Kathmandu. Former Chief Secretary of the Government of Nepal, Baikuntha Aryal, made a presentation on ‘Strengthening Public Investment in Nepal: Priorities and Strategies’. Speaking at a program organized by the Society of Economic Journalists of Nepal (SEJON) here on Tuesday, he stressed the need to make Nepal’s public investment productive, result-oriented and priority-based.

He stressed that the government should focus on infrastructure development, human capital development and promotion of private sector investment rather than investing in all sectors on its own. Stating that agriculture, tourism, energy, information technology and small and medium enterprises are potential areas for investment, Aryal said that there is a need to transform agriculture from subsistence-oriented system to commercial production, use of technology, development of storage and supply system. He also said that branding, packaging and strategies to attract expensive tourists are necessary in the tourism sector.

Former Chief Secretary Aryal also said that the investment and management of public enterprises should be reviewed. Presenting the fact that out of 45 public enterprises in Nepal, 16 are making losses and suggested that the corporations should be classified on the basis of their strategic importance and performance. He said that the corporations that are in a weak condition should be managed through appropriate options between management contract, privatization or liquidation.

Likewise, he stressed that a production-based system should be adopted while providing subsidies and concessions to the productive sector and investment and grants should not be distributed in a way that would add responsibility on the government and public corporations in the future.

He suggested that the role of the government should be improved from three aspects to make public investment effective. “First, it is necessary to adopt the concept of effective government with less interference, second, to set sectoral and project-wise priorities and third, to make comprehensive reforms in the governance system,” he said.