Nepal Economic Forum, a not-for-profit economic research institution held its 32nd Neftalk on July 25. The organisation has been arranging thee talk series every six months. The guest speaker for this edition was the US Ambassador to Nepal, Alaina B. Teplitz. Having travelled widely in Nepal to over 40 districts since the last three years, Teplitz shared that she had the opportunity to understand and talk to the people who have been facing the reality of the economy and the development efforts made by the government and various organisations.
“Nepal is at the point of tremendous opportunities and huge public expectations. The elections generated a lot of promises about how lives would get better. And now is the time to deliver on it. I think Nepal can become a globally competitive rising economy and envisioning and delivering a new era of economical business growth and independence is absolutely possible,” said Teplitz.
On how to strengthen the economy, Taplitz said, “Nepal has to tap into non- traditional, higher value, higher wage, export sectors to accelerate economic growth. We should move away from the old ways and start exploiting the new digital economy, e-commerce, IT sector, and creative industries like manufacturing components and electronics, improving agro-processing and more. There should also be a policy regulatory environment to achieve this transformation.”
However Nepal is ranked at 105 in terms of ease of starting a business in the World Banks’s list. Thus, Taplitz states that investing in business is difficult and risky in Nepal, but she suggests attracting domestic and foreign investment and allowing competitive innovation for stable and lucrative economic growth.
