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 Boston's Rudra Pandey's article in TKP
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Posted on 12-28-04 1:36 PM     Reply [Subscribe]
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http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=26745

Demand for ambitious undertakings

Rudra Raj Pandey

- Who would have thought that China would dominate the world consumer market within 50 years of the Red revolution? Who would have thought that Japan would grow at a double-digit rate for 20 years and become the world?s second largest economy? It is all part of ambition and determination of those visionaries who lead the nation. Nepal has not yet seen visionary leaders who can bring together people with different ideas and build consensus among political parties for nation building. It is natural to have differences in opinions, but we need leaders who can forgo these differences and join hands when it comes to national interest. No doubt, Nepal, sooner or later, will find such leaders who will find a way to introduce ambitious plans and policies for the nation. Let us hope we see that soon.What could be such ambitious undertakings? One of them would be privatization of all the government-owned corporations, including Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNAC), Nepal Electricity Authority, and Nepal Oil Corporation. Privatization should not be done in haste. Privatization without necessary regulations creates chaos. In an extremely mature capital market, such as that in the United States, privatized industries have been regulated and regulations are fine-tuned on a regular basis. For example, telecommunication regulations in the United States have gone through a series of big overhauls over the past 50 years. Massive regulatory preparations are required prior to launching any privatization initiatives. The post-1990 Nepali government ignored or overlooked important preliminary steps such as valuation and necessary regulations needed for privatization.
Let us talk about the state-owned RNAC. Why is this national flag carrier doing so poorly? What is holding this high growth industry in Nepal from making profits or even making itself sustainable? Is this a typical Nepali problem?not knowing when enough is enough? RNAC is owned and run by one of the most inefficient, corrupt and unstable governments in the world. Our government does not seem to have a basic understanding of dealing with minor problems.Independent institutions, specializing in government institutions? valuation, should undertake the task of RNAC?s hard and soft assets valuation. Based on such valuations, the government should move ahead with privatization with required control and regulations so that the future owners will be barred from constructing shopping malls in some of RNAC?s properties.Another major undertaking in Nepal would be to start a massive east-west four-lane highway running through the mid-hill region, instead of the Terai. A project of this scope and size needs ambition, determination, patience and vision. This type of project certainly may seem unrealistic to those leaders who use every means to cling to power and who do not have an in-depth understanding of spillover effects and long-term social benefits arising from such projects. Highways built on rocky mountains cause less environmental damages and are less likely to be swept by minor flooding. Rivers are narrower and smaller in the hills; costs of building bridges over such rivers are generally low. Such a highway running through the mid-hill region will be a major breakthrough in development of a remote and village dominated country like ours. Such a project will not only create substantial employment for Nepalis but will also boost our tourism industry.

However, such projects require thorough study and business plan backed by determination and discipline. We need to undertake projects like this one without worrying about short-term return on investment. Construction of highways in our country is one of the basic needs for development and we must be willing to forgo short-term loss while building these infrastructures.

The world today is a single market place with zillions of opportunities. Opportunities are still uneven across different nations. Many smart nations are creating business- and investment-friendly environment and attracting significant amount of investment from people beyond their borders. Nepal is a tiny state where a huge difference can be made in days, not years.

Legislation in Nepal does not change or changes at a snail?s pace. We should be able to change our legislation at a click. Let?s take the example of our neighbor, India. Although India is no better than Nepal in changing legislation, it still has done a lot better in the past 10 years in making their country investment-friendly while Nepal did nothing significant rather than observing the success of India on this front. We need to be more aggressive in making our legislation simple and transparent to the extent that no other competing nation can match us. We need to be more aggressive in creating business opportunities to both domestic and foreign investors. It will not hurt us. We currently do not provide any protection to investors.Nepalis have a lot of money to invest but what is seriously lacking is a place to invest. Our government needs to take extreme measures to protect investors and make Nepal a safe haven for those who want to invest. This is not very difficult to achieve. The government just needs to thoroughly study policies of other competing investment-friendly nations and with a little tweak, we should be able to launch a policy that may very well appease all. This will serve the following purposes: provide opportunities for Nepalis living in Nepal to invest in areas where there are higher returns, attract foreign capital, and allow non-resident Nepalis with ideas to serve their country.

Someone has to start. The major problem among us is our unwillingness to try. Everyone wants to follow what others have done. This kind of behavior is not entrepreneurial and brings us back to square one. We have already gone through the worst. Our nation is ready to explode with an unemployment rate, which is as high as 40 percent. It is time to wake up.



 
Posted on 12-28-04 8:40 PM     Reply [Subscribe]
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The TKP Editors edited a lot and here is the original version:

Ambitious Undertakings ? Past and Present Examples

Rudra Raj Pandey, Ph.D.

