12 December, KATHMANDU : The Confederation of Nepal Industry, which met Prime Minister Prachanda at his private residence on Tuesday morning, held discussions with Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel in the afternoon.
The Sangh delegation led by President Bishnu Kumar Agarwal has suggested that improving the country’s economy, which is in a challenging state, should be the first priority of the new government in its meeting with the Prime Minister.
The confederation has submitted to the Prime Minister the concept of ‘restarting the Nepalese economy’ with immediate steps to be taken to give impetus to the economy of the troubled country.
The confederation has also suggested measures that can be taken immediately by giving priority to the financial sector (liquidity crisis and high interest rates), industrial promotion, infrastructure, tourism, energy and information technology sectors to give a boost to the Nepalese economy. Chairman Aggarwal expressed confidence that the government will give high priority to this suggestion of the federation and will implement it.
On that occasion, Prime Minister Prachanda said that he was looking for similar suggestions from the private sector to improve the economy. Prime Minister Prachanda told that the main focus of the government is on improving the economy and for this the government will cooperate.
On Tuesday itself, the delegation of the Confederation also discussed with Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel. In the discussion, the president of the confederation Agarwal said that the morale of industrialists has dropped due to huge contraction in demand, high interest rate, lack of investible capital.
He asked to adopt a policy to boost the declining morale of industrialists and revive the economy lying in a challenging situation.
He said that to boost the morale of the industrialists, the interest rate will be reduced by 2 percent per month immediately and if the present capital loan guidance for old customers can be postponed for 2 years, then a positive message will go immediately and Keep encouraging industrialists.
He also suggested that six non-performing industrial areas should be implemented at the earliest on the model of India’s Rudrapur industrial area in public-private partnership to encourage import-substituting industries. In the discussion, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Paudel thanked the Confederation for the concrete suggestions given in writing.
