Improvement in foreign exchange reserves should be utilised to improve domestic market: FNCCI President Dhakal

POKHARA: President of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Chandra Prasad Dhakal, has mentioned that external sector stability should be utilised to improve the domestic sector of the economy.

FNCCI President Dhakal said so during the annual meeting of the Gandaki Province Chamber that was held on Saturday in Pokhara. Dhakal was the chief guest of the programme. He said that the annual meetings of all the seven provinces were now over with this meeting in Gandaki. Since the FNCCI statute mentions that the annual meeting needs to be held by the end of the Nepali month of Magh (mid-February), he requested the provincial chamber to follow that rule.

Dhakal also stated that the first year of his tenure is coming to an end and FNCCI will be hosting its annual general meeting soon. He shared that during the first year, as the president of FNCCI he has taken a lot of initiatives to improve the troubled economy, promote investment, and provide dignity to the private sector.

FNCCI President Dhakal said the improvement in foreign exchange reserves and balance of payments should be utilised to improve the domestic market. Dhakal added there is no new investment environment and the morale of entrepreneurs has decreased. At the same time, industries are again facing a situation of loadshedding and the related agencies have not realised that the government itself will suffer after production capacity of industries declines, he mentioned.

President Dhakal also stated that since revenue has started to decrease, the government has started giving unnecessary pain to entrepreneurs. We have been receiving complaints that market monitoring has increased, he said. He also requested business people not to do anything against the rules and asked the government to stop terrorising the private sector.

He informed that if the private sector continues to panic, revenue collection will be affected and it will become difficult to run the government. In this year's annual general meeting we have invited the top leadership of all political parties and we will seek their commitment for a better business climate, he said.

President Dhakal also informed that FNCCI will soon be launching an investment company but it will not be owned by FNCCI. We will only take the initial initiatives to establish and promote the investment company. It is an initiative to bring together business people from all over the country and will later be operated commercially, he informed. He added that non-residential Nepalese and other private sector organisations can also invest in it.