Who would have thought that the Berlin wall would fall down within
fifty years of its foundation? Who would have thought that the Soviet Union
would be disintegrated? Who would have thought that China would dominate the
world consumer market within fifty years of the red revolution? Who would
have thought that Japan would grow at double digit rate for twenty years and
become world?s second largest economy? It is all part of ambition and
determination of those visionaries who lead the nation. If an
individual, a group of individuals, or a nation is collectively determined towards an
ambitious goal, they can achieve it. Nepal?s government never had
serious ambition and determination towards nation building. Our leaders always
lacked vision and stick-to-it-ness. They have been notoriously
flip-floppers. Nepal has not seen any ambitious and high profile
undertakings for the last hundred years. Ranas were busy making big
lavish palaces for themselves in the valley and occupying fertile lands around
the country. The post-Rana regime was directionless for about ten years.
The first multiparty government, with a few ambitious and visionary leaders
ever born in Nepal, had an opportunity to lead Nepal before they were
brutally sacked and put behind bar because handful of elite interest group did
not see things going their way. After the royal coup, king Mahendra formed
Panchayat system in Nepal. Panchayat regime had no realistic ambition
except some populist slogans of making Nepal ?a land of peace?. The Planning
Commission in Panchayat regime did nothing more than publishing books
with grandiose five-year plans. The Planning Commission itself was a coterie
of incompetent individuals who did nothing more than preparing scripts for
highly polarized, incapable and hand-picked ministers. Panchayat regime
ruled for thirty years without any ambitious national development
projects of large scale. National budget was allocated without the sequence here
and there and was mishandled with no question asked. I would not have any
regret not having voting rights and press freedom during those thirty years if
Panchas were successful in bringing poor Nepalese out of abject poverty
by launching some large scale public projects. History shows that many
autocratic governments in the world succeeded in developing their
nation without people?s voting rights and freedom of press. Democracy was
restored in 1990 and multi-party government controlled by both royals and
non-royals was formed. Conflict of interest continued to persist within ruling
parties and among major political parties. Political freedom for ruling members
turned out to be an instrument for accumulating personal wealth from
corruption and embezzlement of public funds. Moreover, leaders were not
hesitant to surrender democracy to royals for their personal gains,
betraying the spirit of the new constitution. Our nation continued to
be run by a bunch of na?ve and visionless leaders. Our leaders did not know
what it meant to launch long-term development project of large scale.
Corruptions were rampant during multiparty system as government changed almost
every 18 months in an average. Ministers and appointed bureaucrats were busy in
corruption and embezzlement of development funds from national coffers
in the name of raising money for their respective parties. What is deeply
troubling is the fact that they are not getting a simple fact:
corruption reduces the efficiency of service delivery, slows down the overall
economy and discourages foreign investments. Over a decade of multiparty
regime, no significant developmental activities were initiated; no major income
generating development projects for public were launched. License Raj
continued to exist. Party leaders started to loot public funds openly.
The bottom line is: Nepal has not yet seen visionary leader who can bring
together people with different ideas and build consensus among
political parties towards nation building. It is natural to have differences in
opinions, but we need leaders who can forgo these differences and join
hands when it comes to national interest. No doubt, Nepal, sooner or later,
will find such leader who will find a way to introduce ambitious plans and
policies for the nation. Let us hope we see that soon.

What could be such ambitious undertakings? I can name a few. Privatize
all government own corporations, including RNAC, Nepal Electricity
Authority, and Nepal Oil Corporation. Privatization should not be done in haste.
Privatization without necessary regulations creates chaos and loot.
Russian privatization after disintegration of USSR serves good example in this
case.
 
Posted on 12-28-04 8:42 PM     Reply [Subscribe]
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In an extremely mature capital market such as that in the United
States ,privatized industries have been regulated and regulations are fine
tuned on a regular basis. For example, telecommunication regulations in the
United States have gone through series of big overhaul over the past 50 years.
Massive regulatory preparations are required prior to launching any
privatization initiatives. The post-1990 Nepalese government ignored or
overlooked important preliminary steps of privatization- valuation and
necessary regulation needed for privatization. Privatization of state
owned enterprise became a vehicle to gather illicit commissions for
government ministers and bureaucrats.

Let us talk about state owned Royal Nepal Airline Corporation (RNAC).
How could this national flag carrier do so poorly? What is holding this
high growth industry in Nepal from making profits or even making itself
sustainable at present state? Is this a typical Nepali problem ? not
knowing when enough is enough? One does not need to go too far to know the
existing problems of RNAC. One can simply count number of captains and
accountants they have employed for couple of carriers. Why we are not doing
anything about it? The answer is simple- no one in charge with RNAC care about
this problem which is threatening bankruptcy of RNAC. RNAC is owned and run
by one of the most inefficient, corrupt and unstable government in the
world.
Our government does not seem to have basic understanding of dealing
with such minor problems. I suggest following steps to solve RNAC problem in
order to make it more efficient and profitable. Independent
institutions,specializing in valuating government institutions like RNAC, should
valuate RNAC?s hard and soft assets (soft asset should include the brand name
RNAC has). Based on such valuations, government should move ahead with
privatization with required control and regulations so that future
owners will be barred from constructing shopping malls in some of RNAC?s
properties.

