusive mobilization and stability of external sectors will be achieved by focusing on financial resources and production and employment creations, the paper stated.
The draft has the policy of ensuring the reliability of sources and timely, quality, and cost-effective supply systems for the enhancement of production and productivity.
Likewise, the paper highlights the production and mobilisation of skilled, efficient and energetic workforce as per market demand.
Its strategies include human capital building, assuring the production of skilled and efficient human resources through the utilisation of demographic dividends at all levels and job opportunities will be amplified.
Meanwhile, the current 15th Plan sets a target of achieving an average annual economic growth rate of 9.6% based on fundamental values. However, assessing the progress until the last fiscal year 2022/23, the growth has been shrunk to 2%. Similarly, the 15th Plan aims to reduce multidimensional poverty from the existing 17.4% to 11.5%. It has a target of achieving 0.624 in the human development index, and until the last fiscal year, it reached 0.602.
