Kathmandu. Kathmandu: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) held a meeting today. In a discussion with the newly elected president of the Confederation, Birendra Raj Pandey, prime minister Oli stressed the need to take the country to industrialization by making it a place of production.

Prime Minister Oli said that the focus should be on increasing production and exporting goods in the country instead of earning profit by importing goods. He said the government was trying to encourage the private sector by bringing legal and policy reforms. He said that he wants other items from kitchen items to Be Nepali. The Prime Minister said that only the production and use of domestic goods can replace imports.

Newly-elected President pandey said that the Confederation has been running ‘Make in Nepal Swadeshi’ campaign with the objective of replacing imports in collaboration with the government. He said that the confederation has set a target of achieving $100 billion in size of the country’s economy and double-digit economic growth in the next decade and preliminary studies have shown that eight sectors should be kept at the center for this. He expressed confidence that the government would give top priority to legal and policy reforms for this purpose.

Similarly, the newly elected office-bearers of the Confederation met Speaker Devraj Ghimire and urged him to bring laws to promote private sector investment.

The Confederation held separate meetings with Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Damodar Bhandari, Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Devendra Dahal, Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Deepak Khadka and Public Accounts Committee Chairman Rishikesh Pokharel.

During the discussion, Minister Bhandari said that the confederation has been giving clear suggestions to the government after studying it and expressed the belief that the same suggestions would be received in the coming days as well. Stating that more needs to be done to boost the morale of the private sector, he said the government has been giving priority to legal and policy reforms. Minister Bhandari also stressed the need for the private sector to build industrial infrastructure.

Stating that the Ministry has been successful in increasing the capital expenditure in the last fiscal year, Minister Dahal said that the Ministry was ready to cooperate in formulating necessary policies for the overall economic development.

Energy Minister Khadka said the government was looking for policy reforms for energy development. He said the government was also preparing to open up the private sector for electricity trade.