Local Bodies’ High Dependency in Nepal

The local bodies in Nepal have been highly dependent on foreign aid and government's budget. Sushil Ghimire, the secretary of Ministry of Local development has publicly admitted that the reason behind it is the lack of timely election in Nepal.The election in the local level is not happening since last 9 years--almost a decade. Officials and experts have claimed that this situation has been reflected into the dependency of local bodies. Previously, local bodies used to survive on their own by collecting the revenue in their levels.

This high dependency has led to the corruption and mismanagement of budget that goes to the local levels Nepal has been receiving the around 40 percent of total yearly budget as the foreign aid.

Nepal’s Merchandise Trade Rate Goes Up

Nepal Rastra Bank has published its quarterly report of last three months of FY 2011/12. This report says that Nepal’s international merchandise trade’s growth rate has gone up.

• Merchandise exports rose by 6.9 percent to Rs. 18.04 billion ($ 240.53 million) during the three months of FY 2011/12. Such exports had increased by 6.2 percent in the same period last year.

Nepal Gets $ 1 billion Remittance in 2 Years

Nepal has gained around $ 1 billion amount of remittance within two years (2009 to 2011). This amount is quite bigger than the total amount of foreign aid that comes to Nepal. In 2009 Nepal had gained $ 2.985 billion and now in this year the total amount of remittance that comes to Nepal is estimated to be $ 3.951 billion. This amount is 23 % of our total budget of Nepal’s yearly budget in 2011/2012.

This is quite interesting to see that the 23% of our total budget comes through the remittance but we hardly can see any significant uses of it in the development sector. The remittance has been a driving force for the sustainability of Nepali economy.

• Remittance flows to developing countries are expected to total $351 billion this year.
• Worldwide remittances, including those to high-income countries, will reach $406 billion for the current calendar year, according to a newly updated World Bank brief on global migration and remittances.
• The top recipients of officially recorded remittances, estimated for 2011, are India ($58 billion), China ($57 billion), Mexico ($24 billion), and the Philippines ($23 billion). Other large recipients include Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Vietnam, Egypt and Lebanon.
• While the economic slowdown is dampening employment prospects for migrant workers in some high-income countries, global remittances, nevertheless, are expected to stay on a growth path and, by 2014, are forecast to reach $515 billion. Of that, $441 billion will flow to developing countries, according to the latest issue of the Bank’s Migration and Development Brief, released today at the fifth meeting of the Global Forum on Migration and Development in Geneva.