Another major undertaking in Nepal would be to start a massive
east/west four-lane highway running through the mid-hill region, instead of the
Terai region. A project of this scope and size needs ambition, determination,
patience and vision. This type of project certainly may seem
unrealistic to those leaders who uses any means to cling to the power and who do not
have in-depth understanding of spillover effects and long-term social
benefits arising from such projects. Highways built on rocky mountains causes
less environmental damages and are less likely to be damaged by minor
flooding.
Rivers are narrower and smaller in the hills; costs of building bridges
over such rivers are generally low. This highway running through mid-hill
region will be a major break through in development of a remote and village
dominated country like ours. Maoists will not be able to stop poor from
taking jobs in these large scale projects. This project will not only
create substantial employment for Nepalese but will also boost our tourism
industry. How about the costs of such large scale project? The length
of Nepal is 650 kilometers east-west. This being an air distance, road
length could be up to 2,000 kilometer long. My estimate of building one
kilometer road in the hilly region of Nepal is 1 million US dollars. Total cost
of building 2,000 KM road would be 2 billion US dollars. For a country
like Nepal, netting two billion dollars for such projects will not be a
problem.

 
Posted on 12-28-04 8:42 PM     Reply [Subscribe]
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Any smart and ambitious prime minister who knows what he is doing
should be able to do so with an aggressive international campaign. However, such
projects require thorough study and business plan backed by
determination and discipline. I am just throwing my common sense here. All great
things in the world start with a common sense. Building a nation is not a rocket
science. We have hundreds of case studies available on how other
countries achieved their development goals in fairly short period of time while
we are still thinking of doing so and wondering whether it would be possible
or not. I am extremely confident about this project as various nations
around the world will be willing to provide grants for such ambitious project
in Nepal. We need to undertake project like this one without worrying
about short term return on investment. Construction of highways in our
country is one of the basic needs for development and we must be willing to forgo
short-term loss while building these infrastructures.

The world today is a single market place with zillions of opportunities.
Opportunities are still uneven across different nation. Many smart
nations are creating business and investment friendly environment and
attracting significant amount of investment from people beyond their borders.
Nepal is a tiny state where a rainmaker can make a huge difference in days, not
years. Legislation in Nepal does not change or change at snail?s pace.
We should be able to change our legislation at a click. Let?s take example
of our neighbor India. Although India is no better than Nepal in changing
legislations, India still have done a lot better in the past ten years
in making their country investment friendly while Nepal did nothing
significant rather than observing triumph of India at this front. We need to be
more aggressive in making our legislation simple and transparent to the
extent that no other competitor nation can match. We need to be more
aggressive in creating business opportunities to both domestic and foreign investors.
It will not hurt us. We currently do not provide any protection to
investors. Nepalese have a lot of investment money and what is seriously lacking
is place to invest. In the absence of investment opportunities, investment
moneys are being spent in buying some handful of bank?s stock, building
houses in Kathmandu, and sending kids to India and the US for study. It
is a very tragic dilemma in Nepal that people with ideas do not have money
and people with money do not have ideas. These two groups cannot work
together as there is no protection for one if other tries to cheat. Our
government needs to take extreme measures to protect investors and make Nepal a
safe haven for those who want to invest. This is not too difficult to
pursue. It just need a thorough study of policies of other competing investment
friendly nations and with a little tweak, we should be able to launch a
policy that may very well appease all. This will serve following
purposes: provide opportunities for Nepalese living in Nepal to invest on areas
where there are higher returns, attract foreign capital, and allow
non-resident Nepalese with ideas to serve their country.

I would like to summarize by saying that someone has to start. The
major problem among us is our unwillingness to try. Everyone wants to follow
what others have done. This kind of behavior is not entrepreneurial and
brings us back to square one. As the old clich? goes ?no risk, no gain? in any
business or government initiatives, we should undertake these
challenging projects in Nepal. We have already gone through the worst and nothing
can be worse than what we have seen so far. Our nation is ready to explode
with an unemployment rate as high as 40 percent. It is time to wake up from a
long sleep.


 
Posted on 12-29-04 8:10 AM     Reply [Subscribe]
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I agree with Mr. Pandey most of the time as I read the article. I have to say I'm no lawyer or a lawmaker. We should take risks, 100 % agreed. We should have efficient laws and regulations. But I don't think our laws are as much of a problem as their implementations. Enough laws are there by now and some will be coming soon. And I do not think our laws should change upon a click of the mouse, if that is what he meant. That will create more confusions in "a couple of days".
One thing we are lacking is a very clever, but honest at heart, political technocrat who can rally the mass both in talk and deed, should be non-prejudicial to any castes whatsoever. Nation development is not a rocket science, agreed again; Rocket science should be a child of the national development. However, without science nothing will happen. Common sense is vital all the time during the process, but , depending upon the definition of "common sense", it is not enough. It is more of a natural process with science and technology as the main engines of the car, the economy/financial activities as its wheels and "HE" as the driver. Education is the starter, social welfare is the passengers, or load. "He" does require a thorough political background and huge knowledge of mathematics and preferably with some science and economic background. Yes, he should be a hero, "a master of all and jack of none".

We should be able to do it like the Europeans, only in a better systematic way ( I know you might be giggling). This kind of "high thinking, simple living" ethics, at least to start with, should be the prime kernel to support all our undertakings. I believe we are uneducated right now, but highly educatable, so to say.

Astu!
 


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