NPC priority on jobs generation in next plan flayed

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Kathmandu, April 22

The National Planning Commission (NPC) has focused to give top priority on the employment generation in the next three-year periodic plan that begins from mid-July. However, economists say 'impossible'.

According to the NPC, the interim three-year periodic plan ends on mid-July along with the end of the current fiscal year. Following the interim political situation of the country, the government came up with the concept of three-year periodic plan after the Tenth Five-Year Plan ended three years ago.

“The employment and productivity will be kept on first priority in the next three-year periodic plan,” said Dr Dinesh Chandra Devkota, member of the NPC. “We are working out to finalise the programmes and policies,” he added. “The motto of the plan will be employment for the unemployed people.”

The poverty reduction was the top priority in the current plan. The government claimed the poverty was reduced by 6 per cent during the period against 31 per cent people below the poverty line in the country.

However, the achievement was not satisfactory as expected and claimed. Economist Prof Dr Bishwombhar Pyakurel said the policies failed utterly to meet the target. “So we can not expect much in the future too,” he said. “The government has estimated GDP growth by 5.5 per cent at a time when it is decreasing and can not exceed 3.5 per cent in future. It should be at least 8 per cent to create employment opportunities for the increasing unemployment ratio,” Pyakurel said. “If GDP rate grows by 5 per cent, it will take 3-5 years to meet the target.”

Every year, 400,000 youths above 24 go jobless. Whole manufacturing and agriculture sectors, whose GDP is decreasing annually owing to the political instability, cannot accommodate more than 10 per cent of it, said Pyakurel. “In this context, how can we achieve the target?”

Dr Devkota said unless the productivity increased, growth of the Gross Domestic Products was impossible. “All of the sectors will be encouraged to increase production and create employment opportunities,” he said. “The sectors like industry, agriculture, forestry, education and skill oriented training will be given top priority to promote the employment opportunities,” he said, adding the target of the volume of employment opportunities would be finalised soon.

The present GDP growth rate of the country hovers around 4.70 per cent. In 1960, the GDP of Nepal, China, India and Vietnam was equal of about US$ 105 per capita income. Now, the per capita income of Nepal stands at about US$ 400 while other countries have taken giant leap. Presently, per capita income of China is US$ 3,200.

Meantime, the country has failed to utilise the available resources including manpower properly, speeding development of the country. “Certainly, the existing human resources is underutilised, encouraging the brain drain,” said Devkota. “The next plan will address the issue with high priority.”

The next plan is all set to keep the infrastructure development and agriculture on second and third place respectively. “It is the need of economic and social transformation. So policies should be formulated to address these issues,” said Devkota. “Developing a political as well as economic consensus on objectives is essential.”