KATHMANDU: The Nepal Policy Institute (NPI) says the government’s policy and programs announced recently is short of progress in achievement details made during the year.
Saying that the policy and programs is a comprehensive narrative document that covers what one would want to hear from a self-impressed government to the nation, NPI, a free-thinking international think tank of Nepali diaspora, has said that the high-level narrative does provide government policy priorities not only for coming years but for longer period perspectives because not all declared programs could be delivered in a year.
This policy program has multi-year dimension rather than of a year’s time frame and are not different than announced by the government in previous years and which have remained unfulfilled or with little or no progress, it said.
NPI further stated that the government’s positive description of state of programs in the middle of a global threats, which is just looming over Nepal, is little surprising because the narratives are short on what plans government have developed to-date for rescue of stranded economic heroes of Nepal (unsuspecting hard working migrant workers of Nepal) now – nearly abandoned by both receiving and home countries.
Saying that there is growing fear that world economy may have to endure an unprecedented recession and depression combined, it said that the world must bear the brunt of shaky and uncertain multilateralism created by the global trading frictions and pandemic tension between friendly states and major economic and trading powers.
The statement added that there is a coming threat of economic nationalism that could alter the face of liberal free market economy with shifting trends in trading alliances.
The NPI refereed to international economic experts and global observers who believe it could be a serious blow to economic liberalism and the world may go through unknown political ramifications, a situation never experienced since the World War II.
“If this situation is combined with probable impacts of contagious disease, like novel coronavirus, Nepal could have adverse economic repercussions of larger dimension,” NPI said.
“Nepal is strongly linked with world economy because it is thriving in high imports cushioned by remittances,” it said adding that Nepal’s GDP growth is driven not by industrial production but by soft services and subsistence agriculture and the country may plunge into stagflation.
“The rapid spread of global pandemic has highlighted fragility more prominently in health care systems and inequalities fault lines in societies which could have long term social, political, and economic ramifications, unnoticed before,” NPI added.
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