Maile Dekheko Desh: Economy
“Chocholatey Bakery and Café”
A go-to place for fresh doughnut or cupcakes. They really do make delicious bakery items. I happened to have a conversation with the owner this weekend, and he shared his fair share of interest on business and socio-economic lifestyle of an average Nepalese in Nepal. At my age, he was a very good soccer player and played in different teams of Bouddha and Gokarna Areas. As most of the Nepalese, he also could not continue his sports and he went to Dubai for about 18 years. During his tenure he managed to give food, shelter, and better education to his children and a good life to his family in Kathmandu.
The thing is he represents a mass of Nepalese who are working to improve the overall HDI of Nepal.
However, in the recent time he is worried with the unprecedented price hike in different materials required to bake those delicious cupcakes, creamy doughnuts and pastries items. It’s been about 2 years since he has come into this bakery business, and he does not feel optimistic about the current trends of Governance, like we all do. He is concerned about the price increase in cooking oil, one such example, by almost 200% and by the reduced frequency of banking systems to process loans for business purposes. He fears that if the same trend goes for a while, then most of the small and medium emerging businesses will dry out. Sometimes he even thinks of going to Dubai and work for around 5 more years and even planning to send his son to either Australia or other countries so that his son could find better opportunities. This is a common story we can find in every corner of Nepal, a country sandwiched between two emerging powers.
Last week I read an economic review of Nepal, and I was shocked by the current economic status of Nepal. Last year’s total trade deficit was 12 kharba, but now within just 9 months we’ve already surpassed 11 kharba. With the import to export ratio of 12:1, limited Foreign Reserve, decreasing remittance, and lack of proper plans to deal with rising price hikes, I think we need to have a serious look towards our country’s governance. Earlier, our annual budgets had around 29% contribution from remittance.
Simply put, the more remittance the more dollars we have, the more dollar the more foreign reserve, which is used to do trade with other countries.
Sri Lanka messed up economy and its crisis explains the importance of having a healthy foreign reserve for the country like ours whose imports are way higher than the exports and even the items we exports do not contribute much in the global economy. Moreover, the economic crisis in Sri Lanka did not come all of a sudden but through accumulation of bad choices and bad governance. Not only Sri Lanka but also countries like Pakistan too is lagging behind in context of proper governance and Nepal too is having a good governance crisis. Thus, creating more dependency on foreign aids, remittance and tax on imports. I have no idea about the purchasing power of Nepalese, but yes, the demand and supply gaps are not in sync.
I don’t know how to run a country, and there are better people who can do that job. However, I am well aware about the current challenges which we all are facing, and I think that’s just the tip of an iceberg. A good governance is must when it comes to running a country and during this time when the aftermath of pandemic like global inflation, tension between Russia and Ukraine, and other geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and Africa, has really affected all of us.
We are no more isolated, and thus Nepal’s favorite “isolationist policy” won’t work all the time.
We are globalized and connected, be it in terms of business or socialization, and it will affect all of us from all realms of social hierarchy. It is therefore necessary to take those issue and make small, consistent, and workable changes to uproot them.
I believe country like Ours will do much better when it comes to focusing in creating more services and exporting them through smooth utilization of human resources. The generations post Cold War are more inclined towards understanding global business, technologies and good governance, and they are actively contributing in different fields. We need to properly distribute and utilized them by creating a positive atmosphere, by curating healthy nationalism, and by investing in resources required for the growth. It’s time that we need to change the way we deal with our economy policies, and we need to use technologies to create and curate those platforms that prepare and onboard the existing generations to be a part of global workforce.
Not much to say here, as I intended to keep this article focused on the current status of our country’s economy only. Thanks for coming all the way along with me. By the way, now he is a grandfather of his growing family and still continue to play soccer as a hobby whenever he gets time.