NBF fails to meet the target: Govt officials

After almost two years of formation of Nepal Business Forum (NBF) - a common platform to conduct public-private dialogues to remove barriers for entrepreneurship - experts and government officials have questioned its ability to coordinate, orient and institutionalize itself to achieve the targeted goals.
“The NBF has been inefficient to coordinate between private and public sector, failed to orient different stakeholders and most importantly it has not yet institutionalized even after two years of full-fledged work,” Mahendra Gurung, joint secretary at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers (OPMCM) said. “This is unfortunate.”
The NBF was formed in May 2010 through an executive order of the government aiming to harmonize the business environment in the country with the help of International Finance Cooperation (IFC). Speaking in a program organized by the NBF secretariat in Kathmandu on Tuesday Gurung said, “There are multiple reasons for the NBF´s slackness, one of the major reasons is that the private sector has not owned this platform.”
Briefing the government´s initiation to launch the e-licensing portal within a couple of weeks to ease the process of getting license for businesses, Gurung said the private sector should be more competitive and sound in its work. “Definitely private sector has the right to knock the government´s door for different facilities, but they should come up with strong basis and measured arguments,” he said.
Anil Kumar Thakur, joint secretary at the Ministry of Industry (MoI) said that the growth rate of industrial sector was declining continuously despite various efforts. “We have failed to achieve the goals that we had set while forming the NBF,” he said in his inaugural speech in the program.
Meanwhile the NBF secretariat has claimed that there have been multiple achievements in last two years. “Tax payment days have been reduced from 34 to 22 days which has resulted in over USD 4.38 million cost saving for the private sector, the export of Pashmina has increased by 50 percent after registration of Pashmina trademark in 41 countries, elimination of provision of Rs 100 million authorized capital for issuance per MW hydro power survey license are major achievements,” Gopal Prasad Tiwari, coordinator of the NBF shared at the program.
Similarly, he presented achievements such as allocation of Rs 10 million to establish a Women Entrepreneurship Development Fund, harmonization of customs hours between India and China to facilitate trade related procedures and transactions, elimination of illegal tax collection in Biratnagar resulting easy movement of trucks and public buses.
Interestingly, private sector representatives didn´t agree with the achievements shared by the NBF coordinator. “I wonder where these achievements were made,” Manish Agrawal, an official from the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) said.
However, Surendra Bir Malakar, former president of Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) blamed the political situation.